Analysts say part of the problem is that Sanrio has oversold Hello Kitty, which appears on products as various as T-shirts, toilet paper and toasters. Sanrio was recently forced to write off the 500 million yen in debt held by Harmony Land, one of its two character theme parks in Japan, after a falloff in visitors, although the park remains open.

分析家認(rèn)為，導(dǎo)致目前困難局面的原因之一就是Sanrio對(duì)Hello Kitty的“過(guò)度開(kāi)發(fā)”，像是T恤、廁紙乃至多士爐等產(chǎn)品都屢見(jiàn)不鮮。Sanrio公司最近被迫要消除Hello Kitty和諧樂(lè)園的5億日元的債務(wù)，盡管依舊保持公園開(kāi)放。和諧樂(lè)園是日本最大的兩個(gè)卡通主題樂(lè)園之一，但近來(lái)游客量已經(jīng)減少。

“Sanrio was initially very careful in making sure the Hello Kitty phenomenon didn’t get out of hand,” said Naohiro Shichijo, an associate professor in creative industries at the Waseda Institute for Advanced Studies in Tokyo. “That’s the unspoken rule of the character business: you can’t let a character get too wildly popular all at once,” he said. “You want to go for longevity.”

早稻田高級(jí)研究所的副教授七丈直弘（NaohiroShichijo）一直從事創(chuàng)造性產(chǎn)業(yè)的研究，他指出：“Sanrio一開(kāi)始非常謹(jǐn)慎，以確保Hello Kitty的市場(chǎng)效應(yīng)在自己控制范圍內(nèi)。這也是卡通行業(yè)的一種潛規(guī)則：要想一種卡通形象長(zhǎng)盛不衰，就不能讓它一下子太過(guò)大紅大紫。”