My Melody (マイメロディ, Mai Merodi), frequently shortened as My Melo (マイメロ Mai Mero), is character from the Japanese characterization company Sanrio, designed by Yasuko Matsumoto, and is the main protagonist of the My Melody universe. She is a white bunny who wears a red (or pink) hood that covers her head and usually has a bow or flower on her right ear. The ears themselves are often curved down forwards. Her favorite food is almond pound cake. She was born on January 18th in the magical forest of Mariland, the home to many of her friends.
One of Sanrio's earliest known flagship characters, My Melody made her first appearance in 1975, around the same time as Hello Kitty and Little Twin Stars, and she primarily serves as the company mascot's best friend (alongside Mimmy). As suggested by her appearance, My Melody was inspired by the Little Red Riding Hood character, and was originally intended to be her version of the classic fairy tale during her debut but Sanrio has since abandoned this role in the mid-1990s (explaining why she now normally wears a pink hood rather than red). Famously known to have a pure heart, My Melody is very honest, cheerful, highly caring towards others and is extremely girly, though she can be naive or insecure at times. My Melody's other closest friends are My Sweet Piano and her doppelgänger rival Kuromi (originally an antagonist in Onegai My Melody but became close in later series such as Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures).
Similar to Hello Kitty, because the kawaii community was at its infancy in the 1970s, My Melody was an instant global hit on her debut and is arguably Sanrio's second most prominent character, making herself one of the most widely recognizable and beloved anthropomorphic characters of all-time. Although she stars her own animated shows such as Onegai My Melody (itself Kuromi's first appearance) beginning in the late 1980s, Melody is often seen alongside Kitty in merchandise and other media since their origins, suggesting them to be partner characters.
My Melody and Kuromi sharing their current respective anniversaries
As of 2025, My Melody is currently celebrating her 50th anniversary, sharing with Kuromi's own 20th.
History
My Melody's original appearance in the 1970s, known then as the "Little Red Ridding Hood"
My Melody was first introduced to the world in 1975 and the first related merchandise was produced at the end of that year as part of a Christmas promotion. At first, she mainly was marketed toward young girls, but like Hello Kitty, her popularity has greatly increased among women and men of all ages, especially in Asia.
In the late 1980s, My Melody's popularity waned, and the only items produced at the time were stationery and candy. In 1996, however, it rose again and according to a reader survey published in Strawberry News (a magazine published by Sanrio), My Melody came out amongst some of Sanrio's most popular characters and as a result, due to popular demand, standard merchandise based on the character started re-appearing beginning in February 1997 featuring the original red hood. Items with the pink hood were re-released in 1999; as of 2000, there were items released with multiple color hoods. Since then, My Melody's fame has remained steady.
On March 1, 2008, Mattel released a Barbie doll named "My Melody". The My Melody Barbie doll featured a Barbie doll inspired by the My Melody character, with the rabbit's face included in different parts of the doll's fashion and accessories. In an homage to the character's rabbit ears, the doll's hair is styled in pigtails.
On March 26, 2008, a Japanese music compilation album titled "I Love 30 – My Melody" from Tearbridge Records was released with My Melody wearing the original red hood drawn in various artwork styles by Groovisions. Rei Sakuma has been the official voice of My Melody in Japan since 1989.
My Melody has also been turned into a Pullip doll with two versions; originally released in 2008 and the latest one in 2016.
In 2014, Sanrio celebrated My Melody's 40th Anniversary by creating a special line of merchandise where she is given a different hood where her ears are dropped down and wears either a bonnet or a flower pin and sometimes depicted with eyelashes. Sanrio Puroland honored her 40th anniversary by creating an indoor ride called "My Melody Drive" where visitors are visiting Mariland and encounter My Melody and her friends including Kuromi who attempts to ruin her day.
My Melody is also seen in collaboration merchandise with other non-Sanrio series, such as one with Sailor Moon in 2017.
In 2019, My Melody became a radio DJ on TOKYO FM with a show called "My Melo Therapy" (マイメロセラピー) where she answers questions from listeners and offers advice. A book with advice from the show was released in 2022.
In 2010, The New York Times said that My Melody was "moderately successful" in terms of popularity, but shows no signs of reaching the same level of global popularity like that of Hello Kitty. In 2019 she was Sanrio's second most profitable character, after Hello Kitty herself.
