Trivia / Sanrio

• Adaptation First:
  • Their 1978 film adaptation of Chirin no Suzu was able to gain a English dub in the early 1980s with Barbara Goodson voicing the titular protagonist as a lamb. However, the original book that the film was based on never left Japan.
  • Sanrio Animation's Unico Movies managed to gain a Spanish and English dub, however the original manga wouldn't get an official English translation until the early 2010s, almost 40 years after its original Japanese release. Inverted in France where the manga was able to gain a French translation but never dubbed the movies.
• Creator Backlash: Pandapple and Spottie Dottie were major flops in terms of merchandise sales, leading to Sanrio discontinuing them. Nowadays, Sanrio only highlights these characters for "Friend Of The Month" blog post on their official American website, other social media accounts, and occasional lookbacks.
  • A much extreme example is Sambo and Hannah, Bibinba, and Boonchuka who were black characters created in the 1980s that depicted with black or brown colored skin and thick lips that were either red or pink. After gaining complaints from activists, Sanrio quickly discontinued merchandise and media featuring these characters and no longer officially allowed by the company. These characters are also completely erased from Sanrio's official character timeline in Japan and other countries.
• Cross-Dressing Voices: A lot of male Sanrio characters are typically voiced by women (especially in Japan). There are some exceptions with some characters.
  • While Dear Daniel was voiced by a male (Chris Patton) in the English Dub of Hello Kitty's Animation Theater, in The Adventures of Hello Kitty & Friends, he was voiced by a female (Colleen O'Shaughnessey). Averted in Japan, where he has been always voiced men (Gou Takahashi).
  • Pandaba (one of Badtz-Maru's friends) is occasionally voiced by men in Japan such as Hello Kitty's Animation Theater and some live shows at Puroland and Harmonyland.
  • Baku, the sidekick of Kuromi, is voiced by a man, Noboru Maeda. Inverted in the Cantonese dub of Onegai My Melody where he is voiced by in fact, two female actresses, Wu Xiuxia and Chen Qinyun.
  • While Junko Takeuchi is the current voice of Gudetama in Japan, in the 2022 Netflix series Gudetama: An Eggcellent Adventure, he was voiced by man, Shunsuke Takeuchi.
• Creator's Oddball: While Sanrio Animation's animated content between the late seventies and mid eighties was already Darker and Edgier compared to its merchandise featuring Sanrio Characters, their 1982 theatrical conclusion to the Space Runaway Ideon series, Be Invoked, is their darkest work alongside the 1978 adaptation of Takashi Yanase's children's story Ringing Bell (Chirin no Suzu), and the Unico film series ^note , and the 1979 animated pilot Unico: Black Cloud and White Feather to a lesser extent . Chirin no Suzu is very depressing and melancholy despite being aimed at children and families with some very dark content. Be Invoked on the other hand is a violent space opera that's clearly not aimed at kids, and ends with all of humanity being wiped out.
  • Sanrio also produced Flint the Time Detective, the only work of theirs that's a Shōnen series.
  • Sanrio Communications was behind the production of Don't Cry, It's Only Thunder, a Live-Action film about the Vietnam War with a Bittersweet Ending.
• Cowboy Be Bop At His Computer: An April 6, 2011 blog post from Sanrio's American branch ("Hello Kitty Blog") called Sapphie ("Sapphire") from the Jewelpet series a "rabbit" instead of a dog/puppy.
• Development Hell:
  • The company announced a Hello Kitty film in January 2015 with a tentative release date of 2019. However, Sanrio didn't even start production until they licensed the rights to New Line Cinema, Warner Bros., and Flynn Pictures Company (New Line and Flynn Pictures also has the movie rights to other Sanrio Characters such as My Melody and others) in March 2019. With Beau Flynn as the producer while Wendy Jacobson as executive producer. By March 2021, the movie was revealed to be a live-action/CGI hybrid alongside revealing Jennifer Coyle and Leo Matsuda as the film's directors. With Discovery acquiring Warner Media (now Warner Bros. Discovery) on April 9th, 2022, the future on a Hello Kitty movie alongside other Sanrio movies remain uncertain.
