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Upper Deck Licenses Hello Kitty Trading Card Game (Updated)
posted on by Egan Loo
The ICv2 retail news source reports that Upper Deck has licensed the rights to produce a Hello Kitty collectible game starting next March. The trading card game will feature collectible miniatures and stickers based on Sanrio's famous feline mascot character. There are three product releases planned for next year.
Hello Kitty celebrates her 35th anniversary this November with a "Three Apples" exhibition at the Royal/T café and art space in Los Angeles. More than 80 artists will display works inspired by Hello Kitty from October 23 to November 15.
Hello Kitty has been animated several times over the years, and veteran Japanese voice actress Megumi Hayashibara (Ranma ½'s female Ranma, Evangelion's Rei) has played her in almost all of them. ADV Films released English-dubbed versions of some of the videos. There is a new 3D animation series called The Adventures of Hello Kitty & Friends that has been running in several countries around the world since last year, but not in Japan and North America. Hello Kitty's stablemate Cinnamon (Cinnamoroll in English) opened his own Cinnamon the Movie anime in 2007, and Sanrio premiered the third Sugar Bunnies anime series, Sugar Bunnies Fleur, this past April.
The Hello Kitty Online massively multi-player online role-playing game is available in many countries except for Japan itself. The Zhejiang Daily newspapers and other Chinese media sources reported in June that a Hello Kitty theme park has been proposed for construction in Huzhou, a city on the east coast of China. Sanrio is also attempting to expand beyond its traditional female audience by selling Hello Kitty apparel to men in Japan.
Image © 1976-2008 Sanrio Co., Ltd.
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