Coro Chan (コロちゃん, Koro-chan; also romanized as "Colo Chan") is a character from the Japanese company Sanrio. He is an easygoing brown bear that has brown fur and circular yellow croquettes on his cheeks (rumor has it he eats them when he's hungry). He lives in the town of Windermere in the north of England. Coro was designed by Yuko Shimizu, who is the creator of Hello Kitty, the company's mascot.
Coro Chan is officially recognized by Sanrio as their oldest known character among the company's massive lineup; he debuted in 1973, predating even Hello Kitty by a year. He was commonly paired with "Little Honey", a precursor to Cathy; some late 1990s merchandise also shows him alongside "Daisy". Due to legal issues surrounding Cathy and she is retired since 2011, Coro is now used as a solo character.
Despite being the foundation of Sanrio's multi-billiondollar success, in stark contrast to Hello Kitty or its other earliest characters released shortly after such as My Melody or Little Twin Stars (both in 1975), although not technically retired, Coro Chan himself is unsuccessful and very rarely appears in any official media or merchandise, therefore forgotten among the Hello Kitty community. Today, some fans wished Coro to return though his design is criticized for appearing somewhat "ugly" in comparison to the more well-known characters.
Rankings in the Sanrio Character Ranking[]
In the 2013 Sanrio Character Ranking, if his rank falls down, Coro Chan will change his face. Since 2011, his rankings had become rather low, and as of today, Coro Chan is not participating in the official character ranking.
- From 1986 to 2009, he was below top 10.
- 2010: Below top 20.
- 2011: 83rd place
- 2012: 69th place
- 2013: 69th place
- 2014: Below top 20 (12th place in Group D)
- 2015: 94th place
- No participations from 2016 to 2020.
- 2021: 74th place
- No participations since 2022.
Trivia[]
- While Sanrio officially credits Coro Chan as the company's first original character, Little Honey's debut seems to have been roughly-concurrent with Coro Chan. Known pieces of Little Honey merchandise feature Sanrio's logo design from 1970 to 1973,[1] indicating that both characters were created no later than that point.[2]
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