Hello Kitty is not a cat – at least that’s what Sanrio expects people to believe.
Despite the fact that the cartoon cat has whiskers and pointy cat ears, Hello Kitty is allegedly a walking, talking two-legged little girl “with a heart of gold” who lives in England with her parents and twin sister Mimmy, according to her backstory on the official fan site, SanrioTown.com.
Her favorite color is red, she is a Scorpio and her hobbies include jamming out to her favorite music, eating cookies and her mom’s apple pies, collecting cute things, playing the piano and making new friends.
The news shocked many who had believed that if is looks like a cat, is called Kitty, then it must be a cat.
“Hello Kitty is a cat. She has whiskers and a cat nose. Girls don’t look like that. Stop this nonsense,” singer Josh Groban tweeted Wednesday.
“I like how something that is OBVIOUSLY a cat in not only the way it looks but its name, “is not a cat.” #SMDH #HelloKitty,” user @mebclowd09 fumed.
“So confusing. How can she not be a cat? #HelloKitty,” tweeted Filipina TV host, Bianca Gonzalez.
“OK, so Hello Kitty is not a kitty! She is a girl with whiskers and cat ears?! #feelingconfused #hellokittyisnotacat #HelloKitty,” wrote Cynthia Maglio.
When Kitty’s designer, Sanrio, read Yano’s script for the show, the company urged her to make the major correction.
“Hello Kitty is not a cat,” Yano said she was told by Sanrio. “She’s a cartoon character. She is a little girl. She is a friend. But she is not a cat.”
“She’s never depicted on all fours,” she added. “She walks and sits like a two-legged creature. She does have a pet cat of her own, however, and it’s called Charmmy Kitty.”
Others who were also baffled over the announcement chose to take the comedic route and publicly ridiculed and disputed Sanrio’s claims.
“We can confirm, Snoopy IS a dog,” the Peanuts company quipped on twitter.
“If hello kitty is a person then I am a cat,” wrote Alison Stevenson.
“I mean, if Hello Kitty isn’t really a cat…I’m honestly starting to wonder about Dr. Dre’s credentials,” @NotKennyRogers tweeted.
“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world that Hello Kitty was a cat,” wrote Jody Hauser.
Yano, who penned the book “Pink Globalization: Hello Kitty’s Trek Across the Pacific,” has been carefully examining hundreds of objects related to Hello Kitty for an upcoming exhibit at the Japanese American National Museum.
But after talking with Sanrio, the visiting Harvard professor quickly learned the truth about the legendary misconception.
“She’s a perpetual third-grader,” she told the LA Times. “She lives outside of London. A lot of people don’t know the story and a lot don’t care.”
Despite the initial shock, Yano thought the notion that everyone’s favorite feline is a farce was something that wasn’t too surprising.
“It’s interesting because Hello Kitty emerged in the 1970s, when the Japanese and Japanese women were into Britain,” she said. “They loved the idea of Britain. It represented the quintessential idealized childhood, almost like a white picket fence.”
“So the biography was created exactly for the tastes of that time,” she added.
The “Hello! Exploring the Supercute World of Hello Kitty” exhibit opens Oct. 11 at the Japanese National Museum.
“It’s about reconnecting her to this community,” she said. “It gives the whole thing a certain poignancy and power.”