Family and Friends
My Melody's younger brother Rhythm can be a little bit of a rascal, but she loves him dearly. Her mama enjoys doing crafts and loves baking cookies with her. Her gentle, strong papa must be where she gets her kind disposition. Her treasured hood was made just for her by her very knowledgeable grandma, while her grandpa loves adventures. She also has a little cousin named Littleforestfellow.
She is close friends with Flat, a blue mouse who is a bit shy, and she is typically very friendly towards her rival Kuromi, an impish rabbit resembling herself but wears a black jester's hat with a devil-like tail of the same color. My Melody's best friend, aside from Hello Kitty, is My Sweet Piano, a pink sheep who is soft, kind and girly and has some resemblance to My Melody.
Media Appearances
Animation
My Melody's first animated appearance, like most other mainline Sanrio characters released at the time, was the 1987 television series Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater, and she's notable for her own fitting episode Little Red Bunny Hood. For unknown reasons, her nose was pink (ironically like Kuromi's) and she wore a pink flower on her left. Later classic 2D animations featuring My Melody include, 1989's Sanrio Anime Festival (My Melody no Akazukin), the latter's 1994 sequel My Melody no Ookami-san ni Ki o Tsukete, and 2001's Hello Kitty's Animation Theater (Little Red Riding Hood). My Melody often plays a role as the Little Red Riding Hood in her early film appearances, where before Kuromi was first created, My Melody's enemy was a Wolf/Okami.
Onegai My Melody is a 2005 television musical anime series starring My Melody, which introduced her now-popular rival Kuromi. My Melody is sent to the human world to stop Kuromi from releasing the Dark Power with the help of her human girl partner Uta Yumeno by collecting 100 Pink Notes before Kuromi does with her 100 Black Notes. In this media, unlike her other appearances, My Melody is depicted with a particularly naive personality (much to Kuromi and Uta's dismay) and is a living stuffed animal rather than a genuine anthropomorphic rabbit. This show marks the first time My Melody can use magic, by using her personal dream object The Melody Takt to apply a sticker called a Melody Mark onto an inanimate object in order to fight against the Dark Power's magic. The Melody Mark functions differently in Kuru Kuru Shuffle and Sukkiri, where she uses cards to summon a character. Onegai My Melody included a crossover with Jewelpet and its movie Sweet Dance Princess, as a special episode Onegai My Melody: Friends and Love (Yu and Ai).
My Melody also appeared as Hello Kitty's best friend in the 3D television series The Adventures of Hello Kitty & Friends. Strangely, she is depicted as mouthless (likely in a similar style to Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel) and Kuromi never made an appearance.
In the 2020s, My Melody appears in the popular animated web series Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures as part of the main cast, and rather than being a rival of Kuromi like in other media, is her best friend, instead. She runs a shop called "Small Gift Big Smile" (a homage to Sanrio's slogan "Small business, big smile") and independently lives in a house modeled after her, implying an older age.
She also makes a major appearance in the 15th episode of Kuromi's Pretty Journey's second season ("Play Time with My Melody"), where she wanted to play with Kuromi. My Melody here is depicted as a different universe counterpart of herself in the Utopia World, where she mostly hangs out with a cute counterpart of Kuromi. She also makes a cameo appearance back in the first season via her social media post message.
In 2025, an upcoming 3D stop-motion Netflix series co-starring My Melody and Kuromi, called "My Melody & Kuromi", is announced to be streamed in July, as a joint celebration of their respective 50th and 20th anniversaries.
Video games
The earliest video games by Sanrio released on the Famicom (NES), Game Boy, Super Famicom (SNES), or Game Boy Color where My Melody does appear often depicted her as cameos and rarely a playable character, unlike a few others such as Keroppi or Pochacoo.
A video game based on Onegai My Melody was released for the Nintendo DS titled Onegai My Melody: Yume no Kuni no Daibouken (おねがいマイメロディ～夢の国の大冒険～). The game relies heavily on a feature of the Nintendo DS console which requires the player to blow air into the microphone of the unit. The player guides My Melody through timed levels by jumping and using her umbrella to float around and avoid enemies, including Kuromi, the main antagonist. The game also features unlockable content as well, such as music, images, and mini-games. This game, however, is exclusive to Japan.
