Sanrio Danshi

Kouta Hasegawa is a completely normal high school student who likes his Pompompurin stuffed animal, a Sanrio character modelled after a Golden Retriever, which his grandmother gave him when he was young. However, an incident in which other kids accused him of being girly for liking Sanrio characters made him ashamed of his attachment to Pompompurin.

Through a series of unexpected events, Kouta ends up meeting others at school who also like Sanrio characters—Yuu Mizuno, a flashy boy who is popular with girls; Shunsuke Yoshino, a member of the soccer team; Ryou Nishimiya, an underclassman who is a library assistant; and Seiichirou Minamoto, the student council president.

Through his new friends, Kouta learns that there is no need to be embarrassed for liking Sanrio characters; and together, they aim to create a play for the cultural festival in order to transform his normal school life into a sparkly one.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Mizuno, Yuu Main

Saitou, Souma Japanese

Yoshino, Shunsuke Main

Oosuka, Jun Japanese

Hasegawa, Kouta Main

Eguchi, Takuya Japanese

Nishimiya, Ryou Main

Kagura, Kitsune Japanese

Minamoto, Seiichirou Main

Uchida, Yuuma Japanese

Tsuchiya, Tadashi Supporting

Suzuki, Chihiro Japanese

Kouta's Mother Supporting

Inoue, Kikuko Japanese

Matsuo, Tomo Supporting

Furukawa, Makoto Japanese

Sugami, Naoki Supporting

Hatano, Wataru Japanese

Machida, Yamato Supporting

Kishio, Daisuke Japanese

Kagota, Naoki Producer

Miyagi, Souji Producer

Ozawa, Kazuyoshi Producer

Matsuoka, Takanori Producer

Reviews

Jul 30, 2025

nerdbunnyarchive

Recommended

The power of friendship helps you realize that it isn't gay to like Sanrio as a man.

Listen, I'm not trying to trash the "friendship is magic" or "all you need is some friends" kind of shows. But the execution here was so painful and cringe it's worse than half the brainrot I see on TikTok. I felt so bored that I almost dropped it. Almost. But I stayed, hoping the characters would stop preaching self-acceptance and actually grow a little. Maybe even let me down a bit. It felt oddly performative, like it was written by someone who had never actually met teenage boys before. ...

Now, maybe if we had a show "Labubu Boys"....

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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Apr 2, 2020

mochinyanya

Mixed Feelings

Sanrio Danshi (Mai Ando, 2016). Sanrio sponsored anime Sanrio Danshi is a brief slice of life anime detailing the friendship of five high school boys, while also acting as advertising and public relations for Sanrio's products, which range from Hello Kitty-Cinnamoroll to Pomupomupurin. Hasegawa Kouta's (the young, dramatically naïve type) relationship with his late grandmother and Pomupomupurin acts as the underlying narrative thread from which sprout the varying considerations of friendship.

Stylistically, it appears as good as any other high school slice of life though the face animations suffer slightly in more complex angles and the background is, as with smaller animations, lacking detail. The diegesis ... of Sanrio Danshi is intentionally small; there is little to explore outside the school, camp, Sanrio Puroland, and the homes of the characters. Despite its dubious origins, Sanrio Danshi is a light hearted, and greatly unrealistic, anime about the possibility of those with uncommon interests finding a collective that fulfills a desire for relatedness.

Hasegawa Kouta is an ordinary high school fellow, but the rest of the Sanrio boys are not: Seiichiro is both archery club and student council president, Mizuno Yuu is the stock popular figure, Shunsuke is the soccer team's star player, and Nishimiya Ryo is the stock androgynous near-loli figure. There's more than enough fanservice in this anime: it'll sell well. However, it is this particular aspect (the unlikely nature of the new friendship of the slightly stock-natured characters) and the unnaturally rapid road to a ridiculously strong bond that makes it more than a little unrealistic. Nevertheless, I found Shunsuke enjoyable to watch: the oddity of his prudent nature often made it near-impossible to suspend disbelief regarding his love for Kitty-san. It is the exercise of willfully suspending disbelief and forcefully assimilating dissonant factors that makes anime like this enjoyable.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Nov 7, 2019

Nid_Vicious

Not Recommended

Since it’s pretty clear that this Anime shows a lot of Sanrio stuff etc., I want to focus on everything else. This review might contain very minor spoilers.

So, I watch a lot of darker or more serious stuff, so I try to balance it out by watching comedic or downright silly stuff. A lot of people wrote that this show was lighthearted, so I thought OK, why not.
The subject matter of the first episode was not that lighthearted, to be honest - I was actually touched because I’m a bit sentimental that way. The first episode left me thinking 'well that's not lighthearted at all'.
It ... starts out pretty serious with a sob story about the protagonist and how his weird complexes destroyed his childhood memories. The next backstory of another character (whose relationship with his sister has a weird, incest-y vibe) is also ‚sad‘ (you know, their shameful hobbies aka. Sanrio gave them hard times, I guess).
While it seems ridiculous, one could still at least kind of relate to the fact that there are certain things that are expected from you when you grow up, and that you’re supposed to leave childish things behind. Staying true to yourself is not an easy task, and the first 2 or 3 episodes kind of conveyed this feeling, which made me think that this show might not be as silly as it sounded.
Anyways, it all quickly goes downhill from there.
As it happens with a lot of 12 episode anime, conflicts are resolved within the episode, except for the main protagonists struggle. He can’t seem to stop being a selfish and whiny bitch about his life, even though everyone around him is constantly trying to reassure him…of himself, I guess…? Even the friends he dumped in the beginning as soon as he found his new group of friends.

The rest of the show is a typical high school anime that has a typical message (being: friendship is important) I’m not saying that these kind of stories can’t be enjoyable to watch or whatever, but it just…wasn’t. It was cringe. Towards the end, I just had to force myself to continue watching it (I barely ever quit anything I watch)

One thing that stood out in a kind of positive way was the soundtrack (the score, not the OP etc.) Weirdly enough, mediocre or even bad shows often have pretty decent music.

That’s it. In the end, it’s a pretty forgettable anime with forgettable characters (except for the Sanrio characters, obviously).

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Sanrio Danshi Episode 12 Discussion Stark700 - Mar 24, 2018	29 replies	by Bunni_ePop »» Jul 29, 9:13 PM
	Poll: Sanrio Danshi Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Jan 6, 2018	69 replies	by inflUx09_ »» Jul 19, 6:14 PM
	Poll: Sanrio Danshi Episode 3 Discussion Stark700 - Jan 20, 2018	39 replies	by RGreatDanton »» Jul 3, 4:53 PM
	Poll: Sanrio Danshi Episode 2 Discussion Stark700 - Jan 13, 2018	44 replies	by RGreatDanton »» Jul 3, 4:45 PM
	Poll: Sanrio Danshi Episode 5 Discussion Stark700 - Feb 3, 2018	21 replies	by cacagorilla »» Jun 14, 2023 6:58 AM