Jewelpet (Japanese: ジュエルペット, Hepburn: Juerupetto) is a Japanese media franchise and toy line created in 2008 as a joint venture between Sanrio and Sega Toys, produced by the third character designer of Hello Kitty, Yuko Yamaguchi and illustrated by the character designer of Cinnamoroll, Miyuki Okumura. The franchise was originally launched on January 15, 2008, focusing on animals named after jewels, birthstones and minerals, who can use magic using their eyes.

Due to its success, Sanrio and Sega Toys expanded the Jewelpet franchise overseas. The franchise is currently being licensed by Italian company Giochi Preziosi for its European release.

The official slogan is "Eyes of Jewel that Shine, glittering with Luck and Good Fortune".

In an antique shop, there was a magical Jewel Box which sat there for centuries and shined in very bright colors. A girl accidentally encountered the box and opened it, causing a strange light to shine and the girl was sucked inside. She was now in a strange new world that shined like jewels. A sign read 'Jewel Land'. The girl was amazed, as everything shone in bright colors and was decorated in all kinds of jewels. At the center of the town, there was a strange tower, also decorated with magical jewels. She went to the tower and went inside.

The girl was greeted by a princess and was happy to see her as she offered her a jewel apple. The girl accepted the gift and the jewel in the girl's hand glowed, magically transforming into a cute animal. The princess said the creature was called a Jewelpet, and each of them live in Jewel Land. However, she also told her the crisis that Jewel Land was facing as the magic was starting to vanish. She told the girl that she must raise that Jewelpet she had into a full-fledged magician.

Each Jewelpet differs from their magical Jewel Eyes and depends on the human partner who awakens them and use magic whenever they need to. They all study magic along with their partners in a special school in Jewel Land for them to become master magicians. The pets and their partners must endure a lot of hardships and even trouble. With each care the human partners give to their Jewelpets, the pets love them back.

For a Jewelpet to become a magician, it must go through rigorous training and studying with their human partners to prevent the crisis in Jewel Land. If the Jewelpet becomes a magician, they'll be rewarded with a magical Jewel Cloak, as a symbol of mastery over its magic.

The Jewelpet franchise debuted on January 15, 2008 as the first collaborative project between Sanrio and Sega Toys. The franchise originally started off with 33 characters, each of them being best sellers during the summer of that year with each toy having internet connectivity capabilities using special passwords. As Jewelpet entered its first year in 2009, the first season of the anime series of the same name premiered.

In February 2010, 600 items of merchandise were all made with over 25 licensed companies for its overseas and domestic expansion. On March 11, 2010, the 34th Jewelpet, Labra, officially debuted. The characters made their official debut as meet able characters in Sanrio Puroland with their first two shows: Throbbing Jewelpet! Magical☆March (ジュエルペットのどきどき!マジカル☆マーチ, Juerupetto no dokidoki! Majikaru ☆ māchi    ) and Jewelpet and Cinnamon's Future Revolution! (ジュエルペットとシナモンのみらいレボリューション!, Juerupetto to shinamon nomi rai reboryūshon!    ). In addition, after the characters debuted in Puroland, visitors increased by 17% during the fourth quarter of 2010.

In December 2010, three new Jewelpets officially debuted: Angela, Charotte and Jasper. Charotte and Jasper were both winners of a Jewelpet Design Contest that was held during the airing of Jewelpet Twinkle. In 2011, the Webgurumi website was closed down and was replaced by a new website: Jewel Land Online. In December of that same year, the character Sakuran made its official debut alongside 11 new characters in a new subline called Sweetspets. Sakuran herself is also a winner of the new character design contest that was held during the airing of Jewelpet Sunshine.

On March 31, 2012, two new male Jewelpets debuted: Coal and Granite. Jewel Land Online ended its service that date as well. In June 2012, the Puroland show Jewelpet Kira☆Deco! Musical (ジュエルペット きら☆デコッ!ミュージカル, Juerupetto kira ☆ deko! Myūjikaru) opened in conjunction with the Jewelpet Kira☆Deco! TV series. In August 2012, its first official theatrical film was released in Japanese cinemas with the introduction of the 13th Sweetspet, Gumimin. However, the film proved to be a failure at the box office.

