Hello Kitty is a fictional character created by the Japanese company Sanrio. Despite being a simplistic drawing of a cat, Hello Kitty makes the company over a billion dollars a year, has several TV shows and video games and was implicated in a murder.

Hello Kitty was created in 1974 by Japanese company Sanrio, who are also responsible for characters like chococat, cinnamoroll, little twin stars and my melody. Hello Kitty appears on all forms of merchandise, from clothing, mobile phone decorations, staplers, shoes, handbags, wallets, pencil cases, diaper bags, guitars and even an airplane – the Hello Kitty sky bus.

The Sanrio characters have their own theme park in Tokyo, Japan: Sanrio Puroland. This indoor attraction has rides, activities and restaurants themed around these cute characters and of course, a massive gift shop.

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Image via Wikipedia

Hello Kitty has starred in several TV shows, including Hello Kitty’s Furry Tale Theatre (1986), Hello Kitty and Friends (1991), Hello Kitty’s Paradise (1993-94) and Hello Kitty’s Stump Village (2005). Hello Kitty’s video games include everything from Hello Kitty’s Big Fun Piano to Mainichi Suteki! Hello Kitty No Life Kit for Nintendo DS.

Hello Kitty has her own restaurant in Taipei, which serves food resembling or shaped like Hello Kitty. She also has… Wait for it… A hospital. Hello Kitty is featured on the nurses’ uniforms, blankets and walls in an attempt to ease the stress of childbirth.

So I said before that Hello Kitty was implicated in a murder, which may have been a little misleading for those of you who thought I was accusing a 2 dimensional cat with no mouth of being a murder suspect. In 1999 in Hong Kong, the Hello Kitty murder took place, in which a young woman was killed and dismembered, with some parts of her ending up inside a Hello Kitty plushie. Yeesh, right?

Image via Wikipedia

So Hello Kitty truly is a cultural institution and has been adopted into the hearts of young children and strange adults (me) all around the world. She has come to mean a lot of different things to different people, and has even recently been adopted into the gothic community for some reason and is sometimes seen wearing gothic lolita outfits. After all, nothing says ‘badass’ like a kitty.

One last thing – Hello Kitty doesn’t have a mouth because she speaks from her heart in all the languages of the world. Just in case you were wondering ^_^