Some People Draw Hello Kitty Like They Hate Her Including Sanrio, and Her Design Still Works
I can't stop thinking about Hello Kitty's design and how successful it is, so I decided to write about it.
I am dumbfounded by the simplicity of Hello Kitty in everything Hello Kitty; from her values, to the color red (a primary color) permeating her palette, to her design.
Though I’ll admit that her family dynamics are a little bit confusing to me branding-wise. Why did they choose to go with a twin for an already very iconic character? in my opinion, that was a risky move, but one that proved to be successful knowing people barely know about the existence of Mimmy White (yes, that’s Hello Kitty’s identical twin sister), which according to Sanrio Wiki1, she characterizes herself for being shy, yet more polite and considerate of other anthropomorphic creatures in comparison to her sister.
Every time I drop this bomb to someone, they act just as shocked as I was when I discovered she had a twin. No one in their right mind would think to replicate iconic, and yet here we are. And I think it makes even less sense knowing Mimmy is the “perfect” one. Overall I’d say she has less of a conflictive personality. She’s quite frictionless. It’s Kitty who usually gets in trouble and needs to learn a lesson out of the mistakes she committed. But then, why make a TWIN sister at all? She looks the exact same, just with another color palette. And yet, Hello Kitty is persistent in her star power.
I'm so intrigued by her being the icon that she is while having an exact carbon copy of her at home. What adds to my Mimmy inquisitiveness, is the fact that she isn’t treated the same as the rest of the Sanrio characters. No one says their favorite Sanrio character is Hello Kitty’s twin sister. She is the Kevin Jonas of the bunch. Everybody resorts to Hello Kitty’s friends, but not her family. Even Hello Kitty herself is on the brink, as she is so basic. People like characters with something slightly different about them on their design like Kuromi, Keropi or Chococat. I’d say what happens to her is pretty similar to the case of Harry Potter. The author of the books would ask people who their favorite character was, and they would say everyone under the sun, but Harry Potter. He really is too basic of a choice and people don’t want to feel like posers. I think knowing there is such an expansive universe of Hello Kitty, leaves people feeling like they can’t pick her as the primary choice, since they would be complying with what the brand is already telling them visually at first sight. It pushes people to have some deeper knowledge about Kitty and her social dynamics.
My best guess as to why Kitty and Mimmy were not taken as a full package was because they definitely highlighted Hello Kitty more regarding her appearances and products. Whereas, when Mimmy shows up, she does so accompanied by her sister. I also think Hello Kitty reflects on the realistic imperfections a child might have. And while Mimmy offers companionship to Kitty, as well as relatability, she also offers pondering from the perspective of another child. However, I still think Mimmy’s existence is pointless and lazy at times. I think they did a better execution with Kuromi, My Melody’s doppelgänger who becomes evil because she has difficulties socializing and failing to become friends with My Melody.
In this regard, I think Sanrio either draws Hello Kitty like they hate her, or they love her so much, they try to give her the dignity she deserves as a character by expanding her universe, and consequently, the love and kindness she gives is reflected on an increasing amount of anthropomorphic creatures, regardless of whether they look like her or not. Aside from doing this simply because they can monetize her image, I lean towards the idea that she is a very respected character that deserves to be fully fleshed out. Nevertheless, the idea of Sanrio hating HK persists on my mind.
But not only Sanrio hates Kitty’s guts. She is hated by the public as well. She’s scrutinized for her basicness and worst of all, people think she’s easy to draw (worst insult, yet a true accomplishment in design, especially for a character). The inconsistencies on her being drawn by random people on different items is truly hilarious but I’m sure it would deflate her spirits if she had any consciousness, as people fuck her up in immeasurable ways.
Take a look at this nails, for example:
The public knows this is objectively terrible, And yet, we know Hello Kitty is THAT bitch. Her appearance is not to be played with. She knows she’s not the one, nor the two. This is no Mimmy. This has HK written all over. A little bit fucked up, yes. But you recognize her after all, in her inherent Hello Kittyness. Mimmy WISHES she could be drawn at all.
Let’s take a look at this overly confident manifestation of a Hello Kitty cake, that still somehow manages to look like Hello Kitty:
People insist on giving deconstructions of this character, yet her star power impedes her from being known as anything else other than Hello Kitty.
Even when the public resorts to having her look like she spawned from hell, she is still, remarkably recognizable.
I guess this is the true achievement in Hello Kitty’s design. My girl is about to develop body dysmorphia after this, and yet, she is still recognized. Sanrio gives her such consistency on her design, people could make all the alterations they want, and yet her essence will always remain intact. And I think that’s what people take from it. Just like Picasso did for El Toro. He kept extracting items from a bull, for the bare essence to be exposed. Yet, it was the same bull.
He demanded it. And I think that’s what we command from Hello Kitty too. Her essence is so distinct, it doesn’t really matter how many alterations she gets. The true accomplishment is for multiple people to take a design that permeates the collective in such massive ways, and warp it, and still have it be recognizable in the most unimaginable ways. Makes sense. You don’t spell IT without Hello Kitty.
Hello Kitty Wiki. (s.f.). Mimmy. Fandom. https://hellokitty.fandom.com/wiki/Mimmy