In an article I came across on boingboing I came across this imagery,whereas Musti was designed a few years prior to Kitty apparently. The original source blog quoted the following:
Kitty’s design was just a crib from this!!!
This is “Musti” created by the Belgian animator/director Ray Goossens (1924-1998). Musti was started as an animation series on TV in 1968, and its picture books were also published. I read some of that books and loved it in my childhood.
There were a variety of the usual naysayers and claims made how Hello Kitty was a rip-off etc. etc. of course some of them claimed that Musti was a rip off of Miffy by Dick Bruna.
The resemblance is rather uncanny, but often people will create a big story for sensationalist reasons. Sure, Musti and Kitty have some similarities, but the very original Hello Kitty design looked like this:
Compared to the above image, doesn’t strike me as “close”. Could the original artist have been inspired by the design of Musti (or Miffy). Maybe, it’s not unheard of but there is such a thing as the court of law, and if indeed Musti had a serious chance in claiming the copyright they would have done so already.
Infact, Musti and Miffy are far closer, given the X for a mouth, and the overall design qualities. The fact that Kitty-chan has no mouth is now almost a trademark legend (why does she now have one anyway?). Besides, I think that Kitty-chan is much much cuter (and adult in design) than both Musti and Miffy, Musti has a decidedly jagged kindergarden look intentionally crooked to resemble the image of the drawings of a very young child or toddler. Their target audience is also very different.
To conclude, in the compounds of art and design, I think Kitty-chan is original creation in my view, what do you think?
July 10th, 2007 at 6:45 am
I grew up with Miffy or as we Dutch call it: Nijntje. My boyfriend always teases me with miffy versus HK and I see the similairities, but HK is way better and in no way to be compared with HK!
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July 10th, 2007 at 7:20 am
[…] more about the facts on Musti, Miffy, and Hello Kitty’s creation in Ying Dong’s blog. Her entry made me think about this rumor again, and I couldn’t believe it’s still a hot topic. […]
July 15th, 2007 at 12:28 am
Hi Megamisan, I have a Nijntje too!
My dutch friend bought it for me from Holland. I dont know if the rip-off part is true, maybe it is, but we dont care, right? I mean, so what if it is. Look at HK, she is so famous now! And Musti who? That’s what they called a good rip-off, if it is in the first place. And maybe Musti is also a rip-off of Nijntje. In any case, they are all very quiet babes.
I have never heard of Musti before reading this post, but from the picture she does look a bit like HK, but less mysterious. She needs to be groomed before she can get famous.
July 15th, 2007 at 1:58 am
the way I see it, we all have nose, eyes and in some cases mouth (kitty doesn’t), arms and legs. Why is one more popular than the other? Kitty is sweeter, nicer, cuter, prettier and maybe even has a better personality? Who knows but that’s no reason to cry wolf.
January 15th, 2008 at 1:29 am
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article How original is Hello Kitty?, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
June 12th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Well, maybe switch a light on before comparing those two drawings
Hello Kitty is very much a clear rip-off of Nijntje. Com’on. You sound like a lawyer stating the “differences” Look at the resemblances… Big black lines, primary colours, 2d style, I asked 4 kids (age 4, 6, 8 and 9) which looked alike the most: I put 12 cartoon images on my screen which were alike (donald duck, tintin from herge, asterix, Hello Kitty, Nijntje, Wallace, Lucky Luke and Pikachu). I showed them separately to the kids so they couldn’t influence eachother. ALL FOUR OF THEM POINTED TOWARDS HK AND NIJNTJE. And face it: Nijntje was a well known hit for 12 years in japan before HK so it’s NOT coincidence. You might say copying is flattery but it’s just thievery in this part of the legal world. But I guess copying in Japanese culture i maybe more accepted or even preferred since the Japanese system doesn’t support individual expression as a virtue per se and is a traditionally more a “for the collective good” oriented society . A westener like me would say: give the stolen Hello Kitty profits to a good cause and clear your Karma, which is a great eastern concept by the way (which we love to copy) ;)))
June 18th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
I’m not a lawyer, but I don’t agree with your “western superior” view claiming that Japanese are copycats or “our part of the world” are thieves. I don’t know about innovation in the “western part” of the world but I don’t over here japanese, korean and chinese goods and brands is all we use, and I’d say are in most part superior to “western” product.
How can you say TinTin and Hello Kitty are alike? That’s like comparing apples and oranges, by that token one could say Miffy was a ripp off of the Make Neko, that’s equally outrageous. If you compare the characters you placed out there, of course they will pick them out, but the styles are not the same.
And speaking of stolen profits, the Dutch have a lot to answer for with their history of the Dutch East India company, what are they doing to clear their karma?
June 22nd, 2008 at 5:18 am
Nonono, people believe that Miffy ripped off Musti. Musti was created much earlier than Miffy was!
December 24th, 2008 at 10:08 am
I would not know if something would be ripped of, but honestly, I don’t really care. I’m dutch so… We have Nijntje/Miffy. (btw Nijntje/Miffy, Musti and hello kitty are all female) Kids won’t see that easily the similarities. If they want a Hello Kitty shirt, they will HAVE a hello kitty shirt.
The meaning of those drawings were entertaining people, especially little kids, and it works. So why make a big deal about it for as it doesn’t attract the goal?