Kawaii — a Japanese word roughly translating to “cuteness” — has seeded the world with Japan’s viral-friendly aesthetic. And, at least in the U.S., it dates back to when Pokémon first aired on TV sets worldwide, in the late 90s. However, going even further back to the 1970s, we also saw the birth of one of the most enduring cultural exports — and kawaii icons — of the East Asian island nation: Hello Kitty.

On August 25, Japanese legacy brand Sanrio — best known for characters like Aggretsuko, and of course, Hello Kitty — are teaming up with RECUR to send the cartoon cat on “a journey around the world” and into Web3, according to a recent press release. Kicking off this virtual world tour is the launch of the Hello Kitty and Friends NFT collection, featuring 10,000 PFP NFTs of Hello Kitty and five of her friends.

Enhancing the Hello Kitty fan experience

RECUR is no stranger to providing longtime fans of legacy franchises with NFT-driven experiences. In fact, the Hello Kitty announcement comes just days after the launch of RECUR’s partnered collection with Nickelodeon. While the Nickelodeon collection banked on the collective nostalgia of the NFT community to great success, the Hello Kitty and Friends collection hopes to appeal to a different, latent desire amongst Hello Kitty’s fans worldwide: adventure.

That’s the whole idea behind this jet-setting project. Functionally, Hello Kitty and her friends will be virtual tour guides in the forthcoming collection, as it’s set to feature locales from eight different cities worldwide. Two of those cities will be exclusive to RECUR pass holders. Of course, holders of NFTs from this collection are invited to join and potentially collect even more unique digital collectibles by completing various challenges TBA as Hello Kitty and her friends make their way through the entire Hello Kitty World.

Interested users can track the cities featured in this globetrotting collection via RECUR’s official Twitter account, which will share more information on the project as we approach the launch date.

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