IT HAS NO fingers, toes or mouth. Its face is expressionless, betraying no emotions of its own. When thoughts do occur, they're usually no more profound than what to have for breakfast. In fact, it doesn't do much of anything, and yet millions of women of all ages - and even the odd fella - are rendered helpless by it.
It, or rather, she, can be anything to anyone; and this alone seems to be the reason why Hello Kitty will celebrate '30 years of cute' on November 1. Supplying half of Japanese toymaker Sanrio's US$1billion annual turnover, Kitty has achieved iconic status on a global scale: pretty good for something that basically amounts to two dots, a bunch of black lines and a ribbon. Even Mr Pringles has more whiskers than she does.
There are other famous doodles with greater presence, of course - but the likes of Mickey Mouse, Snoopy and Garfield all have comic strips and movies building their personalities.
Kitty, on the other hand, has always exuded a Zen-like mystery, therefore remaining an open book. Or rather, an open notepad. Or a pencil case. Or a toaster, credit cards, underpants, bras, T-shirts, sweatshirts, socks, shoes, hairpins, brushes, combs, sanitary towels, jewellery, computers, automobiles and on certain, ahem, 'unofficial' websites, sex toys. Last year, Tokyo even unleashed a special Hello Kitty taxi complete with Hello Kitty seats, blankets and umbrellas to pacify kids on traumatic trips to the dentist. Or something.
'It's hard for us to say what makes her so popular,' says Sanrio Hong Kong's deputy general manager in marketing, Hiroaki Nishino. 'The one unique feature of Hello Kitty is that she doesn't have a mouth. Because of that, when you are happy she can be seen to look happy. When you are depressed she looks depressed, too. She reflects how you feel.'
Whereas Disney creates in-your-face characters that sing and dance themselves into our collective consciousness, Kitty is a cute mute who exists to absorb your emotions like a sponge. Thirty years, 22,000 different products on shelves and all we know is what we were told on day one: she was born in London on November 1, 1974, weighs the same as three apples and, despite the lack of digits and mouth, likes playing the the piano and baking cakes.