Deko Boko Friends is a collection of 30-second Japanese shorts created by a pair of advertising creators, Momoko Maruyama and Ryotaro Kuwamoto to promote acceptance of people of different personalities and appearances. The shorts are focused on 12 different creatures, meant to show certain personalities, likes, dislikes, and quirks. Deko Boko Friends originated on NHK's oldest running children's programming show, Okaasan to Issho in 2003, superseding previous short cartoon series, Yancharu Moncha. Deko Boko Friends is distributed in English by Viz Media and was shown in English on Nickelodeon's children's programming block, Nick Jr. and Noggin in the United States. Deko Boko Friends was also shown on Treehouse TV in Canada. The show ended on March 18, 2011.