Good afternoon,guys! I am back and today,I will be talking about a long forgotten company known as Sanrio!
Before I start,I'll tell you what Sanrio is. It's a Japanese company that designs,licences and produces products focusing on cute segments of Japanese popular culture. They are known for Hello Kitty. Yes,you heard me. They're the company behind Hello Kitty,courtesy of Yuko Shimizu and Yuko Yamaguchi. Their animatronic branch is called Kokoro Company,with Kokoro meaning heart in Japan.
The Foundation Of The Company
The company was founded by Shintaro Tsuji as the Yamanashi Silk Company in 1960. In 1962,Tsuji expanded his entreprise from silk to rubber sandals with flowers painted on them. He noted the profits gained by simply adding a cute design to the sandals and hired cartoonists to design cute characters for his merchandise in respond. In 19703,the company was officially established as Sanrio. The company's European website says the name comes from Spanish words san (Holy) and rio (Water). In other words,Sanrio means Holy Water. The other origin of the name came from the Japanese book Kore Ga Sanrio No Himitsu Desu,which means This is the Sanrio company secret.
Character Merchandise
The company produced a line of character merchandise around gift-giving occasions. Hello Kitty was the first related merchandise in 1975. Other notably popular characters include The Little Twin Stars,My Melody,Keroppi,Tuxedo Sam,Badz-Maru,Chococat,Cinnamoroll,Sugarbunnies,Jewelpets and Wish Me Mell. Sanrio constantly adds new characters to its lineup. For a short time,Osamu Tezuka's baby unicorn character Unico,who starred in two feature-length anime movies in the early 1980 was also part of Sanrio's empire. However,the rights to Unico shifted to Osamu Tezuka's own company after his death in 1989.
The 2000's Decade
In late 2003,Sanrio won the ''Top Brand with a Conscience'' award from the Medinge Group of Sweden for its communication principles. In 2006,Sanrio launched Sanrio Digital together with Typhoon Games to expand the Internet,online games and mobile services.
The 2010's Decade
2010 was Sanrio's 50th anniversary. In conjuction of this,Build-A-Bear Workshop released limited edition stuffed toys of several Sanrio characters including Hello Kitty,Chococat,My Melody and Keroppi. On August 26th 2010,Mercis BV,representing Miffy's creator Dick Bruna,brought suit against Sanrio with the claim that one of Hello Kitty's characters,Cathy the rabbit infringes on the copyright and trademark of Miffy. On November 2nd 2010,a Dutch court ruled against Sanrio and ordered the company to stop marketing Cathy products in Belgium,Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Following the March 11th 2011 Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan,Sanrio and Mercis reached an out-of-court settlement on June 7th 2011 for Sanrio to halt production worldwide of merchandise that feature Cathy. They also announced a 150,000$ donation to Earthquake victims.
In December 2011,Sanrio Global acquired the rights to the Mr.Men and Little Miss characters. In June 2016,it was announced that Sanrio had partnered with Loot Crate.
What they're doing now?
In June 2020,it was announced that the company's founder and president Shintaro Tsuji would step down from the role and hand control of the company to his grandson Tomokuni Tsuji,after 60 years of running the company.
