Everyone, chill out. Hello Kitty is a cat. Well, at least a “personification” of one.
Intense reaction to the revelation that Sanrio’s iconic character may not be a cat at all was settled Thursday with a statement from the Japanese company.
“Hello Kitty was done in the motif of a cat. It’s going too far to say that Hello Kitty is not a cat. Hello Kitty is a personification of a cat,” a Sanrio spokesperson told video game-focused website Kotaku.
Hello Kitty is a "motif" of a cat, y'all
Basically, Hello Kitty is a anthropomorphized cat with familiar human features and characteristics including bipedalism, opposable thumbs, and a willingness to wear pink jumpers.
But despite the fact that those are definitely whiskers on her face and cat ears atop her head, many people unravelled at the idea of her being something other than a cat.
Singer Josh Groban even tried to calm everyone down.
But a Sanrio statement obtained by HuffPost Canada painted a playful portrait of a non-human girl, with very human interests, who millions have come to love:
As tall as five apples, and as heavy as three, Hello Kitty is a bright girl with a heart of gold. She loves to bake cookies and play the piano, and dreams of one day becoming a pianist or maybe even a poet. She has a gift for music and English, and a soft spot for Mama's apple pie. Hello Kitty and her twin sister Mimmy are the best of friends.
And so the Hello Kitty legend continues.
Oh, Hello Kitty. How are you to enjoy cookies with no mouth?
The Great Hello Kitty Existential Crisis Of 2014 began on Thursday after the Los Angeles Times reported that the beloved character is not a cat.
According to cultural anthropologist Dr. Christine Yano, she was corrected “very firmly” by Hello Kitty's parent company after she described the character as a cat in her upcoming exhibit at L.A.'s Japanese American National Museum.
“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 told the newspaper.
In a statement promoting her upcoming exhibit, Yano also acknowledged Hello Kitty's reputation as one built on “omigod” public reactions to kooky product launches ranging from oversized pillows, to toasters, to maternity ward partnerships.
Nurses check on newborns, at the Hello Kitty-designed maternity ward, at the Hau Sheng hospital in the southern Taiwan city of Chunghua in 2009. (AP Photo/Wally Santana)
So let's just see this not-a-cat scare as the latest WTF reaction in Hello Kitty's long “omigod” history. Hello Kitty is indisputably a cat. Just like how Mickey and Minnie are mice, Piglet a pig, and Daffy Duck a crafty, anthropomorphic black duck.
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