The characters subsequently appeared in media such as books, animation and video games.

Typical merchandise featuring the characters include clothing, accessories, toys and stationery. Sanrio began creating characters to increase sales of its merchandise. Most Sanrio characters are anthropomorphized animals, a few are humans or anthropomorphized objects. Their most successful and best known character, Hello Kitty, was created in 1974. Sanrio sells and licenses products branded with these characters and has created over 450 characters. This is a list of characters from Sanrio, a Japanese company specialized in creating kawaii (cute) characters. Various Sanrio characters, from left to right, top to bottom: Bad Badtz-Maru, My Melody, Cinnamoroll, Charmmykitty, Hello Kitty, Usahana, Shinkansen, Keroppi, Pochacco, Little Twin Stars, Pompompurin, Corocorokuririn, Minna no Tabo