| Main | Gallery |
|---|
Pompompurin (ポムポムプリン, Pomupomupurin), sometimes shortened as Purin or Pompom, is a dog character introduced by the Japanese company Sanrio and is the main protagonist of the Pompompurin universe. A yellow Golden Retriever, Purin was born on a sunny day on April 16th. Pompompurin lives in his own basket in the entrance hall of his sister-owner's house. His trademark is his brown beret that is always on top of his head. Pompompurin's favorite food is his mama's pudding. He made his first appearance in 1996, the same year as Chococat, and is one of Sanrio's flagship characters.
Pompompurin's interest is collecting shoes, which includes his owner-father's leather shoes, one of his owner-mother's sandal, etc. He likes to hide them. Pompompurin is a laidback individual who loves to make friends, likes soft stuff, and is capable of doing 'purin aerobics'. However, he is quite popular among fans for not only his cute looks, but having a huge appetite for food much more so than other mainline Sanrio characters including fellow dog Cinnamoroll and often spends time sleeping, which is easily showcased in Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures, and for the latter, one could say he has a talent for it! This itself possibly explains his large but huggable size comparable to Tuxedo Sam and Baku, and he dreams of becoming even bigger. In terms of meals, although he can actually eat almost anything, Pompompurin loves drinking milk and eating cream caramel pudding that his mother makes. Despite being anthropomorphic, as he is a dog, Pompompurin perks up when he hears his owners say "Let's go out!" and he'd rather not hear "Stay!"
Pompompurin's best friends include a hamster called Muffin, a mouse named Scone, and a bird named Custard who loves to steal his hat and perch on his head. He secretly likes it when the wind blows Pompompurin's beret off, so he can retrieve it!
History
Like Keroppi who made his debut eight years before him, initially Pompompurin was created through an in-house contest held by Sanrio in 1996 to design a new dog character. His design was the most popular and ended up winning the contest.
Sometime afterwards, he debuted in the '96 July issue of Strawberry News with his original name being Boku, then Pudding, but it got changed later on to his current name. In 1997, the first year Pompompurin was included in the Sanrio Character Ranking, he was a smash hit among fans, as he already won first place - his first win.
Pompompurin's current anniversary, celebrating 30 years since his debut in 1996
As of 2026, Pompompurin is currently celebrating his 30th anniversary.
Relationships
Macaroon
Macaroon and Pompompurin are very close. Hello Kitty says that "he seems to have a thing for her."[2]
In some artwork and Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures, Pompompurin seems to have a close friendship with Cinnamoroll, who is also a dog.
Media Appearances
Pompompurin as he appears in Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures
Pompompurin makes an appearance in several official Sanrio media, with his most popular being the 2020s web series Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures, in which he runs an ice cream shop in his truck, which doubles as an RV.
He also appears in Hello Kitty Island Adventure, where he runs the Ice Cream Boat.
Pompompurin, along with several other mainline Sanrio characters, makes a cameo appearance as multiple furniture items in the mobile app Nintendo video game Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp of the Animal Crossing series from a special limited-time event in 2021 and 2023 called "Pocket Camp X Sanrio", due to a partnership of Sanrio with Nintendo, albeit expensive in-game, and the couch in particular being the rarest (Muffin can also be seen on top of his head). Like other exclusive items, unfortunately, they are no longer available in the Pocket Camp Complete version, and therefore can only be seen by players who managed to obtain them beforehand. However, such items are still in the game's code and can be accessed by hacking the internal save data. New Horizons, however, continues to feature Sanrio-based content. Pompompurin is represented in Animal Crossing: New Leaf - Welcome amiibo's Sanrio card pack by the lazy cub villager Marty. Like Pocket Camp, as this game is currently shut down, it is impossible to obtain any special furniture based on Sanrio characters including Pompompurin himself.
Ranking in the Sanrio Character Ranking
Pompompurin winning first place in 2025, his 4th and latest win yet
In the 2013 Sanrio Character Ranking, if Pompompurin reaches top 3, pudding based on himself will be made. He had reached third that year (while Hello Kitty was the winner), so Pompompurin pudding was indeed made.
Since his debut, Pompompurin is generally a strong contender in the official rankings and rarely falls below the top 10. He even consecutively got second place from 2020 to 2023. Pompompurin has won his first competition in 1997, then eventually in 2015, 2016, and finally 2025, a total of four times so far, with his current win breaking Cinnamonroll's 5-time streak that occurred between 2020 to 2024 (who won 2nd for 2025). Therefore, he is the most recent winner of the Sanrio Character Ranking.
- 1997: 1st place
- 1998: 3rd place
- 1999: 3rd place
- 2000: 3rd place
- 2001: 3rd place
- 2002: 5th place
- 2003: 5th place
- 2004: 8th place
- From 2005 to 2006, he was below top 10.
