Hello Kitty maker Sanrio cancels collaboration with controversial Japanese series VIVANT, says it wasn’t informed of storyline beforehand  

Sanrio, the company behind beloved mascot characters like Hello Kitty and Kuromi, recently provided additional clarification regarding the cancellation of its collaboration with the popular Japanese TV series VIVANT. The company says that it was not aware of the storyline that would unfold in the show’s second season prior to its airing, as reported by Pinsuba News. 

VIVANT is a spy thriller live-action television series that premiered in 2023, with a second season currently airing. The story follows an elite Japanese intelligence officer belonging to a secret national organization called Beppan as he confronts international crime and terrorist organizations. While the first season largely centered on a fictional country neighboring Mongolia, the second season has recently come under fire due to the way it depicts Chinese people and the members of a fictional antagonistic Chinese intelligence service called Xinxi. 

Around October 25, Chinese state-run broadcaster CCTV openly criticized the show. This came after a particularly graphic episode which depicted Chinese agents torturing and killing abducted Japanese agents, including cutting off their fingers. A female agent is implied to have been sexually assaulted off-screen. As Business Insider reports, CCTV asserted that the torture scenes bore “a striking resemblance” to the atrocities once committed by the Imperial Japanese Army against Chinese people, arguing that the TV series was effectively reversing the roles of perpetrator and victim and portraying China as a unilateral threat. 

From there, criticism spread among media and social networks, and the Chinese branch of Sanrio soon came under scrutiny for its collaboration with VIVANT (such as selling as merchandise depicting the show’s characters). In response, Sanrio China announced on October 28 that it would cancel the collaboration, and on the next day, the company’s HQ in Japan likewise stated that it would cancel any ongoing and future projects related to VIVANT. Sanrio determined that the show was not compliant with its corporate philosophy. 

In a follow-up statement to Pinsuba News, a Sanrio representative clarified that the company was only involved in planning collaboration content between Sanrio mascots and VIVANT characters appearing in the show’s first season. The company was not involved in production of the series itself, and was not privy to the storyline prior to its airing. When asked whether Sanrio would have declined the collaboration if it had been aware of the content of the second season, specifically the torture scenes, the representative commented, “We have determined that the content includes expressions that are inconsistent with our corporate philosophy of “Minna Nakayoku (Getting Along Together)”, as well as the values of ‘kindness’ and ‘connection’ that we have long championed through our characters.” 

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