Cinnamoroll
Cinnamoroll is a character series created by Sanrio in 2001, with character designs from Miyuki Okumura. The main character, Cinnamon, is a white dog with long ears, blue eyes, pink cheeks, and a plump and curly tail that resembles a cinnamon roll. He starred in his own manga series, an anime movie and various animation shorts.
In its initial run, the series expanded into two official side series: Cinnamoangels in 2005, which focuses on Azuki, Mocha and Chiffon and Lloromannic in 2007, which focuses on both Berry and Cherry.
Story
One day, while the owner of Café Cinnamon was admiring the sky, a tiny white puppy came floating by, looking just like a small, fluffy cloud. She thought, "Maybe he caught a whiff of the cinnamon rolls and came to check them out." The owner of the café was correct. The curious little puppy took a shine to the café owner and her delicious cinnamon rolls, so he decided to stay. Since his tail was plump and curled up like a cinnamon roll, she decided to call him Cinnamon. Cinnamon became instantly popular with customers and soon became Café Cinnamon's official mascot. Now, when he is not napping on the café terrace, Cinnamon flies around the town looking for fun and new adventures with his friends Chiffon, Mocha, Espresso, Cappuccino, and Little Milk.Characters
;Cinnamon;Cappuccino
;Chiffon
;Espresso
;Mocha
;Milk
;Cornet
;Coco
;Nuts
;Poron
;Azuki
;Berry
;Cherry
;Anna
;Chowder
Rename
When he was first created by Sanrio in 2001, he was called Baby Cinnamon. A year later he was "renamed" Cinnamoroll, to remedy any problems with the registration of the mark overseas, however he is now called in both ways, but also more simply Cinnamon. As of 2007, Cinnamoroll's original name "Baby Cinnamon" is no longer being used by Sanrio and is officially called "Cinnamoroll". In Japan, he is still named "Cinnamoroll" but he is mostly called "Cinnamon".Media
Anime and Video
A movie based on the character titled Cinnamon The Movie was produced by Madhouse Studios and was released in Japan on December 22, 2007. The movie is directed by Gisaburō Sugii and written by Mari Okada. Tohoshinki performed the movie's ending song titled "Together". During its theatrical run, the film was screened alongside "Nezumi Monogatari: Jôji to Jerarudo no bouken". When both films finished their theatrical run, "Cinnamon The Movie" and "Nezumi Momogatari" were both available in DVDs releases but eventually were sold separately.Other Cinnamoroll videos include "Zēnbu! Cinnamon", "Cinnamon no Himitsu no Tobira", "ABCinnamon Eigo de Asobo!" and titles in the Sanrio Pokoapoko series.
Other appearances
In 2007, stop-motion series "Hello Kitty Stump Village". Cinnamoroll is one of the main characters next to Hello Kitty, My Melody, Pom Pom Purin, and Badtz-Maru. In 2008, animated CGI TV series The Adventures of Hello Kitty & Friends Cinnamoroll is a minor character, and debuts in an episode called "Cinnamoroll Cafe" where he is building his own cafe. But, is too shy to ask for help.Cinnamoroll is also the host of the boat ride attraction called "Sanrio Character Boat Ride" at Sanrio Puroland and Harmonyland where he invites guests to attend Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel's wedding.
