I think a good way to go about it might be to focus on famous fictional characters (particularly female ones, of course) that are associated with certain states. That, and popular people from history and/or pop culture that are associated with the state.
For example, Kansas is associated with Dorothy ("Toto, I have a feeling that we're not in
Kansas any more.") and Superman (grew up in Smallville,
Kansas). Maybe the "anime" version of Kansas should be Dorothy with a Superman-based color redesign and a red cape.
Her dog Toto could easily be made into a cute anime-esque critter, too.
Also, the girl who represents Kentucky should probably borrow a bit from Col. Sanders of KFC fame (especially since the Col. has made some appearances in actual anime shows
).