Goodbye Kitty?

Recently I had been noting a rash of Sanrio stores closing around the country. Stores are closing in Northern California, Houston Texas and the Dallas store is in Lockout according to friends at Hello Kitty Junkies. In the news another store is closing in St Louis area new story notes January is the time many business end their lease and close down perhaps why the reason for the rash of closings . Update:  a member of hello Kitty Junkies reports her local store in Virginia is closing.  The Even in Portland we are not immune; Sanrio Surprise is closing and merging with the Washington Square Hello Kitty Sore.  While this does not mean Hello Kitty is going away but this will have an impact on Sanrio’s financial numbers and put a damper on Hello Kitty’s 40th anniversary.  Already hedge   investors are responding   as Sanrio is one of the top three stocks being sorted on the Japan’s Topix 500 index.

Continue reading

Catching up: Yuko Yamaguchi carries on as nurturing parent of Hello Kitty

There some interesting snippets in the article

Why she was hired:

“She became the third Hello Kitty designer in 1980, two years after joining Sanrio straight out of arts university. With her two predecessors having left the company and with Kitty’s popularity declining, Yamaguchi’s mission was to recover sales.”

And as for the future’

“Asked about her next challenge, Yamaguchi said she wants to attract boys.”

“I want boys to join the superhero Ichigoman fan club. Unlike other Sanrio characters, Ichigoman is a fighting character. We aim to make it into an anime and ultimately making it a TV series of a story about a hero.”

already  Sario Japan had put out an    Ichigoman short

IT kind of cute but can it really reach boys? I think Darkcapeman (the black kitty) is a beet fit.

Link to Story