AnimeVice reports on a deal between Becks and Sanrio for Hello Kitty beer and I have to say I just love the concept. Kitty on the label looks as blissed out as my neko (cat) when she’s napping off a nice dose of catnip.
I doubt if you’ll be able to find Hello Kitty beer in the U.S., however. Despite adult women adopting Hello Kitty and other of Sanrio’s kawaii characters on handbags and the like, it seems that here we still equate cartoon characters with children. How it surprised me when I first went to Tokyo and found that conservative businesses like banks used childish characters in their marketing campaigns and no one seemed to bat an eye. Young men carried backpacks with appliques of sweet duckies and bunnies their girlfriends had sewed on and no one doubted anyone’s masculinity. Actually, it was kind of refreshing.
But even more of a shock was seeing the easy access to cigarettes, alcohol and pornography via vending machines. Anyone with correct change could partake, under age or not. Something else you won’t see any time soon in the U.S.
This reminds me of what happened to me in a hotel room in Japan. Traveling as a female alone, I wondered what "porno films" looked like. I was in a wild mood that day, I guess. Somehow I figured out how to rent one for the TV in my room. I watched it, but . . . wait! They fuzzed out all the naughty bits!!
ReplyDeleteYes, they are famous for that!
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