THE NEW CUTENESS MANIFESTO:

I hate to admit it, but Sanrio has really been sucking lately. Sucking a furry little stuffed penis, with all its corporate might. . they keep their best characters out of print (hangyodon, tuxedo sam, pekkle, marron cream) and instead foist upon us these hideous, waaaaaay too campy monstrosities like Pinki-lili and Ayankey. And what's up with that little space bunny with balloon ears?? Jesus! I'm not saying this to be anti-sanrio. I'm a HUGE fan, as anyone who has ever written to my email account (eviloverlord at hellokitty dot com) can attest. Or if they've met me. Or been upwind. So, if even I am getting all hinkley on them, you can bet they're really messing up. .

I'm saying it right now in public: sanrio overlords, ignore me at your peril!! This is no empty threat. No, I'm not going to personally go down to their headquarters and sandblast off my tattoos in a bloody protest . . .. no, it's no threat, it's a WARNING. As bitter as I am with KittyCorp, I'm trying in my own cranky way to let them know: there's barbarians at the gates. Legions of fluffy, brightly-colored, stuffed barbarians. While the fat-cats at sanrio, san-x, and other big toy companies have been resting on their laurels like decadent Ceasars, bajillions of hobbyists have been laboring in the darkness,working out of love and inspiration, not money or focus groups . . . creating a whole generation of new characters that are more diverse, as well as cuter, and AT THE SAME TIME MORE FRIGHTENING than a million pinki-lilis (well, maybe not more frightening).

At DESIGN FIESTA there's TONS of new, up-and-coming characters that are waaay better, and if Sanrio doesn't start to shape up, (or at least totally co-opt the indies guys), they will get STEAMROLLED by octopus-pandas, stuffed condoms, turd-boys, and bleeding nurse-bunnies.

I'm just saying.

Anyway, in the weeks to come, TOKYO DAMAGE REPORT is going to introduce you to a small fraction of the brilliant new characters. I'll try to tell you as much as I can about the creators, and where you can buy the toys, and generally try to hype these indies guys to the point where Sanrio has to become cool again or perish.

Furthermore, BOOYAA.

to read more about the cute characters, go here to see the characters....

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