Hellokitty, A 36 Year Old Middle-Aged Cat, Has Been Forgotten?

Despite proper management and increased profit margins, HelloKitty's total sales declined year after year.

Does this cute cat have any new tricks?

The 36 year old middle-aged cat is being forgotten.

Character Databank, a market research firm in Tokyo, sells data on cartoon images every year, compiling the most valuable cartoon image list in Japan.

Sanrio Co's Hello Kitty lost its title of Japan's total sales volume in 2002 and never returned to this position.

In the latest market survey released in May, Kitty ranked third, far behind champion bread Superman and Pocket Monster of Nintendo, a game company.

The cartoon industry in Japan is known as the ACG industry, and Animation (animation), comic (Comic) and game (Game) are interlaced into a huge industrial chain.

Some popular cartoon characters will cross the boundary in the three big fields.

But HelloKitty is a cat with no mouth and no words.

Designers in the 1974 did not expect the toy image to be linked to the future interest chain of cartoon industry in Japan.

San Li Gu also let Kitty speak in a pilot animated cartoon, but this caused a great stir among fans.

Kitty's image without mouth is deeply rooted in their minds.

This means that San Li Gu can not enter the lucrative passageway of TV animation, and can not create new films and TV works and topics through the media, so as to continue the vitality of cartoon images.

From the current experience, Kitty is impressive only in the field of commercialization and authorization, and its game business is slightly better than that of TV animation.

San Li Gu's sales come from product sales and licensing fees, but it has been shrinking for ten consecutive years since 1999.

Sanrio Co announced on May 14th that as of March this year, the total annual sales in Japan fell by 3.3% due to the decline in both authorized revenue and product sales.

To make matters worse, the American model Disney has a series of popular roles, but San Leo is only Kitty.

All the new images launched by San Li Gu were not as successful as Kitty.

"Everyone loves Kitty so much that it makes our new image dim."

Yamaguchi Yuko, chief designer of HelloKitty, said the company was also trying to change the image of the cat, such as adding black effects, but with little success.

"Cartoon character industry has an unwritten rule: you can't let a cartoon image go through the sky."

Nanatake Naohiro, an associate professor of creative industries at the Advanced Research Institute of the early rice field, commented, "the moon is full and the water is full."

People are getting tired of it.

Now San Li is in trouble.

San Liu has increased seven times in the three years before the start of the business. The bosses of the company have worried that the enthusiasm of the enthusiastic consumers will lose all their love for the brand.

This worry came true 36 years later.

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More lovely than HelloKitty

01 bread Superman (Anpanman)

The picture book character created by Japanese cartoonist and picture book writer Liu Laisong.

The animation of the same name has been playing for 20 years, totaling over 1000 episodes. It is the most animated series in the world.

Like detective Conan and other cartoon characters, the movie theater version will be launched every year, and twenty-second will be launched this year.

Business areas include mobile phones and Internet content, e-books, animation, games, commercial advertisements and so on.

02 Pocket Monster (Pok e Mon)

Japan's Nintendo Co launched an insect collection game in 1996.

Nintendo took advantage of this upsurge to launch a series of games, comics, books, war cards and peripheral products. It also launched TV animation combined with the Japanese Tokyo TV station and the annual animated cartoon film. It also successfully entered the United States in 1998 and expanded all over the world.

Nintendo has set up a subsidiary, Pok e Mon, to develop Pocket Monster related businesses, including shops and amusement parks.

03Tarepanda (Pa Paxiong)

And Rilakkuma (easy bear)

A cartoon bear designed by two ordinary employees from SAN-X, Japan.

The development route is similar to San Li Gu, and no film and television works have yet been launched.

There are mainly picture books, games, and a theme restaurant in South Africa.