BART's Anime Mascots
52 comments
·April 26, 2025godelski
bobthepanda
Not for a transit system per se, but the ORCA farecard in Seattle has a mascot named Boop, who is an orca: https://info.myorca.com/news/meet-boop/
Reason077
There's quite a precedent of sea-related names for transit fare cards. Hong Kong's Octopus, London's Oyster, San Francisco's Clipper... any others I've missed?
rexpress
Opal in Sydney
godelski
I would feel offended if they chose anything else lol. But the orca mascot is cute. Well done Seattle
yellowapple
Agreed. Nyango Star is another example of this sort of mascot done right. He's an apple, a cat, and a heavy metal drummer; what's not to love?
spondylosaurus
The first BART mascot has a little blue chibi goat next to the human girl, and I can't tell if the chibi is supposed to be an alternate form of the girl or a completely separate entity, but either way it seems like it could be a solid yura-chara.
Lammy
> I think Japan got this right
I like DPS-kun from beatmaniaⅡᴅx copula: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcfmIKKMu7Y
They made a plush of him that's very cute too
throwaway314155
> Seems like same rule about flags[1]: a child should be able to draw it from memory.
Im a grown ass man and can't draw the US flag properly from memory, much less the many far more complicated flags out there.
I don't think that definition is particularly useful.
godelski
It's a "you should" kind of rule not a "everyone follows this with no exceptions" kind of rule. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I can think of an example of the latter
jonchurch_
It is a useful concept, and letting the whispers of the vexillophiles[0] into your head will lead you to see that most flags are well, pretty bad.
CGP Grey has a lot of opinions[1] about this.
imtringued
They have non-human characters. The key mistake they made is that they put the human characters front and center. The human characters should appear in accompanying comics where they end up interacting with the animal mascots, not be the mascots themselves.
kappasan
We have something similar here in Kyoto! But we're Japan so there's an actual anime [1] and a character relationship chart [2], both straight from the city government.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OInuZFHeQo
[2] https://www.city.kyoto.lg.jp/kotsu/cmsfiles/contents/0000215...
cosmicgadget
> The reincarnated bunny spirit of a legacy car who has seen it all.
Not how I picture a BART car that has "seen it all".
PaulRobinson
I'm pretty well travelled across Europe and North America, and a little bit of South America.
I've never seen anything like the BART anywhere else - and I don't mean that in a positive way.
It's late where I am, I'm about to go to bed, and now this image of a BART car that has "seen it all" is going to haunt me... I might eat a load of cheese to calm the dreams down...
cultofmetatron
no kidding.. I lived in SF during the peak of the influx of tech and was a daily BART rider. there's things I can't unsee.
Lammy
I'm glad I got to experience the carpeted cars with cloth seats even if they got gross some times.
cobbzilla
Cloth seats on BART must be among the worst design decisions ever made. Seating on public transit must be something that can be hosed down with bleach, and not a material that will forever hold whatever funk is deposited into it.
spike021
not sure about “seen it all” but definitely “screamed it all”. I haven’t ridden Bart in a while but i remember the banshee screeches.
bigcat12345678
Good, no wifi, but Mascots. Yeah, I'd like some price hike as well.
zghst
This train has a lot more history than you think. Something, something about the NSA and mind-reading. You would not believe it.
The Anime Mascots are a good touch.
romanpoet
This has precedence for the LA Metro in 2017.
https://observer.com/2017/10/la-metro-promotes-transit-etiqu...
archagon
(I kind of unironically want every public service to have a cute mascot that could be turned into a plushie.)
repeekad
Obligatory reminder that BART is going to run out of its emergency funding by spring 2026
echelon
Does that mean BART ceases operation?
TulliusCicero
Oh damn the heights on the mascots are very anti-stereotypical, 6'2" for the woman and 5'2" for the dude.
notpushkin
This is kinda cool, but... Coloring sheets? Seriously?
rKarpinski
Baylee is 6' 2"?
null
I do like the idea of mascots, but truthfully I think they are better done as non-human mascots and need to be simple. I think Japan got this right with Yura-chara[0]. There seems to be a strong preference for non-human characters and when there are human ones, they're still overly simplistic.
Seems like same rule about flags[1]: a child should be able to draw it from memory.
Only Barty seems to fit these conditions.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuru-chara
[1] https://nava.org/good-flag-bad-flag