Move over, Labubu: Mirumi is this year’s cutest trend!

Built with a custom algorithm, it reacts to touch and sound with what feels like curiosity, turning its head

If you thought Labubus were so 2025, there’s already a new obsession lining up for 2026. Just as collectors were hitting blind-box fatigue, Japanese robotics company Yukai Engineering has shifted the bag-charm craze from plastic trinkets to semi-sentient tech with its latest creation: Mirumi, a creature that looks part yeti, part owl, part vintage Muppet.

Mirumi, a creature that looks part yeti, part owl, part vintage Muppet

Its most striking feature? The face, or the absence of one. Mirumi (priced at $150 or ₹13,000) wears a wide-eyed, vacant stare that social media has already christened the “Gen-Z stare”.

Built with a custom algorithm, it reacts to touch and sound with what feels like curiosity, turning its head, blinking and clinging to bag straps with sloth-like arms. The effect is somewhere between a baby seeking attention and a calm alien.

Unlike ordinary accessories, Mirumi is meant to feel alive, peeking at passers-by, tilting its head and behaving like a tiny companion rather than a charm. Naturally, the internet is smitten.

One user wrote, “I need to get one — I’m in love, please!!!” Another confessed, “I can’t stop thinking about these,” while a third declared, “Mirumi is always the coolest.” Looks like 2026’s cutest accessory just blinked.