In the January 2013 Issue of Pucchigumi magazine, the 40th Jewelpet, Rossa was officially revealed. In 2014, the 41st Jewelpet, Luea, was also revealed and in the November 2014 issue of Youchien, marked the debut of the 42nd character Larimar. In 2016, the musicals based on Jewelpet ended its run.

As of July 2017, the characters were  removed in Sanrio Puroland's catalog of meet of greet characters due to rising popularity of the Rilu Rilu Fairilu Anime series. Japanese netizens expressed their concerns over the issue as the indoor park's representatives stated that the popularity of the new series has caused for the characters to be removed from the lineup.

The franchise officially celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2019 with the re-release of all 7 anime series in YouTube in a limited time basis alongside a new stage show in the 2019 Tokyo Toy Show.

Sega Toys collaborated with Sanrio to release a line of plush toys on January 15, 2008. Each plush Jewelpet contains a password to access the Web-Gurumi website, a special site in which the customer "adopts" this pet in the virtual world. If the user doesn't have the password, the user may not get access to the website. Accounts expire within one year, unless another Jewelpet toy is bought, and that animal is added to the user account. With the expansion of the series, toy replicas of the Jewel Stick, Jewel Charms, Jewel Pocketbook and Jewel Pods from the anime series were made as well.

As with other Sanrio character franchises such as Hello Kitty, My Melody, Sugarbunnies and Cinnamoroll, Jewelpet merchandise mostly consists of stationery, school supplies, bags, raincoats, umbrellas, bento boxes and even toy replicas of the Jewel Stick and Jewel Pocketbook from the anime series. Merchandise was released by Sanrio, Sega and Bandai, among other companies. The popularity of the series then expanded overseas in Hong Kong, South Korea and Europe.

A Trading Card Game spinoff was also released by Bushiroad, the creators of the Weiß Schwarz, Alice X Cross and Cardfight!! Vanguard Trading Card Games. Both the starter set and booster packs were released on July 30, 2009. and was later discontinued in 2010. Also several Jewelpet characters were also released as stickers for the instant messaging software LINE.

See also: Jewelpet (TV series), Lady Jewelpet, and Jewelpet: Magical Change

An anime adaptation of the Jewelpet franchise was produced by Studio Comet and premiered on April 5, 2009, on TV Osaka and TV Tokyo, replacing Onegai My Melody Kirara in its initial timeslot. A spin-off, titled Jewelpet Twinkle (ジュエルペット てぃんくる☆, Juerupetto Tinkuru☆) began airing on TV Tokyo between April 3, 2010 and April 2, 2011. A third installment, titled Jewelpet Sunshine (ジュエルペット サンシャイン, Juerupetto Sanshain) premiered on April 9, 2011. A fourth series titled Jewelpet Kira Deco! (ジュエルペット きら☆デコッ！, Juerupetto Kira☆deko!    ) was released on April 7, 2012 and ended on March 30, 2013. A fifth installment titled Jewelpet Happiness (ジュエルペット ハッピネス, Juerupetto Happinesu) was first revealed on the March Issue of Pucchigumi and premiered on April 6, 2013 and ended on March 29, 2014.

The sixth installment, Lady Jewelpet (レディジュエルペット, Redi Juerupetto) was announced by Sanrio via the official Anime Twitter account and aired from April 5, 2014, until March 28, 2015. Jewelpet: Magical Change (ジュエルペット マジカルチェンジ, Juerupetto Majikaru Chenji    ) was revealed in the 2015 Winter Wonder Festival and later in the March 2015 issue of Pucchigumi.

