is a Japanese media franchise created by

Sanrio is a Japanese entertainment company. It designs, licenses, and produces products focusing on the ''kawaii'' ("cute") segment of Japanese popular culture. Their products include stationery, school supplies, gifts, and accessories which are sold ...

in November 2015. The Sanrio Boys were conceptualized as a social media project to promote merchandise for Sanrio's best-selling characters. Due to its popularity, it grew to have its own merchandise line, a

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

series, a series of character drama CDs, a 2016 smartphone game for

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

and Android, and an

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television series by

Pierrot Pierrot ( , , ) is a stock character of pantomime and '' commedia dell'arte'', whose origins are in the late seventeenth-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the Comédie-Italienne. The name is a diminutive of ''P ...

aired from January to March 2018.

Background

The Sanrio Boys were created by Sanrio in November 2015 to promote merchandise for their best-selling characters on social media, a strategy of which has been compared to

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

accounts run by characters from ''

Uta no Prince-sama is a Japanese multimedia franchise by Broccoli. The original game of the same name was first released on the PlayStation Portable on June 24, 2010, and since its release, the game has spawned multiple sequels and rhythm game spin-offs. The ser ...

''. The Sanrio Boys originally consisted of five characters, but has since then expanded to seven. The characters were so well-received that they received their own line of character merchandise starting in June 2016.

Characters

Sanrio Boys

; : :Kota is a fan of

Pompompurin This is a list of characters from Sanrio, a Japanese company specialized in creating kawaii (cute) characters. Sanrio sells and licenses products branded with these characters and has created over 450 characters. Their most successful and best kno ...

and was given a plush toy from his grandmother as a child. He is embarrassed to openly admit he likes Pompompurin until he meets Yu and Shunsuke. ; : :Yu is Kota's outgoing classmate who is open about his love for My Melody. He is popular with his classmates for his friendly and sociable personality. ; : :Shunsuke is the ace striker of the soccer team and a fan of

Hello Kitty , also known by her full name , is a fictional Character (arts), character created by Yuko Shimizu, currently designed by Yuko Yamaguchi, and owned by the Japanese company Sanrio. Sanrio depicts Hello Kitty as an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphi ...

, who he refers to with respect. He has a serious and stoic personality. ; : :Ryo is a shy and beautiful first year student who likes Kiki and Lala from

Little Twin Stars This is a list of characters from Sanrio, a Japanese company specialized in creating kawaii (cute) characters. Sanrio sells and licenses products branded with these characters and has created over 450 characters. Their most successful and best kno ...

. ; : :Seiichiro is the president of the student council and a member of the archery team. He loves

Cinnamoroll is a character series created by Sanrio in 2001, with character designs from Miyuki Okumura. The main character, Cinnamoroll, is a white puppy with chubby cheeks and long ears, blue eyes, pink cheeks, and a tail that resembles a cinnamon rol ...

. ; : :Subaru is a wannabe delinquent who loves

Badtz-Maru This is a list of characters from Sanrio, a Japanese company specialized in creating kawaii (cute) characters. Sanrio sells and licenses products branded with these characters and has created over 450 characters. Their most successful and best kno ...

. He was introduced in April 2017. ; : :Naoki is a biology teacher who loves

Keroppi This is a list of characters from Sanrio, a Japanese company specialized in creating kawaii (cute) characters. Sanrio sells and licenses products branded with these characters and has created over 450 characters. Their most successful and best kno ...

. He was introduced in April 2017.

Kansai Sanrio Boys

; :Yumenosuke is a fan of

. He was first introduced as a character for ''Miracle Stage: Sanrio Boys'' at Sanrio Expo 2018. ; :Torao is a friend of Yumenosuke who loves

Kuromi This is a list of characters from Sanrio, a Japanese company specialized in creating kawaii (cute) characters. Sanrio sells and licenses products branded with these characters and has created over 450 characters. Their most successful and best kno ...

