Posted on by thokozanemaloka

Hello Kitty, hello.

kitt3

 

BACKGROUND

Shintaro Tsuji was one of the first few Japanese entrepreneurs to discover the appeal of kawaii. In 1962, the US was already dominating the global toy industry and he had to find a way to get a piece of that pie. Kawaii culture gained prominence around the 1970s, although many believe it has been around longer.

The word kawaii is derived from a phrase that refers to blushing but through time the meaning of the word has changed and nowadays translated to ‘cute’. The Japanese art form often feature prints with inanimate objects or animals with human characteristics; adding a ‘face’ to an object makes it feel more alive and people feel more affection towards it. The same thing goes for giving animals a human body or face which you can see nowadays a lot in anime, cat girls are super popular.

After World War II the kawaii culture became more popular. It partially started with a movement in handwriting where teenage girls began to use mechanical pencils and decorate their writing with symbols like hearts, stars and more known as marui-ji (round writing). It caused a lot of controversy and was even banned in many schools at that time. This writing style contributed to the nowadays popular kaomoji and emoji. This influenced… Hello Kitty.

After having built a successful business selling rubber sandals and other cute items, Shintaro couldn’t help but notice the ever-growing success of Barbie and had to find a Japanese version that would not only replicate that success but also promote Japanese culture. So he hired cartoonists to design cute characters for his merchandise. One of these cartoonists was Yuko Shimizu who designed Hello Kitty, and the first item ever produced was a coin purse which was released in 1974.

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN…

 

kitt4

Hello Kitty was initially created to appeal to the younger crowd, little did they know they had struck gold. What this brand has achieved, no one could have predicted. Today, Hello Kitty is responsible for half of Sanrio’s revenue. And Hello Kitty continues to grow in popularity as well as revenue…

 

Some Interesting Facts on Hello Kitty:

  1. The name Kitty was inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, where in a scene early in the book Alice plays with a cat she calls Kitty. Hello was initially Hi. Imagine… Hi Kitty. We are so glad they changed this.
  2. She was born in England (yes, you read correctly), as opposed to Japan, as anyone would assume. And her last name is White. British culture was bigger than US culture in the 1970s.
  3. She has a twin sister, Mimmy. Kitty’s ribbon is placed on her left ear, while Mimmy’s is on her right ear. Other than that it is almost impossible to tell them apart.
  4. She doesn’t regard herself as a cat, instead she has a pet cat herself. Interesting!
  5. She remains a third grade school girl weighing 3 apples, and 5 apples in height.
  6. Her parents are George and Mary.
  7. There is a Hello Kitty Theme Park in China
  8. She has Hello Kitty themed fashion shows and restaurants.
  9. Hello Kitty is a foreign dignitary. She was appointed an ambassador for China and Hong Kong in 2008.
  10. She is so popular that Sanrio doesn’t have to spend money on advertising.
  11. She has countless products that has a face on them.
  12. Hello Kitty has also been to space.
  13. There are 10 Hello Kitty Time Capsules scattered across the world.
  14. She is also popular in Facebook, currently sitting on 13 million likes.

 

NO MOUTH

Spokespeople for Sanrio have said that Hello Kitty does not have a mouth because they want people to “project their feelings onto the character” and “be happy or sad together with Hello Kitty.” Another explanation Sanrio has given for her lack of a mouth is that she “speaks from the heart. She’s Sanrio’s ambassador to the world and isn’t bound to any particular language”.

Isn’t that so cute?…

I have always maintained that toys play a bigger role than we care to admit and it is high time we pay attention as African to what the Hello Kitty brand has achieved. Not only for the toy industry but for the Japanese people and their culture. It is almost impossible to speak of Hello Kitty without speaking of Japanese culture.

Hello Kitty will be around for a long time to come, and as of 2019 the branch is the second highest grossing franchise. The big question remains, when do we have our own Hello Kitty, or Barbie, or American Dolls, or He-Man…

HELLO!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leave a comment