About

The Ribbon Guy (Japanese : りぼんのおっさん, Ribbon No Ossan, lit. Ribbon the old man), usually called "Bossan" (ぼっさん) or Ribossan (りぼっさん) for short, is a nickname given to "Ribbon-chan" (りぼんちゃん) that was a famous fixed user in /news/ (breaking news) board, 2channel.

Since 2006, he has been the mascot of that board and his self-portraits became one of the few subjects of parody college pictures in Japan by 2channel users.

Origin

His handle name "Ribbon-chan" comes from a little hamster girl with the same name from a Japanese Manga/Anime series Hamtaro.^[1] Like her trademark phrase, he always posted comments with "-Dechuwa" (でちゅわ) suffix, spoke like a little girl, and had never shown his personal info as well as other Japanese internet users.

However, he managed to upload his self‐portrait and posted it to 2channel when he was emboldened by alcohol in a day in 2006,.

By this picture, Ribbon-chan was discovered that he was a middle-aged guy with too unfashionable and cornball look.

Spread

/news/ board users laughed at his cornball look loudly and became calling him not Ribbon-chan but "Ribbon Guy" or "Bossan". They also started making parody college pictures reusing his self-portrait.

But he was never angered against it. Furthermore, he made his page on GeoCities^[2] and some social network services, came out with his personal info, and deepened exchange with users in this board. On there, he revealed that he was born in 1972, living in Arao City, Kumamoto Prefecture and worked for building maintenance.

Other pictures posted by himself

His leniency impressed many users and he became the mascot of that board. Then, His winning self-portraits became being reused much more frequently in parodies made by 2channel users as free materials authorized by him.

This episode and his fad on the web is described in several Japanese internet encyclopedias such as uncyclopedia^[3], Nico Nico Pedia^[4] and Hatena Keyword^[5]. And the massive amount of images generated by Bossan lovers are listed on his fan page made in 2007^[6].

Media Coverage

This phenomenon was reported on in the news section of the Japanese portal service, Livedoor news, in 2007^[7].

In addition to this, his picture was reused by getnews.jp, an internet news site, in a demonstration for new features of Photoshop CS 5^[8]. He accidentally appeared with DSiLL in the article on Kotaku^[9].

Like this, even in commercial media, he was sometimes treated as free materials.

Disappearance & Trove

In September 19th, 2009, He suddenly delete all his account and disappeared from the internet. Because it was said that he had major surgery for a brain tumor in that year, an expectation of his death was spreading among 2channel users. On the other hand, he had been monitored his real life such as travel destinations and working place by some heartless 2channel users. It seems that he was feeling inconvenienced to such situation.

But in October 2010, he was found on other internet forum. In there, he said "I will never go to that board again. Please never tell them that I'm here."

Despite his wish, the breaking news of his existence made headlines in 2channel and many blogs immediately.

It seems that he will never return to 2channel as Ribbon Guy.

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References