Hello Kitty Island Adventure’s unhinged plot is just a glimpse of Sanrio’s insanity 

The Sanrio character open-world adventure game Hello Kitty Island Adventure just released for Apple Arcade on July 28, and users who already had a chance to start off their island adventures were all taken aback by the game’s unhinged plot, not expecting the opening scene to have them evacuating from an airplane disaster. On the other hand, the surreal elements seen in the game may be just a fragment of what the company is otherwise capable of. 

Hello Kitty Island Adventure was created in collaboration between developer Sunblink and Sanrio, the company behind well-known Japanese characters such as Hello Kitty, Gudetama, My Melody, Cinnamoroll and many others. Aside from character goods, Sanrio also publishes media such as anime and video games featuring their characters. The new Hello Kitty Island adventure, referred to by fans as a crossover between Animal Crossing and Hello Kitty, has the player design their own cute avatar and join the Sanrio characters in a “cozy adventure,” exploring a mysterious island and interacting with Hello Kitty and friends. 

However, as calm and wholesome as it may sound, the game seems to be laced with a fair dose of chaos, as players were able to notice at the very start of the game. In the opening scene of the story, the player hops onto a plane together with the other characters, heading towards their vacation resort. But suddenly, the oven Hello Kitty was using to bake cakes (yes, on the plane) malfunctions, causing an endless barrage of cakes to come flying out, splattering onto passengers faces and resulting in severe turbulence on the plane. Hello Kitty then decides to instruct the passengers to jump out of the moving plane while holding five party balloons each, as that is apparently the only thing that can be done in such a situation. 

Users also pointed out other surreal details such as being reprimanded for disturbing the sleep of characters sitting with their eyes wide open, and there was even a report of the character Kuromi unfortunately going MIA after the evacuation. 

At the same time, many users were not surprised by the chaotic vibes of the game in the least, merely thinking “good old Sanrio” as they recall the company’s previous media endeavors, many of which far exceed the glimpse of insanity displayed in Hello Kitty Island Adventure. 

Some examples would be Sanrio’s chaotic comedy anime titles Onegai My Melody and Jewelpet Sunshine, the latter of which is known as “the Gintama for girls” or “the Cromartie High School for girls.” The anime tells the story of Jewelpets and human girls who attend an academy together with random animals such as a goat, gorilla, crocodile and a mosquito.  

Though the anime’s target audience was female children of the time, it is rich with slapstick poop and fart jokes and references to media obscure to young girls such as Hokuto no Ken. The story of the series is also scandalously unhinged, featuring a love triangle between two human teens (who later turn out to be twins) and a rabbit. 

It seems that while consistently coming out with cute and wholesome character designs, Sanrio have maintained a taste for lacing their content with significant amounts of madness, which has no doubt contributed to how memorable their trademarks are. With a turbulent opening scene like that, it’s hard not to be captivated by the expectation of what’s going to happen next in Hello Kitty Island Adventure. The cute and innocent Hello Kitty causing a plane disaster by baking cakes on board and then telling passengers to jump out of the aircraft’s door is the kind of gap people can’t get enough of.