Hello Kitty

• 1. Introduction

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  Hello Kitty first appeared in March 1975, printed on a vinyl coin purse sold in Japan. The picture shows a white cat sitting between a bottle of milk and a goldfish bowl. She wears a red bow, and she has no visible mouth. From that modest purse, she grew into a figure found on a staggering range of goods. This documentary asks why a company would leave its star without a mouth. It asks how a children's coin purse became a brand that adults buy too. And it asks what she actually is: a cat, a girl, or something in between.

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• 2. Sandals And Cartoonists

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  In 1962, Shintaro Tsuji, the founder of Sanrio, began selling rubber sandals with flowers painted on them. He noticed that a cute design added to his profits. So he hired cartoonists to invent cute characters for his merchandise. One of those artists, Yuko Shimizu, designed Hello Kitty, and she joined the early Sanrio lineup in 1974.

  Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass gave her the name Kitty. Early in that book, Alice plays with a cat she calls Kitty, and Shimizu borrowed it. Sanrio's motto is "social communication", so Tsuji wanted the brand name to carry a greeting. He first considered "Hi Kitty" and then settled on "Hello Kitty".

  Britain, along with other foreign countries, was trendy in Japan when Sanrio created her. That is why the company made her British. It already had several characters set in the US, and it wanted her to be different.

  Shimizu's time at Sanrio ended in 1976, when Setsuko Yonekubo temporarily took over as lead designer. Yuko Yamaguchi became lead designer in 1980 and has remained in charge ever since. Yamaguchi says fashion, movies and TV inspire her new designs. Themed series featuring Hello Kitty are released regularly and follow current trends. The designer who inherited the face would later say something surprising about the one feature everyone notices is missing.

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• 3. The Missing Mouth

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  "Project their feelings onto the character" is how Sanrio spokespeople describe the purpose of Hello Kitty's missing mouth. They have said they want people to "be happy or sad together with Hello Kitty." Sanrio has offered a second explanation too. She "speaks from the heart. She's Sanrio's ambassador to the world and isn't bound to any particular language."

  Yuko Yamaguchi, the lead designer, has given a different answer. She has said that "Kitty has a mouth" that is "hidden in the fur". Sanrio representatives add that they see Hello Kitty as a symbol of friendship. They hope she will foster that friendship between people across the world.

  Maneki Neko is a traditional Japanese cat figurine whose name means "beckoning cat" in English. Some speculation holds that Hello Kitty has her origins in this figurine, and that her name is a back-translation of it. No definitive statement supports that idea.

  Mukokuseki is a Japanese term meaning "stateless" or "nationless". It describes characters with no identifiable national background, and Hello Kitty has been put forward as an early example. That stateless quality sits oddly beside Sanrio's insistence that she comes from the suburbs of London.

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• 4. Kitty White

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  Official profiles say Hello Kitty was born in a London suburb on the 1st of November. She is a gijinka, a personification of a Japanese Bobtail cat. Her height is five apples and her weight is three apples. Profiles call her bright and kind-hearted. She bakes cookies, loves her mama's homemade apple pie, plays the piano and collects cute things. Her favorite school subjects are English, music and art.

  Her twin sister Mimmy is the person closest to her. Mimmy is described as "shy and very girly", fond of sewing and dreaming of marriage. Hello Kitty wears a red bow on her left ear, while Mimmy wears a yellow bow on her right.

  The White family is large. Papa George is dependable and humorous, but also absent-minded. Mama Mary is a good cook who loves doing housework. Grandpa Anthony likes to tell stories, and grandma Margaret likes sewing. Her animal friends include the mice Joey and Judy, the bears Tippy and Thomas, the raccoon Tracy and the squirrel Rorry.

  Dear Daniel, her boyfriend, arrived in 1999 as the first of several spinoff characters. In 2004 came Charmmy Kitty, her pet cat, and Sugar, her pet hamster. Her superhero alter-ego Ichigoman followed in 2011.

  In 2014, Sanrio told an anthropologist that Kitty White was not simply a cat depicted on all fours. It described her as a little English girl from outside London. Reports took this to mean she was human. A Sanrio PR representative replied that the organization had "never said she was a human".