In 2007, a second Japan-only game was released for the Nintendo DS, titled My Melody Angel Book ~Denshitechou & Enjoy Game~ (マイメロディエンジェルブック～電子手帳&エンジョイゲーム～). The game's primary function is as a day planner designed for young girls to keep track of appointments, class schedules, and mini diary entries.
In 2015, she made a playable guest appearance in Nintendo's Wii U game Super Mario Maker of the Mario franchise, in the form of a special Mystery Mushroom costume in the "Super Mario Bros." theme exclusively. When the player plays as her (or Hello Kitty, who also appears as a costume) and finishes a level or loses a life, the respective jingles have Hello Kitty effects. If the player presses down to crouch, she sits down, and when pressed up, she turns around in a curious manner. She is depicted with her original red hood in-game.
In 2016, she, alongside few other fellow Sanrio characters such as Hello Kitty or Badtz-Maru, made a playable guest appearance in Sega's mobile app game Sonic Dash of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, during a collaboration with a Sanrio event.
The extremely rare My Melody couch (alongside wallpaper and floor) as seen in Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
In 2021 and 2023, My Melody and several other mainline Sanrio characters made a cameo appearance in the Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp mobile game of the Animal Crossing series, again in collaboration by Nintendo with a limited-time Sanrio event called "Pocket Camp X Sanrio", as multiple available furniture, albeit expensive to purchase in-game. The couch in particular is the rarest. However, in the Pocket Camp Complete version, like other exclusive items, they are unfortunately no longer available and are only seen by players who managed to obtain them beforehand. However, it is recently discovered that by hacking the internal save data, they can still be accessed - although illegitimately, as these items remain in the game's code. Animal Crossing: New Leaf formerly featured the same furniture to unlock via Welcome amiibo, but this title is currently shut down like Pocket Camp. New Horizons, however, continues to feature Sanrio-based content.
My Melody also makes an appearance in Hello Kitty Island Adventure, where she is the one who invited her friends, including the player, to come to the tropical island to have fun together.
Music
- Annie Love - My Melody (SEB Presents Sanrio Friends; 2011)
- My Melody Birthday Song/めろめろ♡マイメロディ(2024)
- おそろいPa・Pa・Party ！(2025)
Rankings in the Sanrio Character Ranking
My Melody winning 1st place in 2014, her third and latest win yet
In the 2013 Sanrio Character Ranking, if My Melody reaches first place, she will plant flowers in Tohoku. However, she failed to win that year, only being missed by Hello Kitty in 2nd place. Throughout the decades since its founding in 1986, although My Melody didn't rank the top 10 in the 1980s due to her overall waning at the time, she became a strong contender since the late 1990s, and officially won three times so far, in 2010, 2011, and 2014. Noticeably, in 2022 to 2024, My Melody's rival Kuromi managed to surpass her rankings (as she reached 3rd place).
- 1986: To be added
- 1987: To be added
- 1988: To be added
- 1989: To be added
- 1990: To be added
- 1991: To be added
- 1992: To be added
- 1993: To be added
- 1994: To be added
- 1995: To be added
- 1996: To be added
- 1997: 5th place
- 1998: 2nd place
- 1999: 2nd place
- 2000: 2nd place
- 2001: 2nd place
- 2002: 2nd place
- 2003: 4th place
- 2004: 4th place
- 2005: 5th place
- 2006: 4th place
- 2007: 3rd place
- 2008: 2nd place
- 2009: 3rd place
- 2010: 1st place
- 2011: 1st place
- 2012: 2nd place
- 2013: 2nd place
- 2014: 1st place
- 2015: 5th place
- 2016: 3rd place
- 2017: 3rd place
- 2018: 5th place
- 2019: 4th place
- 2020: 4th place
- 2021: 4th place
- 2022: 5th place
- 2023: 6th place
- 2024: 6th place
- 2025: -- *rankings ongoing*
Official description (2001)
My Melody was born in the forest of Mari Land on January 18th, 1976. My Melody lives with her mother, grandmother and brother, Rhythm.She is honest and good-natured. Her favorite hobby is baking cookies with her mother and her favorite food is almond pound cake - which she snacks on with her best friend, a mouse named Flatto. [1]
Gallery
Trivia
- My Melody is the third original character in Sanrio's early history, only after Coro Chan and Hello Kitty.
- Although never officially stated by Sanrio, many fans of the Hello Kitty community believe My Melody to be its secondary mascot, due to her many paired appearances with Hello Kitty in and outside the franchise, being well-known as her best friend, and similar popularity.
