/jp/ - Otaku Culture

The Japanese concept of kyara and the "total work of art" in the otaku subculture: multimedia franchise, merchandise, fan labor (2014) by Ana Matilde Sousa

(scroll down to read): h ttp://www.academia.edu/25995604/The_Japanese_concept_of_kyara_and_the_total_work_of_art_in_the_otaku_subculture_multimedia_franchise_merchandise_fan_labor

>Created in 1975 by the Japanese "fancy goods" company Sanrio, Hello Kitty is a quintessential kyara, existing outside any narrative context: a corporate, post-authorial creation (she is, basically, a saccharine rip-off of Dick Bruna's Miffy) designed with the sole purpose of increasing the company's sales in the wake of Japan's fever of cuteness.