See also: Jewelpet the Movie: Sweets Dance Princess

A feature-length movie titled Jewelpet the Movie: Sweets Dance Princess (映画ジュエルペット スウィーツダンスプリンセス, Eiga Juerupetto: Suwītsu Dansu Purinsesu), was directed by Hiroaki Sakurai (Daa! Daa! Daa!, Cromartie High School) and produced by Studio Comet and Toho. It was released on August 11, 2012, and was a box-office flop

Official Storybooks and Reference Books were also issued by Shogakukan during the series's release each year. Two manga spinoffs were also created, and each were published during the airing of the anime series. The first one was serialized in the Shōjo Magazine Pucchigumi with illustrations by Mako Morie in 2009. The first series ended in the same year. On December 28, 2009, a second manga was then serialized in the Shōjo Magazine Ciao with illustrations and story by Sayuri Tatsuyama under Sanrio and Sega Toys' permission. The manga ran from February 2010 to September 2010.

An official light novel titled Jewelpet: The Fuss in the Jewel Festival!? (ジュエルペット: ジュエルフェスティバルはおおさわぎ!?, Juerupetto: Juerufesutibaru wa ōsawagi!?    ) was released as part of Kadokawa's Tsubasa Bunko Children's Light Novels on May 11, 2012, written by Hiroko Kanasugi and illustrated by POP. It introduces an exclusive character to the story, a "Jewelpet" named Lolip (ロリップ, Rorippu) and the story revolves around her experiences and bond with Ruby and her friends while setting up the Jewel Festival in Jewel Land.

An official guide book to commemorate the third series was also published by Yousensha, titled Jewelpet Sunshine FANBOOK (ジュエルペット サンシャインFANBOOK, Juerupetto Sanshain FANBOOK    ). The book is part of the Otoma Anime Collection books and contains character profiles, a story outline, an introduction to the world of Jewelpet, a listing of songs used in the series and interviews from both the cast and staff members of the series. The book was published on June 2, 2012.

See also: List of Jewelpet video games

Seven video games were also made to tie in with the toy and anime franchises, three were for the Nintendo DS, three for the Nintendo 3DS and one for the video game arcades in Japan.

Several musicals were held in Sanrio Puroland and Sanrio Harmonyland, featuring several of the Jewelpets: Ruby, Sapphie, Garnet, Labra, Angela, Charlotte, Jasper and Rosa. Ruby is a mascot costume at Puroland. Some of the musicals also feature other Sanrio characters. A musical based on the Kira Deco arc of the anime premiered in Japan in June 2012.

Jewelpet ranked 3rd place in the Bandai Child Questionnaire in June 2010, due to its popularity with children aged 6 to 8 years old and older females alike. The Character franchise is also one of the top 15 highly voted Sanrio Character Franchise in the 26th Sanrio Character Ranking in 2011, ranking into 14th place. It became the 6th highly voted Character Franchise in both the 27th and 28th Sanrio Character Ranking.

The first Jewelpet anime ranked 7th in the Kanto Video Research, from December 27, 2009 to January 3, 2010 after airing Episodes 39 and 40. Its sequel has received critical acclaim from fans and critics, making the first Sanrio funded anime to appeal in all demographics. The series' main character, Akari Sakura is also ranked 6th in Megahouse's Excellent Model Series 10th Anniversary poll.

In the press release by Sega Toys on October 1, 2012, the Jewel Pod Diamond sold about 160,000 units in less than two months since its release and topped the charts as the most sold girl's toy in Japan. The company had the target sales of 400,000 by the end of the year and had a combined total of 700,000 units sold on all three Jewel Pods.

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Sanrio Company, Ltd. (株式会社サンリオ, Kabushiki-gaisha Sanrio) is a Japanese entertainment company. It designs, licenses, and manufactures products focusing on the kawaii ("cute") segment of Japanese popular culture. Their products include stationery, school supplies, gifts, and accessories, which are sold worldwide, including at specialty brand retail stores in Japan. Sanrio's best-known character is Hello Kitty, a cartoon cat and one of the most successful marketing brands in the world.

Besides selling character goods, Sanrio takes part in film production and publishing. They own the rights to the Mr. Men characters and Japanese licensing rights to the Peanuts characters. Their animatronics branch, Kokoro Company, Ltd. (kokoro being Japanese for "heart"), is best known for the Actroid android. The company also runs several KFC franchises across Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture.