- 2007: 10th place
- 2008: 8th place
- 2009: 10th place
- 2010: 4th place
- 2011: 4th place
- 2012: 5th place
- 2013: 3rd place
- 2014: 4th place (1st place in Group B)
- 2015: 1st place
- 2016: 1st place
- 2017: 2nd place
- 2018: 2nd place (3rd in Hong Kong and the United States)
- 2019: 3rd place (2nd in Taiwan and Hong Kong)
- 2020: 2nd place (1st in Taiwan, 3rd in China and South Korea)
- 2021: 2nd place (1st in Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and Singapore; 3rd in China, South Korea, and Thailand)
- 2022: 2nd place (1st in Taiwan and the United Kingdom; 3rd in the United States, France, and Thailand)
- 2023: 2nd place (1st in Taiwan and the United Kingdom; 3rd in the United States, France and Singapore; 4th in South Korea and Spain; 5th in Hong Kong, Brazil, and Thailand; 6th in Germany; 8th in Italy)
- 2024: 4th place (1st in the United Kingdom; 2nd in China, Taiwan, the United States, and Spain; 3rd in Italy, France, Australia, and Singapore; 5th in South Korea; 6th in Hong Kong and Thailand)
- 2025: 1st place (2nd in Brazil and Singapore, 4th in Hong Kong and Thailand, 5th in South Korea)
- 2026: -- *rankings ongoing*
Official description (2001)
Purin is a good-natured Golden Retriever who dreams of growing up and becoming a big dog - just like his mother and father! His birthday is April 16th. He spends most of his time either napping or going on walks with his best friend, Muffin. He loves to drink milk and eat foods that are nice and soft - just like pudding! [3]
Trivia
- He was voted "Most Popular Sanrio Character" three times for the years 1997, 2015 and 2016 in The Strawberry News, a magazine published by Sanrio.
- According to his profile, Pompompurin is five big puddings tall and weighs the same as one watermelon. However, some media depicted much larger sizes.
- Pompompurin performed in the Sanrio musical - Happiness Land, which toured around Asia in 2007. Pompompurin was portrayed as the The Knight of Happiness Land and is described as humorous, compassionate but careless.
- Although Pompompurin is a yellow Golden Retriever according to Sanrio, due to his appearance, he more closely resembles a Labrador Retriever of the same coat color, as he does not have thick fur.
- He shares his interest with My Melody for their love of sleeping.
Pompompurin's true eyes in the 2021 Sanrio Character Rankings art
- In Hello Kitty Island Adventure and few artwork, Pompompurin is revealed to have brown irises.
- Pompompurin's original Japanese voice actress who performed him in Hello Kitty's Animation Theater, Sugimoto Saori, tragically died on October 21, 2021 from a congestive heart failure at age 58. The current Japanese voice actor of Pompompurin from 2022 is undisclosed, according to the Japanese Wikipedia article of the character. However, it hasn't been revealed yet of his current voice actor for that region.
- Ryan Bartley is the current English voice actress of Pompompurin, based on Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures.
- The humans who own Pompompurin (and presumably his parents) are referred to as "father-owner," "mother-owner," and "sister-owner."
- Due to his size and often he spends time sleeping, Pompompurin is often the least athletic character of Sanrio's main cast. Despite this, some artwork exists of showing him being able to run fast, and he does occasionally exercise.
- In some episodes of Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures, specifically "Hello Kitty's Bake Off", Pompompurin is shown to be a talented baker, as he was competing against Cinnamoroll.
- Like his fellow dog friend, he is also revealed to be a skillful dancer in "Dance Duo Friends".
- The Japanese Wikipedia article lists Akiko Jii (credited for creating Keroppi and designing merchandise for MINNA NO TABO) as Pompompurin's official designer, but this has yet to be confirmed by Sanrio.
Artwork of Pompompurin and Muffin's rear ends, something that is considered controversial in Western cultures
- Some of the official artwork of Pompompurin shows himself with his butt sticking out, revealing a marking resembling an anus. This, although considered a cute trend in Japan, is not treated the same overseas, as some places see it as taboo.
- The hacker behind the notorious 2021 FBI E-Mail Hack and the owner of BreachForums used Pompompurin as an alias.
- Pompompurin is featured in Sanrio's Fragaria Memories project. In this project, he is the ruler of the Pompompurin Kingdom, as well as the lord of the Fragaria Puruth.
Sources
- Pompompurin Character Goodies on Sanrio.com
- Pompompurin Timeline on Sanrio.com
- Official Pompompurin Products on Sanrio.com
- Pompompurin's Family and Friends on Sanrio.co.jp
- Pompompurin Profile on Sanrio.co.jp
- Pompompurin Ranking on SanrioCharacterRanking.com via Archive.org (2016)
- April 2016 Calendar on Sanrio.com
- April 2017 Calendar on Sanrio.com
- Pompompurin's Japanese Wikipedia Page