A Sanrio savior would arrive not a moment too soon.

但是Sanrio的救世主却不会这么快就诞生的。

In a closely watched ranking of Japan’s most popular characters, compiled each year using sales data by the Tokyo-based research firm Character Databank, Hello Kitty lost her long-held spot as Japan’s top-grossing character in 2002 and has never recovered.

在由东京的调查公司Character Databank完成的权威市场调查中，Hello Kitty自从2002年从日本最畅销卡通形象的宝座上下来之后，就再也没有重返巅峰过了。

In the latest survey, released this month, Kitty ranked a distant third, behind the leader, Anpanman, a character that is based on a Japanese jam-filled pastry and is produced by Nippon Television. The second spot is still held by the venerable game and animation brand Pokémon, owned by Nintendo.

本月公布的最新调查结果显示，Hello Kitty仅排名第三，被前两名远远甩下。排名第一的是面包超人，由日本电视台推出，面包超人的形象是由日本的一种果酱面团而来。排第二的则是任天堂出品的经久不衰的游戏动画人物皮卡丘。