Trivia / Hello Kitty

• Cash-Cow Franchise: The franchise is the second largest cash cow in human history at an estimated US$88.5 billion in revenue ^note being surpassed only by Pokémon, and at one point was the largest.
• Exiled from Continuity: Cathy (one of Hello Kitty's friends) was retired by Sanrio in 2011 due to a legal battle with Dick Bruna (creator of Miffy) due to the character closely resembling the titular Dutch character.
• The Kiddie Ride: Oh so very much. Two licensed models were produced in Europe, but most of the models comes from Japan. And then, there's the bunch of Chinese knock-offs...
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Most of the animated works featuring Kitty have gone out of print. Thankfully, most if not all of the English dubbed episodes of said works can be found online. The original Japanese versions and episodes that weren't dubbed on the other hand...if you live outside of Japan, good luck trying to watch them, as they can only be found as poor quality rips on NicoNico and Dailymotion with watermarks, if they were uploaded online at all. This also applies to early Hello Kitty merchandise: the very first item with her on it was called the Privet Purse, a clear vinyl change purse for girls released in 1975. As the 25th anniversary of the character in 2000 neared, Sanrio realized they didn't have so much as a single example left anywhere in their inventory. A series of ads in newspapers all over Japan produced one purse, which was gifted to the company by its now-adult owner, and has since resided in a safe in Sanrio's headquarters.
• The Merch: Hello Kitty was created specifically to capitalize on this, as Sanrio founder Shintaro Tsujii wanted something kawaii (cute) that would give the still-young company a steady cashflow. No one ever dreamed the character would catch on like she did.
• No Export for You: Despite her massive popularity, some series starring Kitty were either never released outside of Japan or not in their entirety. Examples include several 80s and 90s OVAs that didn't become a part of Hello Kitty & Friends ^note  only 13 OVAs were dubbed in English and most of Hello Kitty's Paradise ^note  it was originally a children's block that ran from 1999-2011. The version that was imported to other countries was the animated shorts. Hello Kitty: Ringo no Mori was never released in English but did receive several dubs in other languages, such as French and Italian.^note Interestingly, there exists an Arabic dub which uses an English localized logo◊, suggesting an English dub was going to be made. The only series that have completely averted this are Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater, Hello Kitty's Stump Village, The Adventures of Hello Kitty & Friends and Hello Kitty: Let's Learn Together.
  • The majority of Kitty’s video games are also Japan-only.
  • Four episodes of Growing Up With Hello Kitty were not dubbed into English: the toothbrushing episode, the traffic safety episode, the bath episode and one about aisatsu, or Japanese greetings.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Kitty has gone through six voice actors in Japanese: Fuyumi Shiraishi, Mami Koyama, Akemi Okamura, Yuko Kobayashi, Kyoko Hikami and Megumi Hayashibara (current).
  • Mimmy's voice actress has changed from Mami Koyama to Aya Sakaguchi to Mina Tominaga.
• Short-Runner:
  • Only the animated shorts from Hello Kitty's Paradise, a children's block that ran from 1999 to 2011, were imported and/or dubbed outside of Japan. The non-Japanese versions wound up becoming this as a result.
  • Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater was cancelled after 18 episodes due to low ratings.
  • Hello Kitty's Stump Village had a total of 26 episodes produced.

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