  The representative reached for Mickey Mouse as a comparison. Nobody would mistake the Disney character for a human, yet he is not quite a mouse. In the same way, said the representative, Hello Kitty is "not quite a cat either". Sanrio added that "Hello Kitty was done in the motif of a cat."

  SFGATE had already remarked in 2004 that her fictional biography "seems almost too modest - or irrelevant" given her success. It "doesn't seem to have played much of a part" in that success. If the biography did not drive her rise, something else must have.

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• 5. Boom And Decline

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  Sanrio's sales increased sevenfold after Hello Kitty reached shelves. Japan's growing economy meant many Japanese children could afford her products. Her rise also coincided with kawaii culture, which embraces cuteness. She crossed the Pacific in 1976, when Sanrio opened a Gift Gate store in San Jose, California.

  UNICEF recognized her three times. It named her children's ambassador to the United States in 1983 and children's ambassador in Japan in 1994. In 2004 it gave her the title of UNICEF Special Friend of Children, a title unique to her.

  The 1990s brought a change of audience. Sanrio had marketed her only to children and preteens, but it now broadened the target market to include teenagers and adults. It pitched her as a retro brand, aimed at people who never got the merchandise as children and at people who fondly remember items they had. Sanrio began selling purses and laptops. The 1994-1996 Face series was the first designed specifically for mature consumers.

  Mariah Carey was among the celebrities who adopted Hello Kitty as a fashion statement in the late 1990s. New products appeared in a large variety of American department stores. At home, her popularity in Japan peaked in the late 1990s, when she was the country's top-grossing character. As of 1999, Sanrio said she was appearing on 12,000 new products each year.

  The Character Databank popularity chart showed her losing the top spot in Japan in 2002. A 2010 survey placed her third, behind Anpanman and Pikachu from Pokémon. That year, The New York Times blamed the decline on a biography not "compelling enough to draw many fans." The newspaper later wrote that analysts called the characterization "weak". It added that her lack of a mouth has dampened her success as an animated TV character. She was third in 2013, fifth in 2019 and 2020, and out of the top five by 2021.

  Overseas, the story ran the other way. Beginning in 2007, following trends in Japan, Sanrio began using darker designs with more black and less pink, and pulled away from kawaii styles. By 2008, Hello Kitty was responsible for half of Sanrio's $1 billion net income. More than 50,000 different products carried her name in over 60 countries. In 2010, The New York Times called her a "global marketing phenomenon". As of 2014-90% of the profits from Hello Kitty came from licensing products for the international market.

  In China, her cultural impact is comparable to that of Barbie in the Western world. In 2008, Japan named her ambassador of Japanese tourism in both China and Hong Kong. It was the first time Japan's tourism ministry had appointed a fictional character to the role. Sharon Kinsella, a lecturer on Japanese sociology at Oxford University, called the choice "a bit farcical... as if a dumbed-down cultural icon... can somehow do something significant to alter the gnarly and difficult state of China-Japan relations."

  More than 80% of young adults aged 18-23 in the United States recognize her. In 2014, a four-day convention called Hello Kitty Con in Los Angeles drew over 25,000 visitors. It celebrated her 40th anniversary, and a multi-day party at Sanrio Puroland in Tokyo followed in November 2014. That first convention also saw the debut of a theme song with a backstory of its own.

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• 6. Screens Songs And Games

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  Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater premiered in 1987 as an animated television series of 13 episodes, each 22 minutes long. An OVA titled Hello Kitty and Friends followed, with 30 entries released in Japan between 1989 and 1994. Hello Kitty's Paradise came out in 1999 with 16 episodes. Hello Kitty's Stump Village arrived in 2005, and The Adventures of Hello Kitty & Friends began in 2008 and has aired 52 episodes. A crossover called Kiss Hello Kitty, pairing animated versions of the rock band Kiss with her, was announced in March 2013. Gene Simmons was to produce it for The Hub Network, but it never came to fruition.

  A live-action children's program ran on TV Tokyo from January 1999 to March 2011. It was the longest-running weekly kids' program in that network's history. Its creators mutually agreed to end it after twelve seasons, and the final episode aired on the 29th of March 2011.

  Newer series moved online. In August 2018, Sanrio began streaming a CGI series on YouTube in which Hello Kitty talks to the camera about her life, in the style of vlogging YouTubers. On the 26th of October 2020, it began streaming the 2D series Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures on YouTube.