  • The short film called Jewelpet: Attack Travel was supposed to be released in February 2020, but was postponed because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. On March 29, 2022, Sanrio announced that the film will finally be released - premiering on the Niconico video website.
• Executive Meddling : According to some of Charles M. Schulz's autobiographical books made during his lifetime, the reason Hello Kitty and Sanrio characters came into existence was due to a disagreement he had with the company. They also grew tired of paying royalty fees to him. ^note  Sanrio had merchandise rights for Snoopy back in the 60s and early 70s. As a result, Sanrio decided to create their own characters. In later years, the company gained back the merchandise rights to the Snoopy/Peanuts franchise in Japan.
• Exiled from Continuity: Beginning in 2011, Sanrio decided to quietly retire Cathy from the Hello Kitty series and future use by the company due to closely resembling the Dutch children's character Miffy. Which wasn't helping Sanrio and Dick Bruna's then ongoing legal clashes thinking Hello Kitty was a rip-off of Miffy.
• Invisible Advertising: When Sanrio decided to finally release Jewelpet merchandise in the United States to numerous Sanrio Boutique stores for a limited time, they only announced it on their "Hello Kitty Blog" between April 6th, 2011 and April 8th, 2016 with no fanfare and gave the Jewelpet franchise zero advertisement to their other social media accounts and websites. In fact, the entire Jewelpet franchise is rarely acknowledged from Sanrio's American branch, possibly in fear of gaining any attention with Sega's American branch.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Some animated content by Sanrio ^note  such as Hello Kitty Animation Theater, Hello Kitty Stump Village, Hello Kitty Paradise, and The Adventures of Hello Kitty and Friends are now out of print. Their OVAs from the 80s ^note  such as Sanrio World Animation and Sanrio Animation Festival and early 90s also never gained a reissue in Japan. Fortunately some western Sanrio fans managed to upload some of the Japanese exclusive OVAs to Youtube beginning in 2021 and torrent sites with some containing English fan translations. Some OVAs can also be viewed on Nico Nico Douga such as a few animated shorts starring Badtz-Maru, albeit in low-quality and with watermarks.
  • Due to a combination of the above and No Export for You, quite a few of their anime can only be watched outside of Japan via video and file-sharing sites. This is especially in force with anime that star their less-known characters, such as Usahana.
  • On the topic of 80s/90s era animation, the English dubs of the VHS series starring Pochacco (Pochacco in the Excitement at the Carrot Patch, and Pochacco: Exciting Birthday), and Keroppi (Keroppi: Let's Play Baseball and Keroppi: Robin Hood) distributed by Family Home Entertainment and ADV Films (in the United States) have also fallen out of print.
  • The English dub of Onegai My Melody called My Melody's Magical Adventure in which Andrea Kwan voiced My Melody never received a home media release and is impossible to find online.
  • Dream Star Button Nose was the very first made-for-TV anime they ever did and one of the hardest to find with all episodes intact, whether it's the original Japanese version, the various European and Latin American dubs, or the 1994 English dub that only aired in Australia. The only dubs that don't suffer from this are the Russian dub, which can be downloaded if you know where to look, and the Arabic dub, which can be watched on Youtube. It doesn't help that Button Nose herself is a largely forgotten character and rarely gets new merch—if Sanrio won't or can't release works based on characters that people do know, than what's the chance of them releasing a show based on a character that few people remember, if at all?
  • For a non-anime related example: The majority of Sanrio's web content, in both English and Japanese, has been lost or rendered inaccessible due to the main Sanrio site being redesigned over the years and many of its sister sites shutting down. This includes things like comics, ecards, games, animations, videos, and wallpapers. If you want to view some of their older online stuff again, your best bet is looking through the Wayback Machine and checking Sanrio's Youtube Channel for their old web cartoons, but even then not everything has been saved and a good chuck of it is locked behind login pages and paywalls. It doesn't help that Adobe Flash and other NPAPI plugins have been discontinued, so you can't play their games again without the use of special software or an older browser.
