Brilliant piece, the Sanrio-ization framing is spot on. The idea that Tsuji saw Snoopy's anthropomorphic shift and reverse-engineered a character-without-story model is wild but totally makes sense in hindsight. I'd never connected that Peanuts pivot to making merchandise more "universal" directly enabled the Hello Kitty playbook. The medium-as-message thing for Kitty (ubiquity becoming her narrative) is such a tight observaton. Really changes how I see those collabs everywhere now.
great article, "Sanrio-ized" is so adequate !
Good idea to mention you have a book; I didn’t know (I think?).
And what a perfect gift for the holidays! :)
Love reading your articles, I always learn something new. I’m especially fascinated by how cartoons and toys have shaped entire economies.
When it comes to American cartoons that shaped the Japanese zeitgeist, I'd rank Peanuts right alongside Popeye (which I wrote about separately a few months back) https://blog.pureinventionbook.com/p/the-most-influential-manga-in-japan
Brilliant piece, the Sanrio-ization framing is spot on. The idea that Tsuji saw Snoopy's anthropomorphic shift and reverse-engineered a character-without-story model is wild but totally makes sense in hindsight. I'd never connected that Peanuts pivot to making merchandise more "universal" directly enabled the Hello Kitty playbook. The medium-as-message thing for Kitty (ubiquity becoming her narrative) is such a tight observaton. Really changes how I see those collabs everywhere now.