- Although Sanrio has generally stopped depicting My Melody as Little Red Riding Hood and replaced her hood with a pink one, in terms of Hello Kitty canon, she had given her original red hood to her younger cousin Littleforestfellow.
- My Melody's name is a pun on "melody", a sequence of music notes. Of course, the Sanrio star herself is known to sing cute songs.
- Another Sanrio character, although currently retired, that is a white rabbit, named Cathy, has a slight resemblance to My Melody, and both are best friends with Hello Kitty.
- The current Japanese voice actress of My Melody, Rei Sakuma, first voiced her in 1989 for the Sanrio Anime Festival episode My Melody no Akazukin.
- Michelle Marie is one of the current English voice actresses of My Melody as of Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures. However, Marie is not shown in the credits in the English dub of the 15th episode of Kuromi's Pretty Journey's second season, so My Melody could possibly be voiced by two English voice actresses between Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures and other media like with Kuromi (in Kuromi's Pretty Journey and the web shorts) and Cinnamoroll (web shorts).
- She is also the voice of Chococat in the former show.
- Throughout Onegai My Melody, she is known for shouting "Yaaan!" commonly when frightened or hurt.
- In My Melody's older TV appearances, she is depicted with full hands.
My Melody asking God as well as the viewers for help, as seen in Onegai My Melody
- My Melody may actually be a Christian. In one episode of Onegai My Melody, when she (and soon Kuromi) desperately asks the audience to help her store more energy to make her perform a powered up version of her Melody Mark, she even asks God, first.
- She is one of the shorter characters, as she stands at a lower height than Hello Kitty.
- Although common since the late 1990s, merchandise of My Melody's pink hood existed as early as 1977.
- In rare cases, such as Hello Kitty Island Adventure, My Melody's eyes are shown with pinkish irises rather than plain black.
- The time where My Melody and Kuromi accepted to become friends before Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures is in Onegai My Melody: Friends and Love, although they're possibly accepted a friendship somewhere after events of Kuromi's Pretty Journey.
- Usually but not always, My Melody's feet have paw marks on the bottom.
- My Melody shares similarities with Cream the Rabbit from Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, as the two are cute female bunny characters who are widely known to have a princess-like personality eager to befriend anyone, dislike confrontations, and is best friends with a certain character (Cream's case being Amy Rose and Blaze the Cat).
- Although never explicitly shown on media, much like Hello Kitty with her red bow or Kuromi with her black jester's hat, My Melody does not want to be seen in public without her trademark hood.
- In one episode of Onegai My Melody, she can be seen putting on her hood off-screen.
- In Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures, specifically "My Melody's Friendship Ultra Blast!", My Melody really values neatness and can't stand messes, after she goes to great lengths to clean up the parts of her house that get messy across the episodes. In this case, she is implied to be suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
- My Melody's OCD in the episode where her notebook was accidentally ruined by Pompompurin's taco is ironically a similar situation to when My Melody accidentally tore the first page of Kuromi's Notebook (as the start of their rivalry) back in Onegai My Melody.
- While she mainly has Pipi & Popo as her stuffed animals, she has an additional one exclusive to Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures named Berry, which is a pink mouse plush that kind of resembles Flat, first appearing in the episode "Kuromi's Sleepover".
- Like some other Sanrio characters, My Melody is represented in Animal Crossing: New Leaf - Welcome Amiibo's Sanrio card pack by the normal deer villager Chelsea. She has an entire line of furniture and clothing modeled after My Melody. This exclusive furniture is also seen in Pocket Camp and New Horizons (although it's no longer available for the former two).
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Sources
- January 2016 Calendar on Sanrio.com
- January 2017 Calendar on Sanrio.com
- My Melody Character Profile on Sanrio.co.jp
- My Melody Products on Sanrio.com
- My Melody Character Goodies on Sanrio.com
- Friend of the Month: My Melody on Sanrio.com
- Friend of the Month: My Melody (blog) on Sanrio.com
- Roses and My Melody on Sanrio.co.jp
- Mariland on Sanrio.co.jp
- History of My Melody on Sanrio.co.jp
- My Melody's Family and Friends on Sanrio.co.jp
- My Melody on Wikipedia
- Littleforestfellow Profile on Sanrio.co.jp
- My Melody Ranking on SanrioCharacterRanking.com via Archive.org (2016)