Sanrio
Sanrio is unusual among the properties in this catalogue in that its characters mostly have no stories. The company began selling rubber sandals with flowers printed on them, discovered that decorated goods sold better than plain ones, and built a business on kawaii design applied to stationery and household objects — the character comes first and any narrative is added later, if at all.
About Sanrio
Sanrio is unusual among the properties in this catalogue in that its characters mostly have no stories. The company began selling rubber sandals with flowers printed on them, discovered that decorated goods sold better than plain ones, and built a business on kawaii design applied to stationery and household objects — the character comes first and any narrative is added later, if at all. That inversion is why Hello Kitty could become one of the highest-grossing licensed properties ever created without a defining film or series behind her. The house style — rounded forms, minimal features, pastel palettes, and faces that are deliberately underexpressed so the viewer supplies the mood — has been enormously influential on global character design.
The characters generally have no story at all — the design comes first, which is the reverse of every other franchise here.
Rights holder: Sanrio Company, Ltd.. CharacterTshirts.com is an independent guide. It is not affiliated with, authorized by, endorsed by, or connected to any character rights holder, publisher, studio or network named on this site. All character names and titles are trademarks of their respective owners and are used here only to identify the products described.
Key eras
| Era | Years | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation | 1960–1974 | Yamanashi Silk Company becomes Sanrio; decorated goods outsell plain ones. |
| Hello Kitty | 1974–1990 | A coin purse design becomes a global licensing business. |
| Global | 1990– | Theme parks, fashion collaborations and a wide roster of successor characters. |