Miyuki Okumura and the puppy who started with the word "no"
Sanrio rejected the first design. The world came to love this character more than Hello Kitty — five times in a row.
In 2001 Miyuki Okumura was sitting over coffee, looking at the sky. A cloud shaped like a cinnamon roll became the spark. That's how Cinnamoroll was born — a shy white puppy with long ears he can fly with, and a tail curled like a cinnamon bun. Sanrio rejected the first version, but Okumura went back to the drawing board — and created a character who five times won the title of Sanrio's most popular character, beating even Hello Kitty. The official debut as "Baby Cinnamon" came in 2002.
The courage of blue
Okumura wanted blue eyes for Cinnamon. Sanrio warned that the colour blue would scare off the girl fans. The designer stuck to her guns — and it was a bullseye. Blue became the character's signature and set him apart in a sea of Sanrio's pink heroes. The hard road to acceptance is part of this story: a good design doesn't always win on the first try.
Healing character
Cinnamoroll appeared at a moment when "healing" characters were gaining popularity in Japan — calm, soft, without drama. A shy but friendly puppy who falls asleep on the laps of café customers landed perfectly in the need for simple, unconditional comfort.
Cinnamoroll proves that the best designs often start with the word "no".
The popularity phenomenon
As early as 2004 Cinnamoroll accounted for 25% of all Sanrio's sales. In 2017 the city of Shinagawa named him its official tourism ambassador, and between 2020 and 2024 he won the Sanrio Character Award five times in a row — a ranking voted on by fans around the world.
Collector collaborations
The whole Cinnamoroll collection is waiting for you here — soft as a cloud.
See the collection →Follow: Official Cinnamoroll · Sanrio
