Hello Kitty is an irresistibly cute little feline that has become a symbol of Japan and Japanese pop culture. Spawning movies, TV shows, cutesy school supplies, and fashionable clothing, the Hello Kitty franchise is dominant not only in Japan, but in other developed countries like the United States and Europe.
Asahi Production, the Tokyo-based anime studio that created Hello Kitty, has announced development of a new production studio in Miyagi’s Shiraishi City next year, in April. The plus-side(s) about this is that new employees will have to be employed, thus creating more revenue for Shiraishi City, more job opportunities for the people of Shiraishi City, and more anime series that’s completely kawaii.
Their first venture? Musubi-maru. Asahi President Munehara Yamaura stated at a Thursday press conference that the amount of people willing to work in the anime industry has been dwindling. This new studio was created partially for the hope that young entrepreneurs seeking to find jobs and enjoy their work in the anime industry would be able to do so. The studio will employ 30 people, maximum, from the area.
Miyagi prefecture’s government agreed to pitch in approximately 17,000,000 yen (about $200,000 in USD) from its job creation fund. (Which just goes to demonstrate the trouble the US is in; they probably wouldn’t give a dime to a project as this, simply because they can’t. The US government’s job creation plan is too large-scaled that they wouldn’t give notice about the seemingly futile attempts of an animation studio.)
Musubi-Maru is the prefectural mascot of Miyagi, and anime episodes and commercials will be created at Asahi’s latest studio. As the name implies, Musubi-Maru is a musubi, or onigiri, or moreover, his head is a musubi or onigiri. Musubi-Maru will sport several different traditional Japanese costumes, like the crescent symboled samurai helmet which was worn by Date Masamune, the medieval warlord of northern Japan. Musubi-Maru is already a famous character among the inhabitants of Miyagi. He usually reveals himself at public events ranging from anime conventions to grand openings. So of course he’ll be there when the studio opens. Heck, he might even be on site, helping in the construction of his studio!
I don’t know about you, but I’m rather anxious about this series, seeing as I’m a huge history buff. If Japan’s medieval times, which were one of the best eras in the world, are depicted and portrayed in a cutesy-esque way, by a human-like onigiri no less, I’m all for it. Plus, I just love spam musubi and onigiri!
