Hello Kitty
First appearance 1st November 1975
Last appearance Ongoing
Created by Yuko Shimizu
Information
Nickname(s) Hello Kitty
Gender Female
Occupation Shop
Nationality British
Hello Kitty (ハローキティ, Harō Kiti?)(real name Kitty White)is a fictional character produced by the Japanese company Sanrio, first designed by Yuko Shimizu. The character is a staple of the kawaii segment of Japanese popular culture.The character is portrayed as a female white Japanese bobtail cat with a red bow. The character's first appearance on an item, a vinyl coin purse, was introduced in Japan in 1975 and brought to the United States in 1976.This debut came under the Sanrio company lineup, where her various products are still developed and sold.
The Hello Kitty trademark has since spread globally and developed licensing arrangements worth more than $1 to $5 billion annually. Although mainly aimed at the pre-adolescent female market, the Hello Kitty product range goes all the way from purses, stickers and pen sets to toasters, televisions, clothing, massagers, and computer equipment. It has a cult-like following, especially in Asia, where Hello Kitty adorns cars, keychains, purses, bags and many consumer products. A Hello Kitty anime, targeted towards young children, has also been produced. Examples of products depicting the character include dolls, stickers, greeting cards, clothes, accessories, school supplies, dishes and home appliances.Her fame as a recurring Sanrio character has led to the creation of two officially licensed Hello Kitty theme parks, Harmonyland and the indoor Sanrio Puroland.
The character was once featured in an advertising campaign of the retail chain Target.
Contents
1 Character design
1.1 Official character profile
2 Products
2.1 Financial products
2.2 High end products
2.3 Music
2.4 Video games
2.5 Partial list of Hello Kitty video games
2.6 Establishments
3 Reception
4 In popular culture
5 See also
6 References
7 External links
Character design
A spokesperson for Sanrio says that Hello Kitty is not normally given a mouth because "without the mouth, it is easier for the person looking at Hello Kitty to project their feelings onto the character" and that "the person can be happy or sad together with Hello Kitty."[8] There has been some suggestion that Hello Kitty has its origins in Maneki Neko, and that the name Hello Kitty itself is a back-translation of Maneki Neko, which means beckoning cat in English.
Official character profile
Hello Kitty (TV series)
Hello Kitty in a kimono from Hello Kitty Animation Theater vol.1
ハローキティ
(Harō Kiti)
Anime and Manga Portal
Name: Kitty White
Birthday: November 1, 1974
Blood type: A
Place of birth: London, England
Height: That of five apples
Weight: That of three apples
Good at: Baking cookies
Favourite food: Apple pie made by Mama (mum)
Favourite word: "Friendship"
Collects: Small cute things like sweets, stars, goldfish etc.
Best school subjects: English, music and visual arts
Description: A bright and kind-hearted girl, good at baking cookies and loves Mama's apple pie. Very close to her twin sister Mimmy.
Products
The Hello Kitty Airbus A330-200.Hello Kitty can be found on a variety of consumer products ranging from school supplies to fashion accessories. These products range from everyday items to rare collectibles. The products of Hello Kitty are based on the original TV series.
Financial products
As of 2009, Bank of America began offering Hello Kitty-themed checking accounts, where the account holder can get cheques and a Visa debit card with Kitty's face on it.MasterCard debit cards have featured Hello Kitty as a design since 2004.
High end products
Sanrio and Fender released a series of Hello Kitty guitars (the Hello Kitty Stratocaster), and even a jet airplane (the Hello Kitty Jet).
2009 marked the collaboration between apparel and accessory brand Stussy and Hello Kitty. Stussy worked with Hello Kitty on collection focusing on the Hello Kitty character with Stussy signature graphics. This collection included T-shirts, keychains, and hoodies.
In 2010, Hello Kitty entered the wine market with collection made up of four wines available for purchase online, continuing an expansion of products targeted at older audiences.
Music
Hello Kitty has her own branded album, Hello World, featuring Hello Kitty-inspired songs performed by a collection of artists, including Keke Palmer and Cori Yarckin.
Hello Kitty was also chosen by AH-Software to become a Vocaloid. The choice was owed to the fact it was their 50th year anniversary.
Video games
Numerous Hello Kitty games have been produced since the release of the first title for NES in 1992; however, the majority of these games were never released outside of Japan. Hello Kitty also has made cameo appearances in games featuring other Sanrio characters, such as the Keroppi game, Kero Kero Keroppi no Bōken Nikki: Nemureru Mori no Keroleen. Special edition consoles such as the Hello Kitty Dreamcast, Hello Kitty Game Boy Pocket, and Hello Kitty Crystal Edition Xbox have also been released exclusively in Japan.