  • Speaking of web content, "SanrioBB" was Sanrio's answer to "Disney.com" and "Cartoon Network.com" created for their Japanese fans in 2002. The website is similar to SanrioTown, but more organized and up to date. The website included special pages to Sanrio Characters, wallpapers, news, exclusive shorts, and a page dedicated to the Fluffy Fluffy Cinnamoroll manga (mainly the color edition) and access to some of Sanrio Animation's animated films (only accessible if you had an account). The website also included flash games and stuff that can only be accessed to members that created an account. Sanrio kept the site active as late as 2017, before announcing on shutting down the site by late 2018. Only the Wayback Machine is able to access some sections of SanrioBB.
  • On the flip side, the Japanese dub of the 1987 western-produced series Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater where Akemi Okamura was the dub voice of Hello Kitty is extremely hard to find in Japan. While the show was animated in Japan, very little is known on which station in Japan aired the series or who did the Japanese voices for My Melody, Tuxedo Sam, Chip, Catnip, Fangora, and Grinde. Not even popular Japanese video-sharing sites like Nico Nico Douga has any footage of the dub.
• Marth Debuted in "Smash Bros.":
  • Believe it or not, there was a time when My Melody (to a lesser extent Tuxedo Sam and Chip) was only known in Japan. This resulted in the 1987 western-produced series Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater, marking her first appearance for non-Japanese appearance. My Melody merchandise then began popping up in other countries beginning in the early 90s.
  • My Melody's rival Kuromi made her first appearance in Onegai My Melody, but since that anime was never officially released in any western countries barring Portugal, Italy and Spain and didn't get subbed in English until 2011, most people outside of Japan were first exposed to Kuromi from comics and ecards on the Sanrio.com and Sanriotown sites, the Hello Kitty DS and 3Ds games, or the Hello Kitty Blackwonder event in the US and Hong Kong, which included a Flash game based on the plot. Thankfully, Onegai My Melody has become a cult classic among Sanrio fans and Kuromi has since become more popular in the west, to the point of becoming one of the major characters in the English-language web cartoon Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures.
  • Predating Furry Tale Theater is their film adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's Unico with The Fantastic Adventures of Unico from 1981. During Katy/Chloe's musical number about her dreams on becoming a witch, Kiki and Lala alongside Hello Kitty make silent cameo appearances in the background. At the time, the first Unico movie and its sequel Unico in the Island of Magic would frequently air on Disney Channel (then known as "The Disney Channel") in the United States throughout the 1980s. Around the same time period, Hello Kitty has started catching on with American audiences and other Western countries. However, the Little Twin Stars (and other Sanrio Characters) were still unknown to non-Japanese audiences making the Unico movies their first exposure to some Western and Spanish speaking countries.
  • While the Jewelpet franchise is barred from any representation in anglophone countries, Ruby, Garnet, and Sapphie made their first and only western debut in the Nintendo DS game "Loving life with Hello Kitty & Friends"◊.
  • Similar to Kuromi, Usahana's friends and classmates who were introduced in the 2006 anime Usahana Dreaming Ballerina made their international debut on ecards, comics, and wallpapers on Sanriotown websites and Sanrio.com. Europe was able to get official dubs of the series but has become difficult to find in recent years.
• No Export for You: If you're a fan of a specific Sanrio character that ain't Hello Kitty (especially in America), you're out of luck, the majority of anime and manga featuring their characters is lucky to make it as far as Europe and Asia. Examples include:
  • Sanrio's earliest attempts at bringing their characters into animation ^note  Outside of Hello Kitty, My Melody, and Kiki and Lala's cameo appearances in the 1985 film A Journey Through Fairyland and The Fantastic Adventures of Unico (via Katy's musical number). was a series of specials that were initially screened at road shows then released on Video. These include adaptations of Fairy tales such as Hello Kitty no Cinderella, My Melody no Akazukin, and Kiki to Lala no Aoi Tori. Only a few of these animations have been dubbed, and are collectables by hardcore fans in the country. Thankfully, most of them can be watched on Youtube
  • During the mid/late 2000s, Sanrio created several animated shows about their characters that aired as a part of the Kitty's Paradise block. The first is Onegai My Melody (Please My Melody) starring My Melody and Kuromi. While the anime never made it to the West outside of Portugal, Italy and Spain, the series was able to air on an unknown Cartoon Network channel in Asia (possibly the Philippines) and Animax Asia with the title "My Melody's Magical Adventure" complete with an English dub.
