Hello Kitty's Creator Once Made a Mech Anime That Mobile Suit Gundam Owes Its Life To

When people think of the Japanese company Sanrio, giant robots and epic space battles are not usually the first things that come to mind. After all, Hello Kitty, along with other cute characters such as Cinnamoroll and Kuromi, tend to be Sanrio’s stock in trade. And yet, there was a time in the early 1980s when Sanrio was investing in anime, which led them down the path to supporting Space Runaway Ideon, a TV and film series that aired from 1980 to 1982.