Bbangnyang and Sikppang: the my4cut mascot cat and bread

Bbangnyang is a cat who lives in a tiny bakery and photo studio at the end of an alley. The shop has a window with four panes, and the sign says "Bakery & Photos." Four panes, like one four-cut strip.

She lives on the 4-cut photos people take. The sweeter the memory, the slower she chews. Still, her catchphrase is "...I'm not hungry," and then she eats it anyway.

In episode 1, "Morning at the bakery," the shutter goes up halfway at seven. She sleeps on top of the oven because it's the warmest spot. When the first customer leaves a freshly taken four-cut at the counter, she eats it. It was a photo from the Han River, and it tasted like wind.

The memories she eats stay with her. Eat a photo of laughing by the Han River and she rolls out a picnic mat. Eat a 3 a.m. alley photo and she pulls her cap down low. A café window photo, and she orders a latte. So Bbangnyang comes to look like the way the person behind the photos lived.

She talks like a proud, standoffish cat. When you pet her she says "...It's not like I enjoy this," but three lines of steam rise when she's happy.

Inside the story, the reason is one chain. In Korean, a cat sitting round with its paws tucked under is said to be "baking a loaf." In Bbangnyang's world, when she sits that way the oven really does warm up and a loaf comes out.

The first time she sat like that is episode 2, "The first loaf." She didn't know what the pose meant and muttered "...Why is it getting warm?" Then the oven went "Ding!"

Put in order: people take four-cut photos, she eats them, she gets full and sits in loaf pose, and a loaf comes out of the oven. That loaf later turns into frames and stickers.

The web page doesn't explain why the creators chose a cat, so this post sticks to the setup inside the story.

The day Bbangnyang first sat in loaf pose, the oven dinged, and out came Sikppang with two dot eyes blinking bright. His first words were "Hi! I just came out of the oven!"

She said "...And you are?" and he said "No idea! But I like you!" When he asked "So we're dating now, right?" she said "...We are not." Yet three lines of steam rose, and she whipped her head away. He hasn't left her side since.

Sikppang is gentle and sunny. He says "The sky looks just like bread today!" and asks "I rose half a centimeter since yesterday! Can you tell?" He says he knows she watched the window every day, even though she never says it. He also offers to carry the heavy things, "I'm bread, but still."

The web page puts it like this: "They're a couple. Bbangnyang just hasn't admitted it yet." Most of the four-panel comics run on that gap.

One comic is about a bread-colored sky. Sikppang says the sky looks like bread, and she says "...The sky is blue." He sags and asks "Oh... then what color am I?" She answers "...Freshly baked."

Episode 4, "A rainy day," is three days of rain with no customers and no four-cuts. Sikppang draws four panels on a big box, hangs a curtain and calls it Bakery Photo Studio, branch no. 2. She goes in reluctantly, and all four shots have her half-asleep. When he says "Here, eat it! It's our four-cut photo!" she says "...I'm not eating this one," then "...I'm saving it." That strip is still on the wall next to the oven.

In episode 5, Sikppang rolls out the door after his friends and doesn't come home that night. She watches the window until morning and the oven goes cold. When the door opens at dawn, she says "...You're late" and opens her eyes. After that she opens them once in a while, only when she has eaten a really good four-cut.

This is the setup in episode 3, "Sikppang's friends go traveling." After he was born, every loaf that came out of the oven looked like him. He looks at them and says "They're all my friends! They look just like me!"

People turn those loaves into frames and stickers. Sikppang believes his friends are off on trips and waves them off with "Have a great trip, friends!" She says "...That's not a trip," but a few days later a four-cut taken with a bread frame comes back to the bakery. Everyone in it is smiling, and she says "...Yeah. It's a trip." Nobody corrected him.

The setup ties into real bread. According to the Bread page, Bread is the credit you use across the MY4CUT app and web, and if you sign in with the same account it's ready wherever you bought it. It can be spent on adding frames you designed to the app, on filter and sticker packs, and on extra custom filters and stickers.

Bread can't be transferred to other members or exchanged for cash, and unused Bread is fully refundable within 7 days of purchase. The steps for designing your own frame are in the frame guide.

You can meet them on the Bbangnyang page on the web. It is available in Korean, English and Japanese, and the Japanese names are パンニャン and 食パンくん. Besides paging through the story, there are things you can touch.

You rub Bbangnyang to pet her and tap Sikppang to talk to him. She only opens her eyes once in a long while. In the baking game, you hold down until the needle reaches the orange zone and let go, and a perfectly golden loaf comes out. In the house-decorating game you pick furniture, place it in her room and save it as a photo.

"Find your Bbangnyang" is a quiz. You pick how you usually take your photos and feed them to her five times, and your own Bbangnyang, one of 12, comes out of the oven. Finish episode 5 or find a special moment in the games and a card is added to your collection, which is stored only on that device.