This fluffy robot stole my heart at CES 2025

She tried to go to meet Meromi with a heart of steel. There are a lot of cute robots at CES every year, that’s a given, and you can’t let yourself be drawn to every puppy-eyed robot that comes your way. But I melted instantly when the silly little thing glanced at me, then hung its head shyly away.

Merumi is the latest strange but endearing robot from Japanese startup Yokai Engineering, the company responsible for… Qoobo Cat Tail Pillow And the marigold that bites its fingers, Amagami ham ham. All he does is stare at you and move his head slightly until you are successfully tricked into a few moments of happiness. The idea is to emulate that exhilarating experience of meeting a child in public, a quick, random interaction that can change your mood. Meromi looks like a mix of a small bird and a shrunken yeti, and his long arms allow him to cling to objects like a wallet handle so he can come wherever you go, staring at strangers.

Inside Meromi is a distance sensor and an inertial measurement unit, which tells him when there are people near him and when he moves or is touched. It has different responses to each of these scenarios. For example, when someone comes into their line of vision for the first time, they will feel shy and hide their face briefly, as happened to me. Then, he glanced warily again. You jostle him and he shakes his head, “No.” Doesn’t make any sounds.

While playing with Mirumi at CES Unveiled, I found myself happy with everything she did. It has a nice weight when you pick it up, like a kitten. In the same way, his little movements make him emit a slight vibration, as if he is purring. She tied her bendable arms around my wrist, which also had a huge watch and camera hanging from the belt, and Merumi felt safe above all that as she waved it gently. On a thinner perch, such as a bag strap, its arms wrap around completely for better stability. (I might not trust my survival if I were in a crowded subway car or a similarly crowded environment.)

The Meromi is rechargeable and should last for about eight hours before it needs to be plugged in again. We don’t know yet what the final color options will be, but Yukai was offering the Meromi in white, black, and peach. The company plans to launch a crowdfunding campaign later this year before launching the robot, and it has not yet been determined whether it will be sold internationally.

Is it some kind of irony? Yes, of course. Especially when you consider the price: about $70, according to a Yukai representative. But the whole thing is kind of ridiculous in Yukai, and at least for me (and pretty much everyone who stopped by the demo), Mirumi elicited the exact emotional response it was made for. “This is all about making the people around you happier,” Yukai’s Hiroko Sato said during our chat at CES Unveiled. I can’t really hate it.

Speaking of ridiculous, Yukai also offers a little cat-shaped device called the Nékojita FuFu that will blow on hot food or drinks to cool them down for you. Its curved arms attach to the side of a cup or bowl, or can be placed on a flat surface to inflate onto a plate.

The company says it can lower the temperature of hot water by 30 degrees Fahrenheit in three to five minutes. We didn’t have any incendiary fluids on hand to test this on the show floor, but it’s basically just a little fan with different blowing modes packed into a nice silicone body, and the fan was really blowing air.

As someone who waits an annoyingly long time to take that first sip of coffee or soup because I’m very sensitive to temperatures, I can appreciate an option that doesn’t involve… I Do all the work. I can’t see myself going out and buying this, but it strikes me as the kind of product that would be a fun gift — the kind that’s partly a joke, but also practical. The Nékojita FuFu is expected to be released later this year for $25 after a crowdfunding campaign.