Hello Kitty and Friends: Hello World #1 Review

Hello Kitty is a beloved worldwide icon, as adorable and inescapable as Mickey Mouse or Pikachu. At the same time, Hello Kitty has always been a mysterious figure to me. Even before I saw TV shows for Aggretsuko, and My Melody, and Kuromi, I could understand their role and their audience. Retsuko is an overworked red panda who gets her frustration out by belting metal songs at karaoke after she leaves the office. My Melody is a sweet-natured bunny who loves baking treats for her friends. There’s more to these characters, but it’s relatively easy to summarize their core character traits, and what niche they fill. 

Hello Kitty transcends niches; she predates and encompasses them all. She is the ur-mascot, pure primordial Sanrio essence. Hello Kitty is everything for everyone. Every time I learn something new about her, I feel like I know less. 

Hello Kitty has a twin sister named Mimmy. Hello Kitty is her nickname, but her real name is also Kitty. Hello Kitty was born in the suburbs of London. Hello Kitty is a trained French chef. Hello Kitty has a pet cat named Charmmy Kitty. Hello Kitty is officially not a real cat. Hello Kitty is a cartoon of a girl that looks like a cat, which is different from being a cat, because her cat is a cat. Hello Kitty is five apples tall. Hello Kitty is Godzilla. Hello Kitty is not actually a trained French chef, and I was misinformed by someone. Hello Kitty did actually learn to make macarons under the guidance of world-famous patissier Pierre Hermé in Paris, so you can see where they misunderstood. 

Hello Kitty is an approachable but enigmatic icon; known by all, but simultaneously, unknowable. That leaves Hello Kitty: Hello World with the difficult job of introducing Hello Kitty to a new generation of children, to their parents, and to people like me who are just curious to know what this is all about. 

This comic makes that tall task look easy. When I opened the book, the very first page was immediately and overwhelmingly charming. The iconic character designs are simple enough that a young child could draw them well, but the feeling of cozy warmth radiating from every page is the result of meticulous craftsmanship. 

Artist Cody Lemieux renders this world with a fuzzy line, reminiscent of a crayon, rendering every hard edge soft. Even the panel borders have this almost naturalistic line quality, and the borders are all rounded at the edges, which is a small touch, but does a lot to convey the feeling of the world of Hello Kitty. The bright and bold colors of many characters are balanced out by the quaint pastels of the world, and everything feels delightful. 

I honestly wasn’t expecting this comic to be worth five dollars to a grade schooler, but there are so many little details in the objects and decor peppered throughout each home, I have to admit any kid with a Hello Kitty hyperfixation would be delighted to thumb back-and-forth through this comic. And with how approachable the character designs are, they will probably end up doodling a ton of the designs they see here. 

Sure, if a kid is interested in this comic, they’ve probably got some Hello Kitty merch already, but they don’t have great reference images of all of the little faces and activities that bring the characters to life. (In terms of inspiration for little artists, Google images and pausing YouTube videos can’t hold a candle to a comic panel drawn by a professional.) 

Also, the two-page map of Friend Town is fuel for all sorts of adventures kids can have playing make-believe, and for the right kid, that’s worth the price of admission alone. It’s these little touches that really make the comic feel like something that gets its audience.

Hello Kitty and Friends: Hello World offers a peek into the daily lives of the residents of Friend Town, and that kind of thing can be really great fuel for a kid’s imagination. It’s not all centered on the title character, either. Hello Kitty is telling the story, but this comic really lives up to the & Friends in its title, with plenty of cameos and several other mascots getting whole scenes. 

I think I would have many “oh hey! I’m glad that guy is here!” moments, given how few of them I know by name, but I was pleasantly surprised several times. I mean, I’ve only ever owned one piece of Sanrio merchandise, and that character is the focus of several pages here! I didn’t expect to feel so much nostalgia for a frog whose face I had as a pillow at age 3, but here we are. 

If there is a weakness of Hello Kitty and Friends: Hello World, I would say it’s the double-edged nature of how simple it is. No, I don’t mean the art — despite the simple character designs, I wouldn’t call the visuals remotely minimalist.  

In fact, this comic is entirely willing to spend a full page showing one big image of the interior of Cinnamoroll’s bakery, or Hello Kitty’s podcast recording studio. (Yes, Hello Kitty has a podcast.) It’s a priority for this story to establish the vibe by showing tangible spaces, full to the gills with little details that anchor the characters living there. 

This visual vibe-curation has a higher priority than moving the plot forward. I think this is a good thing, but your mileage may vary.

Hello Kitty and Friends: Hello World is trying to be accessible and entertaining to children who are new to reading on their own, and to deliver a fun and compelling story for older readers and parents along for the ride. It succeeds at the first part, but because the characters are so straightforward and sincere with everything they say, it can feel a little surface-level. It’s not vapid or shallow, but there aren’t tons of hidden depths either. What you see is what you get.

I think that this story will have much more going on by the time a collected edition is available, but the kid-friendly vocabulary and easy-going pace limit what the story can achieve with 20 pages. In comics, space is time, so taking it slow and establishing the vibe takes up the whole issue. 

Mariko Tamaki is an award-winning (and very talented) writer, and her time writing Batman and friends in various corners of Gotham City gives me plenty of confidence that the little mystery teased at the end of issue #1 will quickly turn into a fun ride for readers of all ages. As it stands, the plot is essentially only introduced on the last page, leaving the entire rest of the book as set-up.

And that’s okay! There’s no need to hit the ground running with a complex plot or layered dialogue here. Because it focuses so well on introducing the inhabitants of Friend Town, issue #1 is a great first taste of what’s to come, and should satisfy many readers. 

But if you are expecting this comic to hit with the kind of shock and awe like the first episodes of the excellent stop-motion My Melody and Kuromi Netflix show, you might find yourself a little disappointed. Even so, the first episode of that show is a far cry from how clever and exciting and genuinely touching the show got by its last episode. It couldn’t get there without building on what came before. In short: let this team cook, because I smell something good coming from the kitchen. 

Only you can decide if single issues or the collected paperback is the right one for you (or the kid you’re thinking of giving this comic). But for me personally, I think that issue #1 is relentlessly delightful in its own right, and has laid a great foundation for what is to come. While Hello Kitty herself remains a bit of a mystery to me, seeing the way she cares about all her friends makes me happy to be along for the ride.