Sanrio is also being usurped by smaller, nimbler rivals. The formerly little-known stationery maker San-X has scored two huge hits in Japan with its panda character, Tarepanda, and its bear, Rilakkuma — which has charged up the Character Databank charts, ranking fifth in the latest survey.

而且Sanrio還面對著來自小公司的競爭。San-X之前只是個默默無名的文具生產(chǎn)商，但是最近他們推出的兩個新卡通形象大受追捧，這便是趴趴熊（Tarepanda）和輕松小熊（Rilakkuma），其中輕松小熊在CharacterDatabank公布的調(diào)查中名列最受歡迎卡通形象第五位。

“The character business is basically a wide-open field,” Hikaru Takayama, chief executive of Fanworks, an animation and character consultancy here, said at a recent convention of the Tokyo Contents Market. “It all comes down to management.”

日本角色設(shè)定工作室（Fanworks）是一個制作并提供咨詢意見的卡通形象公司，其首席執(zhí)行官高山光（Hikaru Takayama）在東京Contents Market最近的一次會議上說：“卡通人物市場其實是一個非常開放的領(lǐng)域，它的成功與否歸根結(jié)底取決于如何管理。”

“Going forward, perhaps smaller companies will be quicker to come out with new ideas,” Mr. Takayama said. “Characters can develop into manga, anime, potentially a big business,” he said, referring to the popular Japanese comic book and animation art forms.

“這樣的話，也許小規(guī)模的企業(yè)能更快的醞釀出新的點子，”高山先生以日本風(fēng)靡的漫畫書和動畫產(chǎn)業(yè)為例，說，“卡通形象可以通過漫畫、動畫來塑造，這是一個存在著巨大潛力的市場。”