Anime production company Studio Comet has filed a moral rights infringement lawsuit against the mascot company Sanrio (best known for Hello Kitty). The dispute centers on Kuromi, a highly popular white rabbit character with a punky edge.
Sanrio’s mascot characters like Hello Kitty are well known all over the world for their cute charm, adorning everything from bags, keychains and guitars, and appearing in various collaborations and media (including anime and games). Sanrio has a roster of over 400 mascot characters- in addition to its in-house creations like Hello Kitty, it also owns the global rights to Mr. Men and the rights to Snoopy in Japan.
However, a dispute has broken out regarding moral rights relating to Kuromi (as reported by Daily Shincho). Sporting a slightly “edgier” personality, Kuromi debuted in 2005 as the punky goth counterpart to Sanrio’s sweet and fluffy rabbit character My Melody.
Moral rights infringement refers to actions that disrespect the integrity of an original work. Therefore, the dispute over Kuromi goes back to her creation. In the 00s, Studio Comet was commissioned to make an anime featuring Sanrio’s My Melody. The resulting anime, Onegai My Melody, aired from 2005 to 2008. Studio Comet’s president Hiromichi Mogaki says that Sanrio only provided them with sketches of My Melody, and that it was the animation staff at Studio Comet who came up with other characters, including My Melody’s rival Kuromi.
According to Daily Shincho’s report, Kurumi’s character design was created by Tomoko Miyagawa, an animator working for Studio Comet. Her name appeared on the credits for the Onegai My Melody anime series under character design.
“In fact, Kuromi is a character designed by an animator belonging to our company,” explains Mogaki, quoted in the Daily Shincho. “What the animator created is the copyrighted work of our company, to which she belongs. However, Sanrio is now saying that someone else created the character. The only thing that you can find on current Kuromi merchandise is a tag that reads ‘Original creator, manufacturer: Sanrio.’”
An informant in the article named “A,” who worked at Studio Comet at the time, alleges that the studio came up with far more than just the designs of characters like Kuromi. They argue that Studio Comet staff brainstormed names before settling on Kuromi, and many more things including characters’ personalities, settings, storylines and worldbuilding. This reflects a quote from Mogaki, who claims that “All Sanrio brought with them was the My Melody character, and at the time, there was no worldview or setting. I’m proud that we came up with the worldview for My Melody out of that situation.”
However, Sanrio released a book in 2023 called The Secrets of Kuromi (Kuromi no Himitsu), which stated that Kuromi was created by Hello Kitty designer Hiroko Yamaguchi, with no mention of Studio Comet or Tomoko Miyagawa. The case between Sanrio and Studio Comet is currently ongoing.
