'Funny' Japanese Nuclear Boy Explains Disaster

Confused about Japan's mounting nuclear disaster? Check out the nation's cheery animated "Nuclear Boy," a personification of the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi's plant, on YouTube. Poor Genpatsu-kun (Nuclear Boy to you) gets an upset stomach and he "can't hold his poo any longer!" But he lets out some gas instead, making a few neighborhoods "smelly." But "don't worry, the smell won't last long," notes the video. "So there's no worries."

In the meantime, "doctors" are working to help Nuclear Boy by giving him his "medicine"—seawater. OK, OK, in the "worst case scenario," people might have to move and "marine and agriculture life will be negatively impacted," the video concedes. The cartoon offers prayers that everything will work out, notes the Wall Street Journal. “That’s the least we can do for receiving Nuclear Boy’s energy for all these years," remarks the narrator. "Don't worry," he adds. "With each passing moment, Nuclear Boy gets better and better." (More Fukushima Daiichi stories.)