Video games
Cinnamoroll quickly became the star of video games. There are four video games that feature him and his friends. The earliest video games were "Cinnamoroll Koko ni Iruyo" which was released in Japan in 2003, and "Cinnamoroll FuwaFuwa Daibouken" which was released in Japan in 2005 which were only for the Game Boy Advance. Nintendo also made two Nintendo DS games called "Cinnamoroll: Ohanashi shiyo! - Kira Kira DE Kore Cafe" made in 2006, and a Pin Ball game called "Cinnamoroll: Kurukuru Sweets Paradise" made in 2007. He also made appearances in Hello Kitty games like Hello Kitty: Big City Dreams, Hello Kitty Birthday Adventures for the DS and Hello Kitty Seasons on the Wii. Cinnamoroll's friends also appear in certain areas in Hello Kitty Seasons. Cinnamoroll also appears in Sanrio's first and only Massively multiplayer online role-playing game called Hello Kitty Online as an NPC in certain special quests. The Cinnamoangels also made cameo appearances in Hello Kitty Online as statues in London along. While Cinnamoroll's friend Mocha and Chiffon and can be seen as one of the emoticons in a Cinnamoroll themed guild. Cinnamoroll also shows up in "Hello Kitty World" for the Android and iPhone as one of the characters you unlock once you add a new attraction when you reach a certain level. Cinnamoroll is also one of the racers in "Hello Kitty Kruisers" which is available for the Android,iPhone,Wii U, and Nintendo Switch.Manga
A five-volume manga of the series, titled Fluffy, Fluffy Cinnamoroll was written by Chisato Seki and illustrated by Yumi Tsukirino. It was published in Japan from 2005 to 2008 by Shogakukan, serialized in the monthly magazine Pucchigumi. In 2008, three special volumes of the manga came out in Japan called "Fluffy, Fluffy Cinnamoroll Color Edition" which had all the pages for each manga in color and has brand new stories. Also in 2005, A spin-off manga series that focused on The Cinnamoangels was made from 2005 - 2008 called "Puri Kawa Shinamonenjerusu!!" which focuses on Mocha,Chiffon,and Azuki doing various activities and trying to attract boys. Viz Media started translating the manga in 2011 and was released to English speaking countries in 2012.Novels and Books
A novel adaptation titled Cinnamoroll: Cinnamon's Wonderland Trip was released by Kadokawa Shoten under the Tsubasa Bunko label on September 12, 2014 which stars Cinnamoroll and Poron going through various adventures along with doing time traveling.Cinnamoroll has a series of three travel picture books called "Cinnamon Travel Ehon". Another Japanese Cinnamoroll book is "Cinnamon ga Ippai!, labelled as an "official fan book"."
Events
Characters of the series had also appeared in various Sanrio Puroland and HarmonyLand live shows, parades, and events. Following their debut in 2007 with their first musical Cinnamon's Door of Secrets.Music
Cinnamon was featured in a music video with the Japanese rock girl band Scandal. In June 2012, Sanrio teamed up with MasatakaP to create an animated video coinciding the character's 10th Anniversary using the MikuMikuDance software. The video is handled by MastakaP for the animation while Intetsu, the Bassist of the band Ayabie handles the music. A downloadable version of Cinnamon for use with MikuMikuDance software is available by Sanrio until August 31, 2012. In October 2012, OSTER project announced an album called "Cinnamon Trip!!", which was released in Japan on December 12, 2012. There are 9 songs in the album, each sung by Cinnamoroll and his friends including the Cinnamoangels and Lloromannic. Each song has its own theme, such as Mocha's song "Petit Paris" which takes place in Paris, France and "Hawaiian Angels" which takes place in Hawaii and is sung by the Cinnamoangels.Reception
Cinnamoroll is the second most popular Sanrio character franchise next to Hello Kitty, somehow not what Sanrio had expected in such a short time. The popularity of Cinnamoroll and minor characters kicked off in 2005 to a "spinoff" called The Cinnamoangels which features Cinnamoroll's friend Mocha, Chiffon and Azuki. In 2011, Cinnamoroll got his own blog on the Japanese blogging and social networking website Ameba. In 2012, Cinnamoroll celebrated his 10th anniversary. To celebrate Cinnamoroll's 10th Anniversary Tokyo's Haneda Airport had a Cinnamoroll showcase showing fan taken photos and some original Cinnamoroll pictures. There is also a Cinnamoroll statue that can be seen outside Bandai Headquarters in Tokyo, Japan.However, Cinnamoroll's official Twitter account suffered from an incident of cyberbullying in 2015. A group of Twitter users started responding to the account's tweets with offensive comments regarding the character in March 2015, and the disruption worsened in May. On May 11, a tweet from the official Twitter saying: "Chiffon: “Morning! Cinnamon doesn’t want to come all the way out this morning, so I’ve come out instead. I will protect Cinnamon, so I hope all his friends will look after him too.”" was posted, referring to the continuous bullying due to haters. Sanrio were also disappointed regarding the incident, and started to block the culprits.