Cinnamoroll

Cinnamoroll
is a white puppy with long ears, blue eyes, and a plump and curly tail that resembles a cinnamon roll. He starred in his own anime movie which was released in Autumn 2007. Some people mistake Cinnamoroll for a rabbit because of his long ears and rabbit-like looks.Cinnamoroll was created in 2001.

Badtz-Maru

Badtz-Maru is a penguin. He is one of the few Sanrio characters that is marketed to both males and females. In Japanese "badtz" (batsu) is a term for "X", the cross signifying a wrong answer. "Maru" means circle or "O", and signifies a correct answer.

Thus, his name literally means "wrong-correct," and is frequently represented by "XO". Badtz-Maru has many different facial expressions and poses, but he is classically recognized for pulling one eye down and sticking out his tongue, a gesture akin to sticking out one's tongue. Badtz-Maru has gone through many product lines since his release at Sanrio.

While he has many fewer releases than Hello Kitty, he has been a staple character found in almost all stores worldwide. He has been portrayed as an astronaut, motorcyclist, DJ, camouflage monster, basketball player, boxer, and others. His products range from typical stationery supplies (e.g. pens, notebooks, erasers, pencil cases ...) to more novel items (e.g. CD players, guitars, license plate frames ...).

Badtz-Maru was the official mascot for the 2006 FIBA World Championship of basketball, which was held in Japan.

Kuromi

Kuromi

Kuromi (クロミ, Kurom) is the rival of My Melody from the anime Onegai My Melody. She is a white rabbit-like creature, wearing a black jester's hat with a pink skull on the front and a black "devil" tail in the place of a normal rabbit's tail. Kuromi's appearance also looks similar to those of cartoon characters from the 1920s and 1930s. Goods featuring Kuromi first appeared in Japan in July 2005. She has three image songs all sung by her seiyu, Junko Takeuchi.

Hello Kitty

Hello Kitty (ハローキティ, Harō Kiti), full name Kitty White (キティ・ホワイト, Kiti Howaito),is the best-known of many simply drawn ficitional characters produced by the Japanese company Sanrio. Hello Kitty is a friendly white kitty with the head larger than her body, small button eyes and nose, but no mouth. She is said to be five apples tall and the weight of three apples.

In 1974, Sanrio Co. Ltd. of Tokyo, introduced a Hello Kitty franchise. The first Hello Kitty item was a vinyl coin purse sold in Tokyo, according to Sanrio Inc.'s U.S. marketing director Bill Hensley. In 1976, the franchise was introduced into the U.S. The Hello Kitty line has developed under licensing arrangements worth more than $1 billion a year in sales. Examples of products depicting the character include dolls, stickers and greeting cards to clothes, accessories, school supplies, dishes and home appliances. Sanrio Puroland is the official theme park of Sanrio featuring Hello Kitty and her friends.

Sanrio Club

Sanrio Co., Ltd. (株式会社サンリオ, Kabushiki-kaisha Sanrio) TYO: 8136 is a Japanese company that creates a range of (mostly) design series that features charaters , and sells and licenses various products branded with these characters. These products include stationery, school supplies, gifts and accessories. Sanrio's best known character is Hello Kitty, a white cat with red bow and no mouth. Hello Kitty is one of the most successful marketing brands in the world

History

Sanrio was started by Shintaro Tsuji as the Yamanashi Silk Company in 1960, using 1 million yen in capital. The company produced a line of character merchandise around gift-giving occasions. It wasn't until 1973 that the company was officially established under the name "Sanrio." The word Sanrio comes from "san" (meaning three in Japanese) and "río" (meaning river in Spanish"). He named the company Sanrio to unify the three rivers of the world.
Besides selling their famed character goods, Sanrio also takes part in movie production and publishing. They also participate in the fast food industry, running a franchise of KFC in Saitama. They also own the rights to the Peanuts characters in Japan. Sanrio also has an animatronicsActroid android.
Sanrio is the largest greeting card manufacturer in Japan. In 2002, they began a joint business venture with the Walt Disney Company for their greeting cards.
Hello Kitty was added to the early characters of Sanrio in 1974 and was released in 1975. The popular mouthless feline has had both peaks and drops in sales over the years, but always has been the highest contributor to Sanrio's sales. Other notably popular characters through the years have been The Little Twin Stars (created by Mr. Tsuji himself), My Melody, Keroppi, Tuxedo Sam, Badtz-Maru, Tenorikuma, Usahana, Pochacco, Chococat, and Cinnamoroll. Sanrio constantly adds new characters to its lineup (up to three a year), so some of the older characters go into retirement. Some of Sanrio's newest characters are Charmmy Kitty (Hello Kitty's pet cat), Kuromi (My Melody's rival) and Chi Chai Monchan (a pink monkey who balances bananas on his head.) For a time, Osamu Tezuka's baby unicorn character Unico, who starred in two feature-length anime movies in the early 1980s, was also part of the Sanrio empire; however, the rights to Unico shifted to Tezuka's own company after Tezuka's death in 1989.
In late 2003, Sanrio won the "Top Brand with a Conscience" award from the Medinge Group of Sweden for its communication principles. The company has partnered with UNICEF since 1984.
In 2006 Sanrio went Digital with a joint venture with Typhoon Games and launched Sanrio Digtal to expand its brand and revenues through the Internet, Online Games and Mobile Services.
"The Adventure of Hello Kitty & Friends" is the first ever made Hello Kitty TV series animation in 3D. The animation is licensed by Sanrio Digital and produced by Dream Cortex. The first season with 26 episodes will premier on select networks in Europe and Asia, including Hong Kong, beginning in the first quarter of 2008. company branch called Kokoro Company, Ltd. ("Kokoro" being the Japanese word for "heart"), best known for the