If you want to nominate the hottest dragon in recent years, it must be the "milk dragon". An intuitive comparison is that if Lena Belle is the top female star in the doll industry, Milk Dragon is the top male star.
Of the 10 people's emoji library, there are about 2 emojis with milk dragons. This yellow, 1.8 meters tall, 2 tons in weight, and an alien dragon with a big belly captures the favor of young people with its cute, soft, funny, life-hungry, occasional big, and positive settings. When it comes to the source and popularity of the IP of the milk dragon, we have to start with a series of animations "Milk Dragon and Xiaoqi".
In 2020, the domestic original animation "Milk Dragon and Xiao Qi" began to be updated on the short video platform, with the protagonists being a human boy Xiao Qi and a small yellow dinosaur called Milk Dragon. The two characters complement each other's personalities, Xiao Qi is clever and smart, he is a genius boy, and the milk dragon is cute and cute, and he is a foodie.
The story tells the story of the planet where the milk dragon is located, which is forced to come to the earth, meet the human boy Xiao Qi, and form a partner with a dragon to break into the world. At the beginning of the animation update, the storyline was relatively simple, more sitcom, mainly some clips of daily life, and there were fewer dialogues. With the skyrocketing attention, the producer has added a lot of space scenes, and the overall world view of the animation is becoming more and more full, Xiao Qi invented the time and space machine, and shuttled through the martial arts space, desert island space, and game space with a milk dragon, so the style of each episode is mysterious and unpredictable, science fiction, martial arts, games, adventure, and popular elements are all there. As the plot develops, the producers also add some new characters, such as the blue tyrannosaurus with wings, who looks young but is set as a villain, and always wants to challenge and assassinate the milk dragon every time.
At the same time, "Milk Dragon" is also linked with many mobile games, allowing other animated characters to join in, expanding the Milk Dragon universe step by step. Although the plot of the whole series of animations is simple, the scenes are changeable, the main milk dragon and Xiao Qi go to the sky and go to the sea to adventure everywhere, one is responsible for trouble, the other is responsible for the bottom, each episode has a dramatic conflict, entertaining the public at the same time with a bit of enlightenment, watching the body and mind comfortable.
And the production team often designs plots according to Internet hotspots, and they don't miss a single hot stalk, and often let the milk dragon perform a hot dance, which enhances the visibility. The early positioning is sub-supply-oriented, but the creative plot and the cute image of the milk dragon make adults can't stop brushing, and the most common words in the comment area are, "I'm a college student, is it normal to watch this?"
And the reply was, "Normal, I have two babies at 38 and can't stop." Even in the comment area after each video update, there are countless fans urging the sequel, as well as asking when the same doll will be released, which shows the degree of fanaticism. In the past 4 years since the update, the Douyin account of "Milk Dragon" has accumulated more than 20 million fans, the series of animations has 190 million likes, and there are also 1.6 billion views on station B, which can be said to have achieved popularity among all ages.
The producer also launched two animated dramas with a total of 75 episodes, "Milk Dragon Funny Battle" and "Milk Dragon Funny Carnival", which were broadcast on multiple platforms. At the same time, 9 sets of emoji works such as "Migrant Workers", "Friends" and "Anti-Bone" were launched on WeChat, which were practical and interesting, and the yellow milk dragon emoji had a particularly high presence among young people.
Even the Milk Dragon movie is in development, which can be seen as the super long-tail effect of this original anime. What can more intuitively feel the popularity of this image is its commercial value, and various IP co-branding can be said to be in full bloom. Mobile games, film and television, automobiles, catering, toys, and beauty are all involved, and cooperative brands include Emma Electric Vehicle, Shanghai Auntie, Lemon Republic, Wang Xiaolu, Meituan, Didi Qingju, etc. Its huge social influence and commercial value even made it an honorary creator of the year by CCTV's "China Short Video Conference".
So, why is this milk dragon so popular?
In recent years, an obvious phenomenon is that domestic original IP is in a blowout development, various online and offline activities are in full swing, and Bilibili World 2023 is even so popular that it is difficult to find a ticket.
