Even Grizzco Industries is getting into the Valentine’s Day spirit. The official Japanese Splatoon 3 Twitter account posted a “Valentine’s Gift” sent to the team’s office by Grizzco, as a way of celebrating the holiday. The gift? A finely sculpted Splatoon 3 Valentine chocolate treat in the shape of a hungry bear.
Check it out.
フェスの興奮冷めやらぬところだが、今日はバレンタインデー。
今年はクマサン商会からチョコが届いたぞ。
「日頃の皆様のご愛顧に感謝いたします。今後も様々な催しを開催していきますので、クマサン商会をよろしくお願いいたします。」
とのことだが、様々な催しとははたして……？#スプラトゥーン3 pic.twitter.com/cqryyMUj6I— Splatoon（スプラトゥーン） (@SplatoonJP) February 14, 2023
The post reads that even though the recent Valentine’s Day-themed Splatfest ended on February 13th, 2023, Valentine’s Day itself is on the 14th. As such, the team received some chocolate from Grizzco Industries (“Kumasan Shoukai” in Japanese). The treats came with a polite letter, thanking fans and the team for their patronage and promising further events to come, should the people continue to support Grizzco Industries.
The chocolate treats take the form of three replica sculptures of Grizzco Industries mascot. There’s one each in dark, milk, and white chocolate. (These were the three flavors in the February 2023 Splatfest.) The mascot is inspired by the Japanese kibori kuma craftwork. Kibori kuma are sculptures of bears with fish in their mouths, often produced and sold in Hokkaido as souvenirs.
The piece itself, seen in both Splatoon 2 and Splatoon 3, replicates the radio device used to deliver instructions from Grizzco Industries CEO Mr. Grizz for the game’s Salmon Run mode. Although instead of a radio antenna, the Splatoon 3 Valentine chocolates have a stylized stick of Pocky “dripping” chocolate onto the sculpture’s body.
Splatoon 3 isn’t the first place the Mr. Grizz sculpture has been seen. Salmon Run and Grizzco Industries first popped up in Splatoon 2. Grizzco Industries hired Inklings and Octolings to participate in Salmon Run to poach Golden Eggs from the Salmonids in return for reward capsules and specialized gear. Grizzco and Mr. Grizz himself played a larger role in the narrative of Splatoon 3.
Splatoon 3 is available on Nintendo Switch. The upcoming DLC expansion will return players to Inkopolis and introduce characters like Fred Crumbs.