  • The 2007 anime Sugarbunnies starring the titular rabbit groups. The series spawned two follow ups between 2008 (Sugarbunnies: Chocolate!) and 2009 (Sugarbunnies: Fleur). While the three never made it to the Americas, the series was able to air in Europe with different dubs (notably in Italy, where the anime gained a new theme song and credits sung by Cristina D'Avena). However, clips and full episodes of these dubs are extremely difficult to find online. The original Japanese versions of the first season and Chocolate! can be viewed on Youtube.
  • Some of Sanrio's direct-to-video content (such as the Sanrio Pokoapoko edutainment series starring Hello Kitty, Cinnamoroll, and Usahana) is exclusive to Japan.
  • All animated shows and movies related to Jewelpet never made it to the West, possibly out of fear of getting sued by Webkinz, and was co-created by Sega (under "Sega Toys"). The franchise was able to air in Europe and parts of Asia, while Brazil only had the toys. Meanwhile, Sanrio did allow the Jewelpets to show up in a Nintendo DS game and sold some Jewelpet merch for a limited time at some Sanrio Bouquet stores across America in 2011 and 2016.
  • Another Sanrio Character franchise that was a joint venture with Sanrio and Sega Toys is Rilu Rilu Fairilu which didn't gain any merchandise or airings outside of Japan.
  • Cinnamon: the Movie is also Japanese exclusive, the film was originally screened with Nezumi Monogatari in Winter 2007. As of 2020, it can be watched on YouTube with subs.
  • The Aggretsuko series was able to gain multiple dubs due to being a Netflix series. The TBS shorts, on the other hand, had to wait four years to get an international release (as a bonus in the mobile game The Short-timer Strikes Back).
  • Even some of their Hello Kitty works have never made it to North America, despite the character's massive popularity over there. This includes several OVAs (only 13 of them were dubbed in English, as the Hello Kitty & Friends series), most of Hello Kitty's Paradise (it ran from 1999 to 2011, but only the third season's shorts were dubbed) and the entirety of Hello Kitty: Ringo no Mori.
  • Speaking of Ringo no Mori, the miniseries that were paired with it during its run, Usahana: Yumemiru Ballerina and KeroKeroKeroppi: Hasunoue Town Kikiippatsu! were also never dubbed in English. All three series did receive European dubs, but just like the Sugarbunnies dubs they are extremely difficult to find online.
  • The animated specials starring Charmmy Kitty and Sugar also never made it to English-speaking countries. There's one conformed Italian DVD boxset on Amazon at least.
  • A lot of the video games featuring their characters are also Japan-only, such as Cinnamoroll's GBA games (Koko ni Iruyo, Yume no Daibouken and FuwaFuwa Daibouken ) and the Jewelpet DS and 3DS games, and thus can only be played outside of Japan by downloading the ROMs and running them on an emulator.
  • Subverted for Mewkledreamy as TV Tokyo has plans to export it outside Japan and it got exported to Hong Kong.
  • Outside of Sanrio Characters, Sanrio Animation's 1977 adaptations of "The Rose Flower and Joe" and "Little Jumbo" never left Japan. However, both adaptations did gain fan translations from western fans of Sanrio. Notably from Twitter user "Kin2444" (known as "Ryan V" on Youtube) who's a big fan of Sanrio Animation, Takashi Yanase, and Osamu Tezuka's works. The only seventies era work that managed to get released to the west was Chirin no Suzu (known as Ringing Bell) and The Mouse and His Child (due to being co-worked by "Charles M Schulz Creative Associates" and "Murakami-Wolf"). Similarly, Unico Black Cloud And White Feather from 1979 (Unico's animation debut) never got an English dub, but managed to gain an official Spanish dub and released in Mexico.