  Ribon, a shōjo manga magazine, serialized two Japanese comics. Hello Kitty Doki ran from May 2007 to April 2008, and Hello Kitty Peace was released in June 2008. In March 2016, Sanrio launched a monthly webcomic starring her as the strawberry-themed superhero Ichigoman. Toshiki Inoue and Shakua Sinkai created it, and the character had first appeared at an exhibition of Yuko Yamaguchi's art.

  Hello World is a branded album of Hello Kitty-inspired songs by artists including Keke Palmer, Cori Yarckin and Ainjel Emme. It came out under Hello Kitty's own Lakeshore Records label. AH Software also chose her as the basis for a new Vocaloid to celebrate Sanrio's 50th anniversary. In November 2014, the musician Yoshiki unveiled the theme song "Hello Hello". He was the first celebrity to have his own Hello Kitty doll, called Yoshikitty. Yamaguchi had approached him to compose the song seven years earlier.

  Her first video game arrived on the Famicom in 1992, but most of her games never left Japan. Japan alone also received special-edition consoles: the Hello Kitty Dreamcast, the Hello Kitty Game Boy Pocket and the Hello Kitty Crystal Xbox. Hello Kitty Online, a 2009 PC game from Sanrio Digital and Typhoon Games, let players customize characters and battle monsters. They could also mine ore, farm, cook and take on quests.

  Guest appearances followed. She joined Sonic Dash in 2016 through Sega's partnership with Sanrio. She and My Melody appeared as unlockable Mystery Mushroom costumes in Super Mario Maker. She is a playable character through downloadable content in Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania, and a costume of her was a reward in Fall Guys. Hello Kitty and Friends: Happiness Parade, a rhythm game, reached iOS and Android in 2022, with the mobile versions exclusive to Netflix. A cozy social simulation game set on an island visited by Sanrio characters won the Apple Arcade Game of the Year award in 2023.

  Three anime films were released in Japan. Hello Kitty: Cinderella came out in 1989, Hello Kitty no Oyayubi Hime in 1990, and Hello Kitty no Mahō no Mori no Ohime-sama in 1991. On the 3rd of July 2015, Sanrio announced a full-length animated theatrical feature, initially planned for 2019. In early 2019, New Line Cinema was revealed as a partner, alongside Sanrio and Flynn Picture Company, for an English-language film. In 2021, Jennifer Coyle and Leo Matsuda were reported as directors, with Lindsey Beer set to write the script. In October 2025, a release date was set for the 21st of July 2028. In May 2026, David Derrick Jr. and John Aoshima were announced as the new directors, with Jeff Chan writing a screenplay based on earlier drafts, including Beer's.

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• 7. Jets Wine And Maternity Wards

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  Pencils, erasers, lunch boxes and piggy banks sit at one end of the Hello Kitty product range. Dolls, stickers, greeting cards, board games, clothes and backpacks sit nearby. At the other end are toasters, televisions, massagers, motor oil and computer equipment. The range runs from mass market items to high-end goods and rare collectibles.

  The Hello Kitty Stratocaster guitar has been sold since 2005, made with Fender under its Squier sub-brand in the US. It was first aimed at pre-teen girls. It has since been played by Krist Novoselic, Courtney Love, Dave Navarro and Lisa Loeb. In 2022, vintage versions were among the most popular instruments on the marketplace Reverb.com. The guitar originally retailed for $230, and some resold for over $1,000.

  EVA Airways in Taiwan flew an Airbus A330-200 dubbed the Hello Kitty Jet from 2005 to 2009. In late 2011 and early 2012, EVA Air revived the idea with three new A330-300s. Because of high demand, the airline added two more in mid-2012 alongside its existing A330-200s. A year later it introduced a 777-300ER as another Hello Kitty Jet, which also featured other Sanrio characters.

  In 2009, Hello Kitty entered the wine market with four wines sold online. They were a sparkling rosé, a sparkling white, a red and a white, each with Hello Kitty branding and packaging. The collection was another move toward older customers.

