"Gross" characters are proliferating in a country known for kawaii, and now even local governments' mascots are trying to out-weird one another. Long considered the global capital of cute, Japan is ...

Hello Kitty turns 50 on Friday. Befitting a pop icon at midlife, the bubble-headed, bow-wearing character’s fictional birthday has brought museum exhibits, a theme park spectacle and a national tour.

From Sanrio characters to starry-eyed idol singers, it’s no secret that kawaii (“cute”) culture is huge in Japan. Whole museums and theme parks have been dedicated to the concept of kawaii. Heck, it’s ...

Over on question-and-answer website Quora, someone posted a very simple question: Which is the cutest cartoon character ever created? The answers from Quora members cover a broad spectrum, some more ...

It’s hard to tell at first glance, but Hello Kitty is…well, she’s a lot of things. A mouthless blob. Not a cat, nor Japanese—she’s a girl from the leafy London suburbs, a perpetual third grader, five ...

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or ...

You may be familiar with the Japanese concept kawaii (the culture of ‘cuteness’), but have you heard of kimo-kawaii? Roughly translated as ‘creepy-cute’ or ‘gross-cute’, the kimo-kawaii phenomenon ...