  • On the manga side of things, the only Sanrio manga to get officially translated to English was Fluffy, Fluffy Cinnamoroll, and even then it was only the original black-and-white versions. Other Sanrio manga like Together Sugarbunnies and Petit! Tenorikuma have yet to see a release outside Japan.
• Older Than They Think: Despite popular belief, Hello Kitty was not the first Sanrio character. That honor goes to Corochan/Colochan, who was created in 1973, a year before Hello Kitty was. Bunny and Matty were also created that same year, predating My Melody, who was created in 1975.
• Production Posse: When Sanrio Animation was in its infancy, Minori Matsushima used to be a frequent voice actor for some of Sanrio's adaptations of Takashi Yanase's books. Such as voicing Joe in The Rose Flower and Joe and Young Chirin in the Japanese version of Chirin's Bell. Before Sanrio Animation was formed, Matsushima was involved with the 1970 animated short Yasashii Lion (The Kindly Lion) where she voiced an off-screen child interacting with the narrator and Buru-Buru as a cub.
• Self-Adaptation: Takashi Yanase was the director for the 1977 animated short The Rose Flower and Joe (バラの花とジョー, Bara no Hana to Joe) by Sanrio Animation. He even made illustrations for some of Joe's imagination sequences, the credits to the short, and some sequences in the short. Yanase also wrote the lyrics for every song and music for the 1970 adaptation of his children's book Yasashii Lion (The Kindly Lion) by Mushi Productions.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: Another reason why Sanrio's American branch rarely brings up any of the characters from the Jewelpet franchise compared to Japan (such as live appearances at Sanrio Puroland and Harmonyland, and prominent on their Japanese site) is due to being a co-creation with Sega (via Sega Toys). However, Sega's American and Japanese branch are infamous for not getting along. That didn't stop Sanrio's American branch from acknowledging the Jewelpet series at least three times in the past. ^note  The Jewelpets was first mentioned in in 2011 and 2016 that was on there official "Hello Kitty Blog" which includes a brief character description for the main Jewelpets (Ruby, Garnet, Sapphie, Labra, and Peridot). The second is the 2011 Nintendo DS game "Loving Life With Hello Kitty & Friends" which features Ruby, Garnet, and Sapphie alongside other Sanrio characters. And in the early half of The New '10s, some Sanrio gift shops sold merchandises from the franchise like bags and pens with the characters on them. The same can be said for the Rilu Rilu Fairilu franchise, Sanrio's second character franchise that was co-created with Sega Toys.
  • While Sanrio and Dick Bruna (creator of Miffy) concluded their legal clashes over Hello Kitty to donate the money they would have spent on legal fees to disaster relief in the wake of the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami disaster. Sanrio decided to retire Cathy the rabbit (one of Hello Kitty's friends) from future use by the company beginning that same year.
• Short Run in Peru: Due to being a South Korea-Japanese co-production, Hello Kitty Stump Village was released in South Korea in 2004, a year before its official Japanese release in 2005.
• Studio Hop: Previously Mushi Productions made animated adaptations of Takashi Yanase's works. Eventually, they were moved to Sanrio's animation division between 1977 and 1978 where they adapted The Rose Flower and Joe, Little Jumbo, and Chirin no Suzu before the studio shutdown in the mid 1980s.
  • Similarly, Sanrio Animation also had the film rights to the Unico series between 1977 till 1985. After the studio's closure, future animated works starring Unico would be moved to Tezuka Productions beginning with the 2000 animated short Saving Our Fragile Earth: Unico Special.
• What Could Have Been: Sanrio Animation's 1979 animated short Unico Black Cloud and White Feather served as a pilot for a potential anime starring Unico. However, it was rejected causing Sanrio to focus on making a series of animated films starring Unico between 1981 and 1983. They planned on making a third movie but was quickly abandoned once Sanrio Animation shutdown in the mid 1980s.