Never without my favorite friend.note
Sanrio Boys is a web-based franchise created by Sanrio to promote merchandise for some of their biggest characters. It was originally conceptualized as a Twitter account
showing the daily lives of five (later expanded to seven) Sanrio-obsessed high school boys posting goods of their favorite mascots and hanging out. The main cast includes:- Kouta Hasegawa: a shy boy who loves Pompompurin
- Yuu Mizuno: Kouta's flirtatious best friend, loves My Melody
- Ryou Nishimiya: A wary, feminine boy, loves Little Twin Stars
- Shunsuke Yoshino: A popular soccer star, loves Hello Kitty
- Seiichirou Minamoto: A straightlaced model student, loves Cinnamoroll
Later additions to the roster include Subaru Amagaya, a delinquent-like fellow who loves Badtz-maru, and Naoki Sugami, a stoic teacher that loves Keroppi.
The idea was so beloved by its main demographic that it expanded to include two different manga adaptations by Mai Ando in the Spring of 2016, a smartphone-based Visual Novel that Fall, and an anime adaptation part of the 2018 winter lineup. It also eventually received its own line of character merchandise, and a stage play series.
Check out the official website here.
Tropes in Sanrio Boys include:
- Animated Adaptation: The animated adaptation premiered in January 2018.
- Cast Full of Pretty Boys: Considering how it's all about the other side of the Sanrio fanbase, this should be expected. The anime ups this with its notable lack of girls, compared to the blog (which at least showed siblings), the manga (where one is shown to hang out with them from time to time), and the visual novel (where one was the protagonist).
- Color-Coded Characters: All taken from their favorite characters, to boot. Kouta is yellow, Yuu is pink, Ryou has blue and light pink, Seiichirou has light blue, and Shunsuke has red. Later additions Subaru and Naoki have purple and green, respectively.
- Character Blog: The original idea of Sanrio Boys was to promote merchandise on social media.
- Cuteness Proximity: All of the boys are huge fans of their respective mascots.
- Female Gaze: One of the more infamous photos on the Twitter account shows Seiichirou taking a selfie of his very well-defined abs— and a very small Cinamoroll soap bottle.
- Geodesic Cast: While more boys were added over the course of the series, they were eventually split off into groups by the region they came from.
- GIS Syndrome: The backgrounds in the Twitter account photos are a mix between drawn backdrops and photos of (usually Sanrio related) real world locations the boys go to.
- Product Placement: The whole purpose of the blog is to promote the latest character merchandise.
- Real Men Wear Pink: The premise of the whole series. Of the group, however, Shunsuke seems to be the most "manly" given his focus on exercise and sports, but he still shows his love for Hello Kitty.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Usually shows up in pairs. Among the main group, we have Nishimiya and Yuu (Sensitive) who are doubled up with Seiichirou and Shunsuke (Manly) respectively. Kouta doesn't quite fit into either group, though his shyness does lean towards Sensitive.
- The Smurfette Principle: The only recurring female character in the series is Yuri, Yuu's little sister. The various viewpoint girls of the manga and the unnamed protagonist of the visual novel are limited only to the adaptations they appear in.
- Transatlantic Equivalent: Trans-Pacific variant: Anime Expo 2017 showed off these boys at the official booth.
