Yesterday, the world was shocked to hear the the ever popular Japanese character Hello Kitty was not, in fact, a cat, as many had assumed.
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This was revealed by Christine Yano, an anthropologist who is organizing an exhibition for Hello Kitty’s 40th Anniversary.
“I was corrected — very firmly,” Yano told the Los Angeles Times. “That’s one correction Sanrio made for my script for the show. Hello Kitty is not a cat. She’s a cartoon character. She is a little girl. She is a friend. But she is not a cat. She’s never depicted on all fours. She walks and sits like a two-legged creature. She does have a pet cat of her own, however, and it’s called Charmmy Kitty.”
Sanrio is now claiming that what Yano said is not entirely accurate. Kotaku reached out to the company for clarification on their statement.
“Hello Kitty was done in the motif of a cat,” a spokesperson for Sanrio said. “It’s going too far to say that Hello Kitty is not a cat. Hello Kitty is a personification of a cat.”
The Kotaku article goes on to specify that the spokesperson described Hello Kitty with the japense word “gijinka,” which translates to “personification.” It’s the same word they would use to describe Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck in order to differentiate them as animals given human characteristics (walk upright, have jobs, speak a language), versus Pluto or Tom & Jerry, who behave like actual animals (have an owner, no language skills).
In other words, Hello Kitty isn’t a cat or a person. She’s a make believe cartoon character.
Hopefully this helps reinstate a sense of balance to the world.
