On July 26th, AKB48 members Sashihara Rino, Kitahara Rie, Minegishi Minami, Kasai Tomomi, and Takajou Aki attended a product launch event for “AKB48 x Hello Kitty” at Sanrio Puroland.

As tokyohive reported earlier, AKB48 collaborated with Hello Kitty for a brand new line of products called, “AKB48 x Hello Kitty”. The new series was designed after AKB48’s stage costumes, and comes in three different versions: A, K, and B.


While holding the collaboration goods in her hands, Kitahara excitedly commented, “I’m happy to be able to collaborate with Kitty-chan, who is loved by people all around the world. For us, this is a step forward to the world. We want to become cute like Kitty-chan.”


“I’m running out of the word cute. Kitty-chan is a ’senpai’ to idols. I want to study this cuteness,” said Minegishi, showing her aspiration of becoming like Hello Kitty. While Kasai stated, “Kitty-chan is really cute. Even her movements are cute; I want to learn from her.”

When the group was asked what other Sanrio character they would like to collaborate with, Takajou answered, “If possible, I really like Kiki and Lala, so I would like to collaborate with them.” Sashihara also responded, “I like Hangyodon the most.”

The first 12 items of the “AKB48 x Hello Kitty” series was released in advance during the event at Sanrio Puroland. It will be generally released in the beginning of August.

Check out photos from the event below!








source: tokyohive