At 35, Hello Kitty's Got Guts, And We Like It

Hello Kitty, most recently famed for Lady Gaga's creepy couture iteration of the her visage, is being re-imagined once again.

Providing that you have not been living in a cave for the last three-and-a-half decades, you are probably familiar with Hello Kitty's incredibly simple but highly recognizable style. This famous feline, designed by Ikuko Shimizu, was first introduced in Japan in 1974 by the company Sanrio, and in the intervening 35 years, she's been featured as and on just about every product imaginable and is now worth more than $1 billion in sales a year.

Dr. Romanelli, Sanrio, and Medicom Toy have recently teamed up to create the ultra-most-awesome-special Hello Kitty anatomy toy, and, of course, even her guts are cute as a button:

Each of her internal organs wears a bow. The severity of her awesomeness kills me.

Why this pleases me so much I don't know, but I can guess that having this sweet icon burned into my brain for the majority of my life might have something to do with it. My mind pretty much tosses up its zombie arms and dumbly growls FOLLOW KITTY, and I'm okay with that.

That's high quality brainwashing at work, people.

In case you have been under a rock for the last 35 years, here is a visual sampling of Hello Kitty's pervasiveness:

Toasters, bathroom accessories, dog costumes, keyboard cleaners, houses, exhaust pipes, underwear, cellphones, and Stratocasters barely even scratch the surface of what her fans have found to attach her image to. At 35, Hello Kitty is finally baring it all, right down to to her little bow-bedecked liver, and no one's complaining.

Comments

[Adam P. Knave]

I need one of those RIGHT NOW. No. Seriously. Where can I get one. Need. NEED!

[iambellaluna]

Hello Kitty rocks. I totally want that doll with bow-wearing organs. They are cute!

[Palinode]

I have asked you repeatedly to stop posting pictures of me in my Hello Kitty underwear. I'm very shy about my tight buttocks and muscular V-shaped torso.

[fridita]

MUST. HAVE. NOOOOOOW!!!!

[Nat]

Poor, exploited Palinode.

[typicalquirk]

This is when I wish I was still in Japan. Those are so cute!!!!

[JennC]

WANT.

[diamondcait]

Don't just want. NEED! Where can we gets such a wondrous thing?

[Katya]

My favorite incarnation of Hello Kitty is her likeness on the bajillion cell phone charms that are popular in Japan. See her pose as a bowl of ramen, a Buddhist pilgrim, local specialty sweets and more! My favorite is Hello Kitty sitting in the lap of the Great Buddha: http://i1.ebayimg.com/02/i/000/89/02/03bf_2.JPG

I have it on my phone! <3 Kawaiiiiiiii!!!!

[Kim]

For about 5 years, while it still worked, we had a Hello Kitty microwave in our house, and I had to KEEP EXPLAINING over and over that my boyfriend is incredibly pragmatic, and wanted to purchase the smallest and cheapest microwave he could, and did not care that said microwave was pink and wearing a bow.

NO ONE BELIEVED ME! I did not buy that goddamned microwave.

Oh, and it attracts other pink bowed things, like a milkshake maker. Gift givers of the world, just because one has a single pink bowed thing in their house, does not mean the owners automatically want more.

[Marie]

Although I don't have any Hello Kitty in my house, I confess I WANT one. Unbearably, insensibly cute. This is my brain on Hello Kitty

[Angela]

My little sister (at 24) is still into HelloKitty. And she was the one to tell me there are HK vibrators out there.

Did not want to know.

But maybe now that I've passed that visual on to others it will leave my brain.