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We recently paid a visit to Sanrio Puroland, the Tokyo amusement park dedicated to the characters created by the company that gave the world Hello Kitty. After arriving, our first order of business was grabbing an adorable Kitty-chan burger and My Melody stack of pancakes.

But cute character-based food is only half of the recipe for a successful theme park in Japan. The other is live shows, so we grabbed a seat for the park’s Hello Kitty musical, where we snapped pictures and even recorded a couple videos.

Reading about the performance on the Puroland website had piqued our interest, but considering how many people were at the park on the Saturday we visited, we knew a lot of them had seen the same info we had. To make sure we’d get a good seat, after we finished eating we left the food court and made our way to the Marchen Theater.

We got in line about 30 minutes before the start of the show, and during the time we were standing around waiting, we were definitely glad Puroland is entirely indoor and air-conditioned. There were a few groups ahead of us, but even still, we were close enough to the front of the line that once the doors to the theater opened, we were able to grab a spot in the center of the seating area.

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Puroland’s current musical production is dubbed Hello Kitty in Wonderland, placing the beloved feline in the role usually occupied by Alice in the classic fairy tale.

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As the play opened, we saw the Kitty family out on a picnic. From there, Kitty-chan’s adventures took her to Wonderland, where she encountered the Queen of Hearts, her dancing roses, and her playing card guards.

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While this would have been enough to put a smile on the face of any fan of Hello Kitty or live theatre, things were just getting started. Once things wrapped up in Wonderland, the next portion of the show was a musical revue, which, like the Hello Kitty in Wonderland segment, is produced by Takarazuka, Japan’s most renowned group of stage actresses. Currently celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding, Takarazuka is an all-female troupe known for its extravagant costumes and elaborate choreography. Since even male roles are played by women, Kitty took the stage in a dazzling ruby red pantsuit.

In spite of Takarzuka’s girls-only policy, Kitty’s spiky-haired male companion, Daniel, apparently got a pass, since he too made an appearance to show off his smooth-hipped dance moves.

Honestly, we were really impressed, especially considering that this was all happening at ostensibly a theme park for little kids. When we stop and think about it, though, Hello Kitty and Takarazuka have been entertaining their fans for a combined 140 years, so maybe we shouldn’t have been surprised at all.

Park information
Sanrio Puroland / サンリオピューロランド
Address: Toyko-to, Tama-shi, Ochiai 1-31
東京都多摩市落合１−３１
Website

Photos, videos: RocketNews24
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