cathy: the sanrio bunny wrongly accused of being a miffy copy
a misunderstood icon, dead at the hands of miffy.
Welcome to soft grunge, the cutest newsletter you’ll ever read. Here, you’ll get all my commentary on the most pressing topics of kawaii culture.
By now, we all know and love Miffy. After being created by Dutch artist Dick Bruna in 1955, Miffy has been reborn as a 21st century TikTok celebrity and Urban Outfitters collectible. If you’re into “trinkets” (as Gen Z sometimes likes to calls them), you’re most likely into Miffy too. And, for good reason—but, why is Miffy so widely loved and what bunnies did she have to beat out to get where she is today? If you’re an OG Sanrio lover like I am, you might recognize one of Miffy’s biggest opps: Cathy. While Sanrio completely abandoned Cathy in 2011, it’s hard not to imagine a world in which she and Miffy could’ve coexisted.
Miffy is iconic for so many reasons, from her rich world that consists only five colors: retro orange, golden yellow, tree green, ocean and licorice, to her countless children’s books—it makes sense that Miffy is as big as she is. She might hang on your favorite purse or make an appearance on your Depop feed, but you won’t see Miffy gracing Gyaru-inspired collections or leopard print purses like the other Sanrio girls. And that’s because Miffy (although she was lovingly adopted by members of the Asian diaspora) is nothing like a Sanrio character. And even though the TikTok girlies might dress her up in non canonical pink coquette bows—Miffy knows who she is and she’s certainly not that.
On the other hand, Sanrio characters don’t always have the privilege of being as fully fleshed out and curated as Miffy is. Sure, huge favorites like My Melody and Kuromi have whole personalities, zodiac signs, family trees, and universes—but that’s not exactly typical. With over 450 characters and counting, it’s safe to say not all Sanrio characters get the My Melody/Kuromi treatment. Rather, most Sanrio characters are like Cathy, lesser-known and more of an accessory to the bigger characters. In Cathy’s case, the big character Hello Kitty. As a child, I loved the smaller characters as much I did the big ones. (One of my favorites was actually Tracy a raccoon friend originally from the Hello Kitty movies.) So imagine my dismay when Cathy was killed off, forever.
cathy? daisy? who is this white bunny bitch and where did she go?
Personally, I’ve always had an affinity for bunny characters. So, when I was gifted tons of Hello Kitty pencil cases and mugs for my 6th birthday, I couldn’t help but grow obsessed with the little bunny that Kitty often posed with. In the 2000s, I knew Daisy as Hello Kitty’s tiny bunny friend. Simultaneously, I frequented Hello Kitty Island DVDs rented from my local Hollywood Video—in those, I stumbled across another white bunny: Cathy. Like Daisy, Cathy is part of Hello Kitty’s circle and serves as a supporting character in the films. Although separate, Daisy and Cathy are both victims to Miffy-gate—so I have to group them together.
With that many characters, of course Sanrio is going to create multiple bunnies. But, where Sanrio went wrong is when they refused to create individual identities for Daisy and Cathy, other than being associated with miss Kitty herself. While Cathy was created before My Melody (in 1973, which means she technically predates My Melody and Hello Kitty), and Daisy was released in 1998 (ugh RIP Gen Z legend)—they didn’t have anything defining like My Melody’s red hood to set them apart. As a result of this, Cathy and her bunny successors were met with a lawsuit issued by Dick Bruna.
In 2010, Mercis Media alleged that Cathy was a blatant copy of Miffy. And after the case went to court, Sanrio was officially ordered to cease use of Cathy. So just like tons of other Sanrio characters we’ll never see boast a Miniso display in Times Square, Cathy fell into obscurity. In fact, post-2011 Cathy’s role in the Hello Kitty films was completely eliminated and replaced with less controversial side characters. Although I was well into 6th grade by the time she was wiped off the face of the earth, I can’t help but feel sad that one of my childhood icons will never be reborn as a TikTok it girl, like Miffy.
rip cathy 1973-2011, gone but never forgotten
I’m no legal expert, but I can’t help but feel like the axing of Cathy was entirely unnecessary. Characters like Miffy and Cathy are simple in nature, I mean all they really consist of is two dots for eyes and a squiggle (or X) for a mouth, so of course there might be some coincidental similarities. My main gripe is that Cathy is everything Miffy isn’t—she wears a pink bow in her hair and is merely a vehicle for Hello Kitty and Mimmy’s storyline—and yet, she was still wrongfully killed off for simply resembling Miffy.
I mean… has Miffy ever been voiced by Cate Blanchett? Didn’t think so.
I’ll never hold a grudge towards Dick Bruna (RIP goat) or Miffy for what happened to Cathy. I can kind of understand from a business perspective why her existence might’ve put Miffy at risk—but that doesn’t mean I’m still not sad about it. My Melody will always be one of my favorite Sanrio characters, and if I get a peek of her with her hood off, I’ll lower my chin in remembrance of Cathy and Daisy.
gome but never forgotten 🥺