About Shimeji Buddy
Shimeji Buddy is a free Chrome extension that puts small animated characters, called Shimeji, on the web pages you visit. They walk along the bottom of the page, climb the edges of the window, sit on top of pictures and react when you click or drag them. We make the characters, the extension and this website.
Where we are right now
We started Shimeji Buddy in 2026 because we wanted the classic desktop Shimeji experience inside the browser, where most of us spend our day. The first six characters are drawn and animated, and the extension itself is in final testing before it goes onto the Chrome Web Store. We opened this website first so you can meet the characters, read how everything works and tell us which buddies you want next. As soon as the store listing is live, every “Add to Chrome” button on this site will take you straight to it.
How a buddy is made
Every character starts as a sprite sheet: a set of hand-drawn frames for walking, running, climbing, falling, sitting and one or two special moves that fit the character. A Super Saiyan power-up for Dragon Ball Z, a dance loop for KATSEYE, a vent for the Among Us crewmate. We test each buddy on the latest Chrome release and on long, scrolling pages so it never blocks what you are reading.
What we believe
- Fun should be light. A buddy must never slow your browser down or get in the way of a page. Sprites are small, and buddies pause on background tabs.
- Privacy is not optional. The extension needs no account, does not read the content of your pages and never sends browsing data anywhere. Your chosen buddies and settings are stored in your own browser.
- Honest pages. Everything on this site describes what the extension really does. If a feature is still being built, we say so.
Fan art and copyright
Our characters are fan-made tributes. Names and likenesses belong to their respective owners, and Shimeji Buddy is not affiliated with or endorsed by them. Illustrators are credited on the character pages, and rights holders can reach us at any time through the DMCA page.
The team
A small team of illustrators and web developers. We draw the characters, write the code and answer every message ourselves.
Request a character
New buddies are chosen from reader requests. Tell us who you want to see next on the contact page, and if you draw sprite sheets yourself, we would love to hear from you too.