Interest
Hello Kitty Transforms Into Strawberry Superhero Ichigoman
posted on by Egan Loo
Sanrio has transformed its most famous mascot Hello Kitty into Ichigoman, a superhero with strawberry ears. Ichigoman made her (or arguably, his) Tokyo debut at the Kiddyland toy and character goods store in the trendy Harajuku district on Sunday.
Hello Kitty transforms into Ichigoman to fight the "monsters" born from wicked hearts. Yuko Yamaguchi, the original designer of Hello Kitty, featured Ichigoman in an exhibition of her artwork that began last year, and the superhero's popularity grew from there.
The superhero already boasts an entire line of character goods — from plush figures and compact mirrors to iPhone cases and chewing tablets.
Yamaguchi joined Ichigoman during the Sunday event for photo ops and autograph signings. The Mainichi Shimbun paper's Mantan Web site posted a photo gallery from the event.
A separate Kitty Robot Exhibition with a charity auction will run in Tokyo's Omotesando Hills complex from August 12 to August 19. Yamaguchi enticed fans to come to that exhibition by revealing that Ichigoman will appear there, too.
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Source: Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web
Images © Sanrio
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