Shella's World

Jewelpet (ジュエルペット, Juerupetto^?) is a Japanese media franchise and toy line created in 2008 as a joint venture between Sanrio and Sega Sammy Holdings, illustrated by the third character designer of Hello Kitty, Yuko Yamaguchi.^[1] The character series was originally released on January 15, 2008, focusing on animals named after jewels, birthstones and minerals, who can use magic using their eyes.^[2]
Due to the success of the franchise, Sanrio and Sega Sammy Holdings expanded the Jewelpet franchise overseas, but it is unknown if the expansion plan will ever include the United States. The franchise is currently been licensed by Giochi Preziosi for its European release.

 

Story

One day in an antique shop, there is a magical Jewel Box which is sitting there for centuries and shines in very bright colors. A strange girl accidentally encountered the box and opened it, causing a strange light to shine and the girl sucked inside. The next thing she knew, she is now in a strange new world that shines like jewels. It was written in the signs as Jewel Land and the girl is amazed, everything shines in bright colors and decorated in all kinds of jewels. At the center of the town spots a strange tower, also decorated with magical jewels. The girls decided to go to the tower and went inside.
The girl was greeted by a princess and is happy to see the girl as she offers her an apple. Then the Princess offer her a jewel as the girl accepts and as soon as the jewel is in the girl's hand, it then magically transformed into an animal-like creature. The Princess said the creature the girl has now is called a Jewelpet, and each of them live in Jewel Land. However, she also told her the crisis that Jewel Land is facing as the magic in the world is starting to vanish. She told the girl that she must raise that Jewelpet she had into a full pledged magician.
Jewel Land is the name of the world where all Jewelpets live. Each Jewelpet differs from their magical Jewel Eyes and depends on the Human Partner that awakens them and use magic whenever they needed to. They all study magic along with their partners in a special school in Jewel Land for them to become master magicians and both the pets and their partners must endure a lot of hardships and even trouble. With each care the human partners give to the Jewelpet, the pets loves them back in return.
For a Jewelpet to become a Full Pledged Magician, it must go through a lot of rigorous training and studying along with their human partners to prevent the crisis in Jewel Land. If the Jewelpet becomes a Full Pledged Magician, I'll be rewarded with a magical Jewel Cloak, as a symbol of mastery over its magic.^[3]

History

The Jewelpet franchise first debuted on January 15, 2008 as the first collaborative project between Sanrio and Sega Sammy Holdings. The franchise originally started off with 33 characters and each of them were best sellers during the summer of that year with each of the toys having internet connectivity capabilities using special passwords. As the series entered its first year in 2009, its first anime series was aired.
In February 2010, 600 kinds of merchandise of the series were all made with over 25 licensed companies for its overseas and domestic expansion. On March 11, 2010, the 34th Jewelpet, Labra, officially debuted in the character series. The characters made their official debut as meetable characters in Sanrio Puroland with their first two musicals: 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 in the series: 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 in the series alongside 11 new characters in the new subline of the series 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 in the series: Coal and Granite. Jewel Land Online ended its service in that date as well. In June 2012, the Puroland Musical 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^?) debuted in conjunction with the fourth anime series. In August 2012, its first official theatrical movie was released in Japanese cinemas with the introduction of the 13th Sweetspet, Gumimin.
In the January 2013 Issue of Pucchigumi magazine, the 40th Jewelpet in the franchise, Rossa was officially revealed.^[4]

Media

 Sega Toys collaborated with Sanrio to release a line of plush toys featuring the characters from the series which were released 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.

Merchandise

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 toys. Each of the merchandise released were all sponsored by Sanrio, Sega and Bandai, along other companies as well. 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.^[5]

Anime

An anime adaptation of the series 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. The series also recently aired in Taiwan on YOYO TV, and premiered as part the Boing programming block on the Telecinco television network in Spain in April 2010.^[6] In February 2011 the series aired in Italy on Italia 1. A second series, titled Jewelpet Twinkle☆ (ジュエルペット てぃんくる☆, Juerupetto Tinkuru☆^?) began airing on TV Tokyo on April 3, 2010 and concluded its broadcast on April 2, 2011. A third series titled Jewelpet Sunshine (ジュエルペット サンシャイン, Juerupetto Sanshain^?) premiered in 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.^[7] A fifth series titled Jewelpet Happiness (ジュエルペット ハッピネス, Juerupetto happinesu^?)^[8] was first revealed on the March Issue of Pucchigumi and will premiere on April 6, 2013.^[9]
The character designs of the Jewelpets and the human characters were handled by Tomoko Miyakawa of Onegai My Melody fame in the first and fourth series. Yukiko Ibe, character designer of Nanatsuiro Drops handles the human character designs for the second series while Mariko Fujita, character designer of Galaxy Angel handles the human character designs for the third series.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewelpet