The Strawberry News (いちご新聞, Ichigo Shinbun) is a Japan-only print media publication from Sanrio. It is a monthly magazine that started in March 1975 and continues to be printed today.
Lyrica was also a short-lived counterpart to Strawberry News for comics, such as of the character Unico. During the mid-late 1970s, it was common for Sanrio to feature characters from other people/companies until they had a sizeable number of characters now considered to be iconic of Sanrio Co., Ltd. like Patty & Jimmy, My Melody, the Little Twin Stars and Hello Kitty.
Aside from the magazine containing latest news from the company, it contains many different articles of interest such as crafts, fan art, and answering fan mail. The Strawberry News is also notable for it's contests, where readers (Officially referred to as Strawberry Mates) could send in mail that would determine official character names and even have a chance at receiving exclusive merchandise, at times even signed by Sanrio character creators.
There have been many free gifts released with copies of The Strawberry News, sometimes unofficially resold.
Although The Strawberry News hasn't been officially sold outside of Japan, an English-language magazine by the name of A La Mode was put out by Sanrio in the 90s but soon discontinued.
Articles[]
- Do It Yourself - A section of the magazine that provided it's readers with crafts and recipes.
- Chitty Chatty Strawberry - Sanrio characters respond to fan letters and talk about a variety of topics. Sometimes this section is preceded by a comic as seen in CCS articles hosted by Badtz-Maru.
- Comics - This section isn't present in every issue, but comics are printed somewhat regularly. Characters such as Sayuri of Hangyodon fame went on to have their own comic series in the magazine. MINNA NO TABO had over 100 five panel strips printed in total.
- Fan Art - Art submitted by the readers, sometimes there were art contests.
- Creators - In older issues, the creators of many Sanrio characters such as Hisato Inoue and Yuko Yamaguchi made appearances in the papers whether it was photos showcasing a recent event they were spotted at, pictures of them working at Sanrio, or showing their face along with their character when they won at a certain spot in the annual polls.
- Character Popularity Poll - This is an annual poll conducted by Sanrio and the results are posted in the magazine. Although the Character Popularity Poll is also conducted in other regions like North America, only the Japan poll results are published in the Strawberry News. Dachonosuke and his girlfriend Dachomi act as hosts for the polls.
- Merchandise Listings - The latest Sanrio merch are showcased with prices.
Covers[]
Assorted Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Because of appearing in a past article in an 80s issue, Goropikadon received thousands of letters from readers that would help make them official. Readers also chose their names and submitted recolored designs later on.
- Certain characters such as The Duckbill News/Kamonyohashi Series have mainly only been seen in the magazine and got a very small amount of merchandise released of them, making them relatively unknown outside of The Strawberry News otherwise.
- Characters that have been officially named through The Strawberry News:
- Kiki and Lala of Little Twin Stars.
- My Sweet Piano in 2005
- Goro, Pika, and Don of Goropikadon.
- Chukichi of Nezumikozou.
- Elf of Vaudeville Duo.
- The head editor of the magazine, Miss Junko, is a skilled songwriter and singer. She has written various songs for Sanrio such as "Pochacco" and a theme song for Nezumikozou titled "I am Mouse Boy/ Our Idol Girl Okiku."
- Even though the magazine is normally in Japanese, very few issues from the 70s have been printed in English.