Shintaro Tsuji founded Sanrio on August 10, 1960, then known as the Yamanashi Silk Company using ¥1 million in capital. In 1962, Tsuji expanded his enterprise from silk to rubber sandals with flowers painted on them. Tsuji noticed his success gained by merely adding a cute design to the sandals. He began using existing cartoon characters for his merchandise. In the late 1960s the company began producing goods with the dog character Snoopy, from the American comic strip Peanuts, after acquiring the Japanese licensing rights.

In 1973 the company was officially established under the name Sanrio. In the book Kore ga Sanrio no Himitsu Desu (これがサンリオの秘密です) or These are Sanrio's Secrets Tsuji, Sanrio's founder, said that Yamanashi (山梨), part of the company's former name, has an alternative on'yomi reading of Sanri. The remaining o was added from the ou (オウ) sound people make when they are excited. The company's European website gives another origin of the name, saying the name comes from the Spanish words san ('holy') and río ('river').

Tsuji hired his own designers to create characters for Sanrio, so as to not have to pay outside royalty fees. The first original Sanrio character, Coro Chan, was introduced in 1973. Hello Kitty was added to the lineup of early Sanrio characters in 1974 and the first related merchandise was released the following year. The popular feline whose mouth is usually invisible has had both peaks and drops in sales over the years but always has been the highest contributor to Sanrio's sales. Sanrio constantly adds new characters to its lineup. Specific characters are rotated in and out of active production. For a short time, Osamu Tezuka's baby unicorn character Unico, who starred in two feature-length anime movies in the early 1980s, was also part of the Sanrio's lineup; however, the rights to Unico shifted to Osamu Tezuka's own company after Tezuka's death in 1989.

In late 2003, Sanrio won the "Top Brand with a Conscience" award from the Medinge Group of Sweden for its communication principles. The company has partnered with UNICEF since 1984. In 2006, Sanrio launched Sanrio Digital together with Typhoon Games to expand to the Internet, online games, and mobile services.

Beginning with Jewelpet in 2008, Sanrio started collaborating with Sega Toys in creating characters intended to become media franchises. Subsequent collaborations include Rilu Rilu Fairilu from 2016 and Beatcats from 2020.

2010 was Sanrio's 50th anniversary. In conjunction with this, Build-A-Bear Workshop released limited-edition stuffed toys of several Sanrio characters, including Hello Kitty, Chococat, My Melody and Keroppi.

Hello Kitty is alleged to be drawn in a similar style to the rabbit Miffy. On August 26, 2010, Mercis BV, representing Miffy's creator Dick Bruna, brought suit against Sanrio. They claimed that one of Hello Kitty's companion characters, a rabbit named Cathy, infringes on the copyright and trademark of Miffy. On November 2, 2010, a Dutch court ruled against Sanrio and ordered the company to stop marketing Cathy products in Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Following the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Sanrio and Mercis reached an out-of-court settlement on June 7, 2011, for Sanrio to halt production worldwide of merchandise that feature Cathy. They also jointly announced a €150,000 donation to earthquake victims.

In December 2011, Sanrio Global acquired the rights to the Mr. Men characters, which includes the subsidiary Mr Men Films Ltd, taking over Chorion's THOIP company.

In 2019 the European Commission fined Sanrio 6.2 million euros (approximately 6.9 million US dollars) for blocking cross-border sales of its licensed products.

In June 2020, it was announced that the company's founder and president, Shintaro Tsuji would step down from the role and hand control of the company to his grandson, Tomokuni Tsuji. Tomokuni was just 31 at the time, making him the youngest chief executive of a listed Japanese company. Shintaro Tsuji ran the company for 60 years.

Sanrio hosts two theme parks in Japan, Sanrio Puroland in Tama, Tokyo, and Harmonyland in Hiji, Ōita, Kyūshū.

Sanrio, Inc. is Sanrio's North American subsidiary. Sanrio, Inc. has offices in South San Francisco, California, and Torrance, California. Sanrio's first Western Hemisphere store opened in San Jose's Eastridge Mall. In 2008, Sanrio, Inc. opened its high-end boutique called Sanrio Luxe in New York City's Times Square. In the Western Hemisphere, Sanrio character-branded products are sold in upwards of 13,000 locations including department, specialty, and national chain stores and over 85 Sanrio boutiques. In April 2010, the first and only Sanrio-licensed eatery (Sanrio Cafe) in the U.S. opened at Pearlridge's Downtown phase in Aiea, Hawaii.

