ハローキティ (Haro Kiti), as the Japanese call her, is the famous female white cartoon cat wearing a bow over her left ear, Hello Kitty was created in 1975 by Yuko Shimizu for the company Japanese company Sanrio. Sanrio designs, licenses and releases products that focus on the kawaii (cute) segment of Japan's culture.
The design of Hello Kitty is very simple. She has two black dots for eyes, a yellow nose and whiskers. A spokesperson for Sanrio said that Hello Kitty has no mouth so that she expresses no particular emotion. The audience can give her whatever emotion they want,, in order for her to be relatable.
Hello Kitty was brought to America in 1976 and has maintained a cult like following worldwide ever since. The Hello Kitty trademark generates between 1 and 5 billion dollars each year.
Sanrio has put the Hello Kitty image on anything and everything imaginable. Bank of America features credit cards adorning the Hello Kitty image, there is a line of Fender Hello Kitty guitars, SmartCars, and Jets. This past year a Hello Kitty Wine has been released, available for purchase online.
I myself am a huge Hello Kitty fan and collector, walk into my house and you will see the image of Hello Kitty on my pillow, trash can, calendar, slippers, folders, water bottle and even the soap dispenser and toothbrush in in my bathroom. Going to Japan, aka the home of Hello Kitty heaven might give me a bit of a heart attack-in a good way. There is an officially licensed Hello Kitty theme park in Tokyo which is up there on the list of theme parks for me to visit, along with Disneyland Tokyo.
マリㇱサ
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hello_Kitty
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