Sanrio Boys (サンリオ男子,Sanrio Danshi) is a Japanese media franchise created bySanrio in November 2015. The Sanrio Boys were conceptualized as a social media project to promote merchandise for Sanrio's best-selling characters. Due to its popularity, it grew to have its own merchandise line, amanga series, a series of character drama CDs, a 2016 smartphone game foriOS andAndroid, and ananime television series byPierrot aired from January to March 2018.
The Sanrio Boys were created by Sanrio in November 2015 to promote merchandise for their best-selling characters on social media, a strategy of which has been compared toTwitter accounts run by characters fromUta no Prince-sama.[3] The Sanrio Boys originally consisted of five characters, but has since then expanded to seven.[4] The characters were so well-received that they received their own line of character merchandise starting in June 2016.[5]
Kota is a fan ofPompompurin after being given a Pompompurin plush toy by his grandmother as a child. He is embarrassed to openly admit he likes Pompompurin until he meets Yu and Shunsuke.[7]
Yu is Kota's outgoing classmate who is open about his love forMy Melody. He is popular with his classmates for his friendly and sociable personality.[8]
Yumenosuke is a fan ofHello Kitty.[14] He was first introduced as a character forMiracle Stage: Sanrio Boys at Sanrio Expo 2018.
Torao Hagura (羽倉虎男,Hagura Torao)
Torao is a friend of Yumenosuke who lovesKuromi[15] thanks to him. He was first introduced as a character forMiracle Stage: Sanrio Boys at Sanrio Expo 2018.
Tomohiro Kashiwagi (柏木智博,Kashiwagi Tomohiro)
Tomohiro is the president of the mandolin guitar club.[16] He is a fan ofPochacco. He was first introduced as a character forMiracle Stage: Sanrio Boys at Sanrio Expo 2018.
Yuzu Wakano (若野ゆず,Yuzu Wakano)
Yuzu is Tomohiro's roommate/childhood friend and a fan of Kirimi.[17] He was first introduced as a character forMiracle Stage: Sanrio Boys at Sanrio Expo 2018.
Jun Fujita (藤田潤,Fujita Jun)
Fujita is a teacher who lovesTuxedo Sam.[18] He was first introduced as a character forMiracle Stage: Sanrio Boys at Sanrio Expo 2018.
Sanrio Boys was adapted into two manga adaptations written and illustrated byMai Ando, with both manga series running concurrently.[21]Sanrio Danshi: Oretachi, Seishun, Hajimemashita (サンリオ男子～俺たち、青春、はじめました。～), which features the Sanrio Boys' daily lives, was published on the mobile appMangaONE starting April 2016.Sanrio Danshi: Oretachi, Koi, Hajimemashita (サンリオ男子～俺たち、恋、はじめました。～), which features one of the Sanrio Boys being romantically involved with a girl, was serialized in the magazineSho-Comi starting from its June 2016 issue.[22] Both were compiled into volume format and released under the titleSanrio Boys underShogakukan's Flower Comics imprint.[23]
Avisual novel styledating sim game was released ontoAndroid andiOS under the nameSanrio Danshi: Watashi, Koi wo, Shirimashita. (サンリオ男子～わたし、恋を、知りました。～) on September 13, 2016.[29] The theme song is "Fun! Fantastic Girl", produced byElements Garden and performed by the voice actors of Sanrio Boys.[30] Approximately 100,000 users downloaded the game during the first six days of release.[31]
An anime adaptation ofSanrio Boys was announced in 2017.[32] The series is directed by Masashi Kudō and written by Takashi Aoshima, and the anime production is handled byPierrot. The anime aired for 12 episodes from January 6 to March 24, 2018.[33] The series is licensed byPonycan USA in North America,[2] who are simulcasting the series onCrunchyroll.[34]
No.
Title
Original air date
1
"It All Started With Pompompurin" "Hajimari wa Pomupomupurin" (はじまりはポムポムプリン)
A stage play titledMiracle☆Stage Sanrio Boys[43] was announced at the end of episode 12 of the anime.[44] The play is directed by Masami Itō, with the script written by Shinjirō Kameda, the choreography by Tetsuharu, and the music composed by Yu.[43] The main cast consists of Naoya Kitagawa as Kōta, Hiroki Sasamori as Yū, Tsubasa Yoshizawa as Shunsuke, Yū Miyazaki as Ryō, Shinichi Wagō as Seiichiro, Kōhei Kishi as Subaru Amagaya, andJin Hiramaki as Naoki.[45][43] Five new characters created exclusively for the play were revealed at Sanrio Expo 2018.[46] The play ran from November 29 to December 9, 2018, at The Galaxy Theatre inTokyo.[43][46] The final show on December 9 was live streamed onNiconico to Japanese residents.[47] Pompompurin, My Melody, and Hello Kitty made guest appearances at alternating shows.[48]
As of April 5, 2018 the manga had 200,000 copies in print.[49]
Rebecca Silverman ofAnime News Network gave the anime series a mixed review, mentioning that while the first half of the series was well-written, the second half of the series "took a nosedive" and felt like an "overt advertisement."[50]
