Cozy game enthusiasts with a Sanrio obsession got lucky this summer with the launch of the Apple Arcade-exclusive mobile RPG, Hello Kitty Island Adventure, developed by Sunblink. This Animal Crossing: New Horizons successor begins with you, the player, jumping out of a crashing plane alongside Sanrio favorites Hello Kitty, My Melody, Keroppi, Pochacco, and others after an in-flight cake-baking experiment goes wrong. You land on a tropical island populated with tiny, goo-like creatures and work to restore several abandoned shops and homes stationed across a variety of environments.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure is a little chaotic, but it’s also a fairly polished mobile game with tons to do each day, ranging from small gift-giving quests to larger furniture-acquisition goals aimed at enticing lesser-known Sanrio characters to visit your island for a day. As you play, you discover more tools, meet interesting NPCs, and work with your friends to create the ultimate vacation spot. Quite frankly, it’s delightful in nearly every way.
But the best part of Hello Kitty Island Adventure is that it provides plenty of fuel for Kuromi and My Melody shippers. The characters regularly reference each other in dialogue and ask for your help sending gifts back and forth. During the ‘Haunted House’ quest, you’ll see pictures of both characters adorning the walls. Although characters mentioning each other isn’t exclusive to this pair, when My Melody and Kuromi talk about each other, there’s a sense of closeness that feels different than when they talk about the rest of their friends.
A brief history of MyKuromi
My Melody made her debut in 1975, a year after Sanrio introduced Hello Kitty. She originally appeared as a Little Red Riding Hood figure, hence the hood usually adorning her bunny ears. Kuromi wasn’t introduced until 2005, a full 30 years later—but she’s quickly become one of the most beloved Sanrio characters of all time.
According to official Sanrio lore, MyKuromi (the ship name for My Melody and Kuromi) is “semi-canon,” and the characters are rivals with mutual feelings for each other. They fit into the same stereotype as Adventure Time‘s Princess Bubblegum and Marceline the Vampire Queen: one hardcore goth girlfriend and one sweet pastel girlfriend.
My Melody and Kuromi are easily the most popular femslash pairing in the Sanrio fandom, which the company fuels by regularly providing official art featuring the characters. Fanart of the pair is even more common, and some creators have even posted fanfiction about MyKuromi on Archive of Our Own. While most fan creations feature the characters as seen in Sanrio’s world—as two bunny girls, or a bunny girl and an imp, depending on interpretation—others humanize them (usually for spicy art).
While the pair aren’t totally canon, even in Hello Kitty Island Adventure, the game provides just enough crumbs to keep shippers happy. Perhaps someday they’ll take on a more permanent, romantic status.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure is currently available on Apple Arcade.
(featured image: Sanrio / Sunblink)