A large part of the reason is that in 2020, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued the "Opinions on Promoting the High-quality Development of the Digital Cultural Industry", which introduced the concept of IP, proposing to "cultivate and shape a number of original IPs with distinctive Chinese cultural characteristics, strengthen the development and transformation of IP, and make full use of industrial forms such as animation and games, online literature, online music, online performances, online videos, digital arts, and creative design, so as to promote the creative transformation and innovative development of China's excellent traditional culture". This is undoubtedly a shot in the arm for the market, so it can be seen to the naked eye that in recent years, there have been many more original IPs created by Guochuang, and some already high-quality IPs have also begun to do derivative product planning. As a result, IPs such as Three-Body Problem, Fat Tiger, Luo Tianyi, and Bubble Mart have become more and more popular, and various development co-branding has made a lot of money, and Honor of Kings, Genshin Impact, etc. have even been exported overseas.
The development of short videos has also promoted the spread of these IPs to a certain extent, such as "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf", "Balala Little Demon Fairy", "Pig Man", "Armored Warriors", "Cute Chicken Squad" and other ancient classic IPs, some of the characters and plots in them have been reinterpreted by social media, making them once again attract the attention of a new generation of young people and successfully become popular. The most representative example with the blessing of various elements is the third season of "Sister Riding the Wind and Waves" last year, the most popular is not the show itself, but Mei Yi Liya and her masterpiece "Pure Land of Bliss".
Hundreds of millions of users voted for it, in fact, they wanted to use this to loudly declare: We are just old, not dead! There are policy support, a creative environment, and a huge number of users, which is the confidence and opportunity given from top to bottom. It was at this stage that the milk dragon was developed by "riding the east wind", not to mention that the "milk dragon" is still a unique and fresh character. The production team once said in an interview: "At first, I wanted to make an image like a cute pet, and I wanted it to make others feel cute and healing. "There are very few virtual IPs of domestic original animations, which gives the producer an opportunity, so he made a cute pet image according to the two concepts of "fat" and "cute".
In this brand-new IP world, there are only two absolute protagonists, Milk Dragon and Xiao Qi, who accompany Xiao Qi to watch TV, eat, play games, go shopping, go on adventures, cry and laugh together, and bravely enter the world. So naturally, it is very understandable why there are often sincere comments from users under the account: Although the milk dragon has only been born for a few years, it has accompanied two generations. One generation is the post-90s generation who lacked companionship in childhood, and the other generation is the post-20s generation who grew up with short videos.
The former can find solace in the plot and emotions set by this IP, which is also the original idea of the production team: if every child has such a healing pet in their life, it must be beautiful. Just like Stephen Chow's "Yangtze River No. 7" filmed back then, the combination of the human boy Zhou Xiaodi and the alien dog Xiaoqi touched many audiences.
Going back to the source, works such as "Alien ET" and "Interstellar Baby" are all similar models. For the post-90s generation who lacked companionship when they were young, this setting and model may be more able to stimulate their feelings, try to ask who did not make a wish in their childhood to have a soft but powerful alien partner by their side? and the latter in addition to bears, sheep, pigs, have a childhood memories that truly belong to their generation, or the most unique, with Chinese characteristics, milk dragon.
As the person in charge of the production team mentioned: Its appearance is more simple, and what it can carry is also something of positive energy, which is a complex given to the public by animation IP. It is no longer a symbol in the audience's memory, but is presented in front of the public in a full, three-dimensional and real way. It is also the same as CCTV's comment on it: make up for childhood regrets by creating anime characters, heal yourself and friends who also lack companionship... Of course, whether it is a milk dragon or other domestic original IP, it is inseparable from the changes in social concepts and consumption trends. To a certain extent, this is based on the considerable consumption power of Generation Z, China's current post-95 population of about 251 million belongs to Generation Z, and the prosperity of domestic original IP is inseparable from their boost.
The "2023 Generation Z Consumption Trend Insight Report" released by Nandu believes: "They have a stronger willingness to be inclusive and supportive of domestic products, and the national tide culture has been recognized and sought after by them with its unique identity, so that the "Generation Z" group will promote the national tide culture as a popular fashion for pioneer youth." They love the second dimension, and while they are mavericks, they also want to show themselves in their preferred community, and the "fan economy" has become stronger under their drive. "In short, they're willing to pay for entertainment and interest.
Therefore, when an IP appears with good intentions and at the same time hits the emotional point, traffic and krypton will spare no effort to give it. Milk Dragon's tens of millions of fans and waves of IP co-branding on the whole network are the best proof. With the development of related dramas, movies, derivatives, and co-branding, the vitality of this IP will more widely affect other circles, and it is unknown whether it will become a successful representative case of going overseas in the future. -END-
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