Sanrio announced on Friday that it will launch a line of crossover products between the Airū (Felyne) characters in CAPCOM's popular game franchise Monster Hunter and Sanrio's own My Melody and Kuromi characters.
Starting this August, stationery, goods, clothing, accessories, and other items will roll out for sale under licensing agreements with about 20 companies. Sanrio itself will offer a line of "Atari-Kuji" raffle goods this summer. Sanrio and CAPCOM already joined forces for a 2010 game crossover, which inspired a line of "Airou x Hello Kitty" goods last year.
Airū are the popular de facto mascot characters of CAPCOM's Monster Hunter games. They starred in their own set of spinoff games, and the latest of the spinoffs, MonHun Nikki Girigiri Airū-mura G, inspired a series of anime shorts.
Sanrio designed My Melody in 1975, and My Melody starred in a 2005 television anime series, Onegai My Melody. Kuromi appeared in that anime as the self-proclaimed rival of My Melody.
cr: ann