In 2004, Sanrio Co. Ltd., expanded its license to one of its major licensee and plush suppliers Nakajima USA to include the owning and operating of all Sanrio branded stores in the U.S., overseeing the relationships between individual licensed stores and supplying all categories of products for the retail stores in the US and wholesale accounts.

Main article: List of Sanrio characters

Sanrio has created over 450 characters as of 2022, the best known of which is the white cat character Hello Kitty from 1974. Other well-known characters include the rabbit My Melody from 1975, the frog Keroppi from 1988, the penguin Bad Badtz-Maru from 1993, the white dog Cinnamoroll from 2001, the rabbit Kuromi from 2005, the animal series Jewelpet from 2008, the egg character Gudetama from 2013, and the red panda Aggressive Retsuko from 2015.

Notable designers of Sanrio characters include Yuko Shimizu, original designer of Hello Kitty, Yuko Yamaguchi, lead designer for most of Hello Kitty's history, and Miyuki Okumura, original designer of Cinnamoroll.

Since 1986 Sanrio has held the annual Sanrio Character Ranking poll where fans can vote on their favorite characters. It began in the Strawberry Newspaper published by Sanrio in Japan, but now voting also takes place online.

Besides their own original characters, Sanrio also owns the rights to the Mr. Men characters and Japanese licensing rights to the Peanuts characters.

From 1977 to 1985, Sanrio produced movies through their Sanrio Films label. After A Journey Through Fairyland, Sanrio switched gears and started doing short films, OVAs, and TV shows based on their characters. In 2006, Sanrio announced they are again going to do feature-length films.

Sanrio began its involvement in the production of TV and direct-to-video animation during the late 1980s and early 1990s, starting with the US-made Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater in 1987. The character My Melody got her first starring role in an animated series in the anime television series, Onegai My Melody, which first aired on TV Osaka on April 3, 2005, and was produced by Studio Comet. The Sugarbunnies franchise was later adapted into a 7-minute short series in 2007 and was popular enough to gain two sequels.

Jewelpet was also adapted into an anime metaseries in 2009, which was also produced by Studio Comet, spanning 6 official seasons and one theatrical movie, making it the longest-running anime adaptation of a Sanrio franchise in history.

Show by Rock!!, a game by Sanrio and Geechs got an anime adaptation produced by Bones in 2015—and was licensed in the United States by Funimation. Aggretsuko also get three animated adaptations by Fanworks, one aired on TBS and the later two were released officially on Netflix.

A few children's variety shows by Sanrio aired on TV Tokyo.

Sanrio Digital produces and publishes digital content based on Sanrio intellectual property assets like Hello Kitty, My Melody, Badtz Maru and many others. Among the games are: Hello Kitty: Roller Rescue, Hello Kitty: Birthday Adventures, and Hello Kitty Seasons. Hello Kitty Island Adventure (2023) is a Sanrio game created for Apple Arcade, PC and Nintendo Switch.

Sanrio publishes many books featuring its own characters. It also publishes art books (for instance, those by Keibun Ōta). Sanrio publishes books in many languages, including Japanese and English. Sanrio published video games in the early 1990s under the name Character Soft.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sanrio.

Jewelpet (ジュエルペット, Juerupetto) are a group of animal characters created in 2008 as a joint-venture between Sanrio and Sega Toys. There are 42 

 the animals are named after famous birthstones, minerals, and jewels. They each have a different kind of sparkling jewel for their eyes, used for casting special magic called "Jewel Flash." They belong to magicians and live in a mystical place called Jewel Land, attending a school to learn more about magic, and each of them are paired with their own human partners.

Magical Red Class

Magical Green Class

Magical Blue Class

Magical Black Class

In the 2013 Character Ranking, if Jewelpet reached the top 5, a new idol unit would be created. However, they failed to reach that rank.

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