Badtz-Maru (2024)

Badtz-Maru (バッドばつ丸, Baddo Batsu Maru), a male penguin with spiky hair, is one of the many characters produced by the Japanese company Sanrio and created by Hisato Inoue in 1993. Unlike the more popular Hello Kitty, he has an attitude and is one of the few characters that is marketed to all genders. He was born on April 1st.

Personality

Badtz-Maru has many different facial expressions and poses, but he is classically recognized for pulling one eye down and sticking out his tongue.

While he seems perpetually stuck in the first grade, he has dreams of becoming "the boss, of everything" when he grows up. "A bit selfish, he tends to make fun of things by thinking silly. This mischievous little penguin loves to fight for the wrong side. His hobby is collecting pictures of bad guys played by movie stars." He enjoys expensive sushi in Ginza.

Family and Friends

He lives in Gorgeous Town with his mother, pinball-playing father and younger siblings; the Badtz Twins and Tzunko.

Badtz-Maru has two best friends, who are often found accompanying him: Pandaba, a female Giant Panda who always is seen in a short frilly skirt, and Hana-Maru, a male white seal.

In addition to Hana-Maru and Pandaba, Badtz also is close with Kahme (a small blue turtle), Iruka (a white dolphin), Sameo (a blue shark), Goro (a small white bird), Anko (a black fish), and Kobun (blue henchman of his father).

XO Clan

In Japanese "badtz" (batsu) is a term for "X", the cross signifying a wrong answer. "Maru" means circle or "O", and signifies a correct answer. So, his name is like "wrong-correct," and is frequently represented by "XO". Indeed, with his friends Pandaba and Hana-Maru, Badtz runs the mischievous XO clan.

Hapidanbui

In 2020, the Hapidanbui is created, which consisted of himself, Tuxedo Sam, Keroppi, Pochacco, Hangyodon, and Pekkle. Badtz-Maru is the vocalist of the group.

Merchandise

Goods sales of Badtz-Maru began in June 1993. Badtz-Maru has gone through many product lines since his release at Sanrio. While he has many fewer releases than Hello Kitty, he has been a staple character found in almost all stores worldwide. He has been portrayed as an astronaut, motorcyclist, DJ, camouflage monster, basketball player, boxer, and others. His products range from typical stationery supplies (eg. pens, notebooks, erasers, pencil cases ...) to more novel items (eg. cd players, guitars, license plate frames ...).

Music

• ばつ丸音頭 (Badtz-Maru Ondo) - Appears on サンリオTVオリジナルソングブックLET'Sシング! along with a Karaoke Version.
  • Initially the lyrics for this song were written by Hisato Inoue himself, and the music was composed by Ko Katayama
• 忍者ばつ丸のかくれてポン! (Ninja Badtz-Maru Hide and Pon!) - Appears on サンリオTVオリジナルソングブック::うれしSONG!!～みらいへの宝物 along with a Karaoke version.
• わるわるワルツ and がってんばつ丸の回転寿司 - Appears on キティズパラダイスＰＬＵＳ　ソングブック　サンリオキャラクターとおどろう！ダンスソング
• 目覚ましCD　けろけろけろっぴの朝だよみんな!

Media

TV

• Kitty's Paradise
• Fun Fun Kitty! (as a member of Hapidanbui, animated only)

Appearances in media

Various OVAs

Badtz-Maru appears in Bad Badtz-Maru no Ore no Pochi wa Sekaiichi, Bad Badtz-Maru no Ore wa Yuutosei, and Bad Badtz-Maru no Otoko Dokyou no Omoiyari.

He is voiced by Fujiko Takimoto.

Hello Kitty's Animation Theater

Badtz-Maru appears in The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf. He plays the role of the Shepherd Boy.

He also appears in The Ants and the Grasshopper. He is a friend to the grasshopper.

Hello Kitty Stump Village

Badtz-Maru first appears in Strange Penguin.

The Adventures of Hello Kitty & Friends

Badtz-Maru appears as a main character. Always looking for an angle, he is a precocious youngster with dreams of grandeur. His selfish ways get him in hot water from time to time, but his good heart always steers him in the right direction. Sometimes there is rivalry between him and Daniel.

English voice by Andrea Kwan.

Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures

Badtz-Maru is one of the main characters in the show. He is revealed to own an arcade named "XO Arcade". Badtz is also revealed to have a crush on Kuromi.

Hello Kitty Super Style!

Badtz-Maru appears in Hello Kitty Super Style.

Ranking in the Sanrio Character Ranking

During the 2013 Character Ranking, if Badtz-Maru reaches 10th place or higher, a king-sized sofa based on Badtz will be made. However, he failed to reach that rank.

• 1994: 3rd place
• 1995: 2nd place
• 1996: 1st place
• 1997: 3rd place
• 1998: 7th place
• 1999: 10th place
• 2000: 10th place
• 2001: 7th place
• 2002: 9th place
• 2003: 9th place
• 2004: 9th place
• 2005: Below 10th place
• 2006: 10th place
• 2007: 9th place
• 2008: 9th place
• 2009: Below 10th place
• 2010: 18th place
• 2011: 9th place
• 2012: 15th place
• 2013: 18th place
• 2014: 16th place (4th place in Group D)
• 2015: 20th place
• 2016: 17th place (15th in the Nade Time ranking)
• 2017: 14th place
• 2018: 15th place (2nd place in US)
• 2019: 12th place
• 2020: 14th place
• 2021: 14th place
• 2022: 12th place
• 2023: 10th place (10th in Taiwan and Brazil, 9th in Italy)

Trivia

• Badtz-Maru has some resemblance with Bart Simpson, a character from American cartoon The Simpsons, which both characters has the same birth date: April 1st (April Fool's Day).
  • His second designer Kaori Harada also shares the same birthday.
  • Badtz-Maru appeared in the movies Bring It On and Like Mike as a plushie.
• Badtz-Maru was the official Mascot for the 2006 FIBA World Championship of basketball, which was held in Japan. Special merchandise based on this event was released as well.
• When Badtz-Maru was officially introduced in the Strawberry News May 1993 Issue, he was noted to be Sanrio's first "not nice" character.

• Badtz-Maru was a frequent guest in the Strawberry News' Chitty Chatty Strawberry column, where he and his friends (and sometimes family members!) often appeared in comics and talked about a variety of topics such as Christmas and Valentine's Day.
  • Badtz-Maru also frequently appeared in a subsection of Chitty Chatty Strawberry titled (A Little...) Hocus Pocus, where a set of instructions similar to spells and charms are given to readers to try out in hopes of achieving something such as making up with a friend after a fight, curing stomach aches, and getting your crush to notice you.
  • For a time in the Strawberry News magazine, readers could send in rumors they want investigated by Badtz-Maru and his friends, where they would be confirmed or debunked.

• Within a few years of his debut in May 1993, Badtz-Maru frequently landed in the top 5 of the official Sanrio Character Popularity poll; landing 3rd place in 1994 and eventually taking 1st place in 1996.
  • This makes him thus far the only character of Hisato Inoue's to ever place 1st with Hangyodon achieving the top 3 in comparison.
• Badtz-Maru cameos with Hello Kitty and Keroppi in the first few minutes of the film Ready Player One.
  • He and Pochacco appear in the 2002 film The Hot Chick as stuffed animals.
• Although Badtz-Maru was created by Hisato Inoue, at some time around 1996, his designer became Kaori Harada presumably after Hisato left Sanrio in 1995 to become a Freelancer.
• Badtz-Maru later received a PC game for Windows and Macintosh computers titled バッドばつ丸 ゴージャスタウンは大さわぎ！Hisato had a hand in developing the game.^[1]
  • Badtz-Maru loves fishing, however, he is very bad at it

Gallery

TV/Movie Stills

The Adventures of Hello Kitty & Friends

Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures

Hello Kitty Super Style!

Others

Sources

• Badtz-Maru Family and Friends on Sanrio.co.jp
• Badtz-Maru Timeline on Sanrio.com
• Badtz-Maru Products on Sanrio.com
• Badtz-Maru Profile on Sanrio.co.jp
• Badtz-Maru Ranking on SanrioCharacterRanking.com via Archive.org (2016)
• April 2016 Calendar on Sanrio.com
• April 2017 Calendar on Sanrio.com
• Badtz-Maru.com (Fan Site)
• XO Photos (Fan Site)
• Badtz-Maru's Japanese Wikipedia Page