This is like everywhere..

The story of Hello Kitty rediscovering its japanese roots (even though she is an english girl according to her bio)  but the most interesting quote is that Sanrio themselves don’t seem to know why Kitty is so popular…wooot?

Even for Japanese fans, Hello Kitty, associated initially with elementary school-age girls, is wooing newcomers, with boxer shorts with glittery cat designs targeting young men and lingerie with cat-inspired lacing for adult women.

“We have to keep changing so people won’t get bored,” Sanrio manager Kazuo Tohmatsu said. “Ideas we would have thought out of the question 20 years ago are perfectly fine today.”

Sanrio officials acknowledge they don’t know for sure why Hello Kitty has proved so popular. But the absence of the mouth, a key feature for reading emotions, is believed to be one reason, allowing onlookers to add their own interpretations to the character.