Analysts say part of the problem is that Sanrio has oversold Hello Kitty, which appears on products as various as T-shirts, toilet paper and toasters. Sanrio was recently forced to write off the 500 million yen in debt held by Harmony Land, one of its two character theme parks in Japan, after a falloff in visitors, although the park remains open.

分析家认为，导致目前困难局面的原因之一就是Sanrio对Hello Kitty的“过度开发”，像是T恤、厕纸乃至多士炉等产品都屡见不鲜。Sanrio公司最近被迫要消除Hello Kitty和谐乐园的5亿日元的债务，尽管依旧保持公园开放。和谐乐园是日本最大的两个卡通主题乐园之一，但近来游客量已经减少。

“Sanrio was initially very careful in making sure the Hello Kitty phenomenon didn’t get out of hand,” said Naohiro Shichijo, an associate professor in creative industries at the Waseda Institute for Advanced Studies in Tokyo. “That’s the unspoken rule of the character business: you can’t let a character get too wildly popular all at once,” he said. “You want to go for longevity.”

早稻田高级研究所的副教授七丈直弘（NaohiroShichijo）一直从事创造性产业的研究，他指出：“Sanrio一开始非常谨慎，以确保Hello Kitty的市场效应在自己控制范围内。这也是卡通行业的一种潜规则：要想一种卡通形象长盛不衰，就不能让它一下子太过大红大紫。”