. thanks to him. He was first introduced as a character for ''Miracle Stage: Sanrio Boys'' at Sanrio Expo 2018. ; :Tomohiro is the president of the mandolin guitar club. He is a fan of Pochacco. He was first introduced as a character for ''Miracle Stage: Sanrio Boys'' at Sanrio Expo 2018. ; :Yuzu is Tomohiro's roommate/childhood friend and a fan of Kirimi. He was first introduced as a character for ''Miracle Stage: Sanrio Boys'' at Sanrio Expo 2018. ; :Fujita is a teacher who loves Tuxedo Sam. He was first introduced as a character for ''Miracle Stage: Sanrio Boys'' at Sanrio Expo 2018.

Secondary characters

; : :Yuri is Yū's younger sister and is in middle school. She has a strained relationship with him, and disapproves of him liking My Melody. ; : ; : ; :

Media

Manga

''Sanrio Boys'' was adapted into two manga adaptations written and illustrated by Mai Ando, with both manga series running concurrently. , which features the Sanrio Boys' daily lives, was published on the mobile app ''MangaONE'' starting April 2016. , which features one of the Sanrio Boys being romantically involved with a girl, was serialized in the magazine ''

Sho-Comi , formerly published under its full name until December 2007, is a ''shōjo'' manga magazine published semimonthly in Japan by Shogakukan since 1968. The manga featured in ''Sho-Comi'' are later compiled and published in book form (''tankōbon' ...

'' starting from its June 2016 issue. Both were compiled into volume format and released under the title ''Sanrio Boys'' under

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, comics (manga), non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the Hit ...

's Flower Comics imprint.

Game

visual novel A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...

style

dating sim Dating sims, or , are video game subgenre of simulation games with romantic elements. Dating sims are often dialog-heavy and focus on time management. The player must befriend and carefully build and maintain a relationship with one or more ...

game was released onto Android and

under the name on September 13, 2016. The theme song is "Fun! Fantastic Girl", produced by

Elements Garden Elements Garden is a Japanese group of music composers, or a "music production brand" as they call themselves. They generally produce music for video games, anime and recording artists. They are attached to Aria Entertainment. The group was form ...

and performed by the voice actors of Sanrio Boys. Approximately 100,000 users downloaded the game during the first six days of release.

Anime

An anime adaptation of ''Sanrio Boys'' was announced in the fifth issue of the 2017 edition of

's ''

'' magazine. The series is directed by Masashi Kudō and written by Takashi Aoshima, and the anime production is handled by

. The anime aired Japan from January 6 to March 24, 2018. The series is licensed by Ponycan USA in North America, who are simulcasting the series on

Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Sony through a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex. The service primarily distributes films and tel ...

. The anime has 12 episodes.

Stage play

A stage play titled ''Miracle☆Stage Sanrio Boys'' was announced at the end of episode 12 of the anime. The play is directed by Masami Itō, with the script written by Shinjirō Kameda, the choreography by Tetsuharu, and the music composed by Yu. The main cast consists of Naoya Kitagawa as Kōta, Hiroki Sasamori as Yū, Tsubasa Yoshizawa as Shunsuke, Yū Miyazaki as Ryō, Shinichi Wagō as Seiichiro, Kōhei Kishi as Subaru Amagaya, and

Jin Hiramaki is a Japanese actor, singer, and model who was last affiliated with Oscar Promotion. He played the role of Tokacchi (ToQ 2gou) in the 2014 38th entry Super Sentai TV series '' Ressha Sentai ToQger''. In 2007, with Hidemasa Shiozawa and Koki K ...

as Naoki. Five new characters created exclusively for the play were revealed at Sanrio Expo 2018. The play ran from November 29 to December 9, 2018, at The Galaxy Theatre in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. The final show on December 9 was live streamed on Niconico to Japanese residents. Pompompurin, My Melody, and Hello Kitty made guest appearances at alternating shows.

Reception

As of April 5, 2018 the manga had 200,000 copies in print. Rebecca Silverman of ''

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and oth ...

'' gave the anime series a mixed review, mentioning that while the first half of the series was well-written, the second half of the series "took a nosedive" and felt like an "overt advertisement."

References

External links

Official website

Official website (game)

Official website (anime)
* {{Authority control Comedy anime and manga Crunchyroll anime Mass media franchises Pierrot (company) Sanrio Shogakukan manga Shōjo manga Slice of life anime and manga