Partial list of Hello Kitty video games
Hello Kitty no Hanabatake (1992, NES) - a platformer
Hello Kitty World (1992, Famicom) - a Balloon Kid clone
Hello Kitty's Big Fun Piano (1994, PC) - a piano simulation
Hello Kitty's Cube Frenzy (1998, Game Boy Color) - a life simulation/minigame collection
DDR Hello Kitty (1999, Bemani Pocket) - a handheld Hello Kitty game in the Dance Dance Revolution series
The Hello Kitty Simple 1500 series (PlayStation) - a series of specifically low-priced games
Hello Kitty: Happy Party Pals (2005, Game Boy Advance) - an action/adventure game
Hello Kitty: Roller Rescue (2005, Xbox, GameCube, PlayStation 2) - an action/adventure game
Mainichi Suteki! Hello Kitty no Life Kit (2007, Nintendo DS) - a puzzle game
The Hello Kitty Simple 2000 series (2007, PlayStation 2) - a series of specifically low-priced games
Hello Kitty: Big City Dreams (2008, Nintendo DS) - an adventure game published by Empire Interactive developed by Sanrio Digital. In the game, Hello Kitty moves to the Big City where she meets other Sanrio characters and makes new friends.
Hello Kitty Daily (2008, Nintendo DS) - a PDA application featuring a diary, calendar, alarm clock, money managing system and school planner
Hello Kitty Online (2009, PC) - an online MMORPG developed by Sanrio Digital and Typhoon Games. The game allows players to create and customize characters, then use them to battle monsters, socialize with one another, mine for ore, do domestic chores like farming or cooking, and participate in quests.
Hello Kitty Parachute Paradise (2009, iPhone/iPod Touch) - an iPhone game with tilt-based controls
Establishments
There is a themed restaurant named Hello Kitty Sweets in Taipei, Taiwan. The restaurant's decor and many of its dishes are patterned after the Hello Kitty character.
In 2008, a Hello Kitty-themed maternity hospital opened in Yuanlin, Taiwan. Hello Kitty is featured on the receiving blankets, room decor, bed linens, birth certificate covers, and nurses' uniforms. The hospital's owner explained that he hoped that the theme would help ease the stress of childbirth.
Reception
The Hello Kitty brand rose to greater prominence during the late 1990s. At that time, several celebrities, such as Mariah Carey, had adopted Hello Kitty as a fashion statement.Newer products featuring the character can be found in a large variety of American department stores.
In 2004, a Japanese blogger started a discussion on whether Hello Kitty was modeled after Musti, a cartoon character created by Flemish graphic artist Ray Goossens in 1945.
The Dutch artist Dick Bruna, creator of Miffy, has suggested that Hello Kitty is a copy of Miffy, being rendered in a similar style, stating disapprovingly in an interview for the British paper The Daily Telegraph:
'That,' he says darkly, '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.
In May 2008, Japan named Hello Kitty the ambassador of Japanese tourism in both China and Hong Kong, which are two places where the character is exceptionally popular among children and young women. This marked the first time Japan's tourism ministry had appointed a fictional character to the role.
UNICEF has also awarded Hello Kitty the exclusive title of UNICEF Special Friend of Children.
Hello Kitty's popularity has been waning in Japan for over a decade. In 2002, Hello Kitty lost her place as the top-grossing character in Japan in the Character Databank popularity chart and has never recovered. In the most recent survey, she is in third place behind Anpanman and Pikachu from Pokémon.
In popular culture
This "In popular culture" section may contain minor or trivial references. Please reorganize this content to explain the subject's impact on popular culture rather than simply listing appearances, and remove trivial references. (November 2010)
In 1999, in Hong Kong, a brutal murder known as the Hello Kitty murder took place. The popular name of the case derives from the fact that the murderer inserted his victim's head into a Hello Kitty doll after decapitating her.
As of August 2007, Thai police officers who have committed minor transgressions such as showing up late or parking in the wrong place are forced to wear pink Hello Kitty armbands for several days as penance.
During the financial crisis of 2007–2010, a poster of a Hello Kitty pre-paid debit card expanded to roughly 1 meter in length was displayed on the floor of the US Senate by Senator Byron Dorgan as a demonstration of extreme methods used by credit companies to attract "children 10 to 14 years of age". Though not an actual credit card, it was criticized for its promotional website encouraging users to "shop 'til you drop."
