The Surprisingly Fierce Competition of the Hello Kitty & Sanrio World

Nationwide Entertainment Character

2020.04.25

The internet is reeling with the thought of saying goodbye to some of their favorite characters from the Hello Kitty family.

Mario and Pikachu might have their own big fanbases, but there's no denying that Hello Kitty is one of the most popular characters to come out of Japan. But Hello Kitty was created by Sanrio, and she's certainly not the only popular character to come from the company. Check out the 2020 Sanrio Character Ranking and you'll see just how many cute creatures have come from Sanrio's hallowed halls. A total of 80 different characters (or groups of characters!) are involved in the 2020 ranking, from the famous Hello Kitty, My Melody, and Gudetama to relative unknowns.

A Fierce Competition for Lower-Ranked Charaters

The whole point of the ranking is for fans of all kinds to vote for their favorite characters, so we can see who's ranked near the top, and which characters... are a little less beloved. Certainly an intriguing project, but to make things even more interesting, Sanrio is showing no mercy for characters near the bottom of the ranks.

Any character who doesn't make the cut will receive... "a prompt notice."

This may be your first time seeing him, but this strange little friend is actually a relatively popular Sanrio character, called Hagurumanstyle (歯ぐるまんすたいる). The notice below is one he recently received on Twitter, becoming a hot topic among fans.