Chococat

This is a list of characters from Sanrio, a Japanese company specialized in creating kawaii (cute) characters. Sanrio sells and licenses products branded with these characters and has created over 450 characters. Their most successful and best known character, Hello Kitty, was created in 1974. Most Sanrio characters are anthropomorphized animals, while a few are humans or anthropomorphized objects.

Sanrio began creating characters to increase sales of its merchandise. Typical merchandise featuring the characters include clothing, accessories, toys and stationery. The characters subsequently appeared in media such as books, animation and video games. Beginning with '' Jewelpet'' in 2008, Sanrio started collaborating with Sega Toys in creating characters intended to become media franchises. Notable designers of Sanrio characters include Yuko Shimizu, original designer of Hello Kitty, Yuko Yamaguchi, lead designer for most of Hello Kitty's history and Miyuki Okumura, original designer of Cinnamoroll.

Sanrio hosts two theme parks in Japan featuring their characters, Sanrio Puroland in Tama, Tokyo, and Harmonyland in Hiji, Ōita, Kyūshū. Since 1986 Sanrio has held the annual Sanrio Character Ranking poll where fans can vote on their favorite characters. It began in the '' Strawberry Newspaper'' published by Sanrio in Japan, but now voting also takes place online.

Besides their own original characters listed here, Sanrio also owns the rights to the '' Mr. Men'' characters and Japanese licensing rights to the ''Peanuts'' characters. The characters listed here are shown with the year in which they first appeared.

1970s

Coro Chan (1973)

is the first original Sanrio character. Introduced in 1973, he is portrayed as a gentle and laid-back bear. Designed by Yuko Shimizu who is also the original designer of Hello Kitty. According to Sanrio's backstory, Coro Chan is a cousin of Hello Kitty's bear friend Thomas. His name comes from the croquettes on his cheeks, which he might eat when he gets hungry. Per official profiles, he lives in Windermere in England and his birthday is November 8.

Hello Kitty (1974)

is the best-known of Sanrio's characters. She is depicted as a white cat with a red bow and no visible mouth. The original design for Hello Kitty was created by Yuko Shimizu in 1974. However, the lead designer in charge of creating new design themes for most of Hello Kitty's history, since 1980, has been Yuko Yamaguchi. The first Hello Kitty item, a vinyl coin purse, was introduced in 1975.

Official character profiles list Hello Kitty's full name as , born in the suburbs of London, England, on November 1. Her height is described as five apples and her weight as three apples. She is depicted as a bright and kind-hearted girl who is good at baking cookies and likes to play the piano. Hello Kitty is portrayed with a large family including her twin sister Mimmy, who wears a yellow bow, papa George and mama Mary.

Originally Hello Kitty was only marketed towards pre-teenage girls, but beginning in the 1990s, the brand found commercial success among teenage and adult consumers as well. The brand went into decline in Japan after the 1990s, but continued to grow in the international market. By 2010 the character was worth a year and ''The New York Times'' called her a "global marketing phenomenon". By 2014, when Hello Kitty was 40 years old, she was worth about a year.

UNICEF has appointed Hello Kitty children's ambassador and the Japanese government appointed her ambassador of tourism. The Hello Kitty media franchise has grown to include several animated series, video games and other media productions. A variety of products have featured the character over the years and as of 2008 there were over different Hello Kitty branded products.

Aside from the core Hello Kitty characters, several spinoff characters have been created: Hello Kitty's boyfriend Dear Daniel in 1999, Charmmy Kitty, Hello Kitty's pet cat, and Sugar, her pet hamster, both in 2004, and her superhero alter-ego Ichigoman in 2011.

Little Twin Stars (1975)

also known as in Japan are a pair of angel-like characters. The younger brother with blue hair is , and the older sister with pink hair is . Originally designed by Yōko Matsumoto (松本庸子) who also designed My Melody. They were initially created for a 1975 Christmas promotion and their birthday is December 24, Christmas Eve. Drawing inspiration from Christmas and winter themes, early sketches had the characters wearing warm coats and winter scarves, before Matsumoto settled on stars as the motif. Because they came from the sky, she gave them white angel style clothes. In their first publication the characters were unnamed, and their names originate from a survey in the '' Strawberry Newspaper'' where readers could send in their suggestions.

Early Little Twin Stars branded products, like those for other similar Sanrio characters of the era, were items marketed to young girls, like stationery and accessories. In the late 70s Sanrio also began publishing picture books with Kiki and Lala, illustrated by Matsumoto and others. Since the inception of the Little Twin Stars, new designs have continually been created, following trends of the times. In the original 70s designs Kiki's hair was brown and Lala's yellow. In the 80s the designs became more pastel colored, and this is also when their hair colors settled into being predominantly blue and pink. In the 90s their faces were modernized, and designs were rendered in 3D CGI, and in the 00s there was a retro return to the styles of the 70s and 80s.

In 2015, EVA Air introduced a special livery Boeing 777-300ER, "Shining Stars", dedicated to the characters. The plane is mainly used on routes from Taipei to Houston and Singapore.

Little Twin Stars have previously been included in video games with other Sanrio characters, but in 2018 the first mobile game app featuring them exclusively was released for iOS and Android. Titled ''Kiki & Lala's Twinkle Puzzle'' (''キキ&ララのトゥインクルパズル'') it is a tile matching puzzle game and was developed by Imagineer. It incorporates illustrations from a 70s picture book with the origin story of the characters.

My Melody (1975)

is a white rabbit character. She is depicted as always wearing a bright red or pink hood that covers her ears. According to official character profiles, her birthday is January 18 and she lives in the forest of Mariland with friends like My Sweet Piano (a sheep), and Flat (a mouse). When My Melody debuted, she was portrayed as Little Red Riding Hood.

My Melody can be found on children's toys and merchandise (from jewelry to household items). My Melody was first released in 1975 and the first related merchandise was released at the end of that year. At first, she mainly was marketed toward young girls, but like Hello Kitty her popularity has increased among women and men of all ages, especially in Asia.

In the late 1980s, My Melody's popularity waned, and the only items produced were stationery and candy. According to a reader survey published in the '' Strawberry Newspaper'' (a magazine published by Sanrio) in 1996, My Melody came out amongst some of Sanrio's most popular characters and as a result, due to popular demand, standard merchandise started re-appearing beginning in February 1997 featuring the original red hood. Items with the pink hood were re-released in 1999; as of 2000, there were items released with multiple color hoods.

On April 3, 2005, an anime series based on My Melody and her friends and produced by Studio Comet started to air on TV Osaka and TV Tokyo