  Dr. Martens collaborated with her in 2010 and 2020, and the 2020 line included platform boots, platform sandals and a satchel. Forever 21 made several clothing collections with her, the first in 2011. Puma released sneakers for children and adults in 2018. Converse did the same in 2018 and again in 2026. Skechers released chunky-soled shoes in 2020 with her face and bow. In Asia and Latin America, she is also a brand of sanitary pads.

  Harmonyland in Hiji, Ōita, and Sanrio Puroland in Tama New Town, Tokyo, carry the Sanrio livery in Japan. Hello Kitty Shanghai Times opened in Shanghai in 2019. A park called Hello Kitty Town stood in Iskandar Puteri, Johor, Malaysia from 2012 to 2019. In 2014, Sanrio partnered with the Indonesian park Dufan to introduce Hello Kitty Adventure, a cinema-based attraction.

  Hello Kitty cafés have opened in Seoul and other South Korean locations, in Bangkok, in Adelaide, in Irvine, California, at the Santa Anita Mall in California, and at the Park MGM in Las Vegas. Hello Kitty Sweets, a themed restaurant in Taipei, opened in 2008, with decor and dishes patterned after her characters. The Hello Kitty Diner opened in the Chatswood area of Sydney, and a Hello Kitty dim sum restaurant opened in Kowloon, Hong Kong.

  In 2008, a Hello Kitty-themed maternity hospital opened in Yuanlin, Taiwan. She appears on the receiving blankets, room decor, bed linens, birth certificate covers and nurses' uniforms. The hospital's owner explained that he hoped the theme would help ease the stress of childbirth.

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• 8. Copycats And Icons

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  In July 2008, the Dutch artist Dick Bruna, creator of Miffy, told the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph that Hello Kitty was a copy of his character. He said: "That … is a copy of Miffy, I think. I don't like that at all. I always think, 'No, don't do that. Try to make something that you think of yourself'."

  Mercis, the firm that managed copyrights for Bruna, took Sanrio to court over Cathy, a rabbit tied to Hello Kitty who first appeared in 1976. A court in Amsterdam ruled for Mercis in November 2010. It ordered Sanrio to stop producing and selling Cathy merchandise in the Benelux countries. In June 2011, the two companies announced a settlement. Sanrio stopped using Cathy, and both firms jointly donated €150,000 for reconstruction after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.

  Sanrio has been far more relaxed with artists. In 1994, the artist Tom Sachs was invited to create a Christmas display for Barneys New York and titled it Hello Kitty Nativity. Madonna with an open Chanel bra replaced the Virgin Mary, and the three Kings were all Bart Simpson. A McDonald's logo marked the stable, and Hello Kitty replaced the Christ Child. Sachs was exploring consumerism, branding and the fetishization of products. Many viewers instead took offense, and Catholic organizations objected to the misuse of Christian symbolism.

  Sachs returned to the character in 2009 with his Bronze Collection, shown at Lever House in Manhattan, the Baldwin Gallery in Aspen, Colorado, and the Trocadéro in Paris. It featured white bronze casts of a foam core Hello Kitty sculpture. As of April 2010, his Wind-Up Hello Kitty was still on display at Lever House. He had not sought permission. A brand marketing manager for Sanrio said: "You know, there was Marilyn Monroe and Andy Warhol, and then Michael Jackson and Jeff Koons. When you're an icon, that's what happens." In 2013, The Wall Street Journal called Sanrio's attitude to copyright "laissez-faire" compared to companies like Disney.

  In 2015, a nine-foot tall pearlescent Hello Kitty sculpture by the artist Sebastian Masuda stood at Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza in New York City. It was part of the Japan Society's exhibition Life of Cats: Selections from the Hiraki Ukiyo-e Collection. In 2013, the Canadian singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne included a song called "Hello Kitty" on her fifth studio album, Avril Lavigne.

  In 2022, Saturday Night Live aired a sketch parodying her backstory and Sanrio's handling of it. The A.V. Club described the backstory as "incongruous, corporate-sanctioned". The sketch centers on managers at a fictional Hello Kitty store. They describe the character in contradictory terms, as a "human little girl" in third grade who is also 48 years old. The Atlantic called it both "a skewering of the ever-expanding Hello Kitty commercial universe" and a picture of the gaslighting and manipulation of truth of the time. Forty-eight is the age a character created in 1974 would reach in 2022, and the joke lands on exactly that tension.

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