Anpanman
Anpanman (アンパンマン) is a Japanese children’s superhero picture book series written by Takashi Yanase, running from 1973 until the author’s death in 2013. The series has been adapted into an anime entitled Soreike! Anpanman (それいけ!アンパンマン, Let’s Go! Anpanman), which is one of the most popular anime series among young children in Japan. The series follows the adventures of Anpanman, a superhero with an anpan (a red bean paste filled pastry) for a head, who protects the world from an evil anthropomorphic germ named Baikinman.
Heavily merchandised, the Anpanman characters appear on virtually every imaginable children’s product in Japan, ranging from clothes[2] and video games to toys[3] and snack foods.[4] The series spawned a short-lived spin-off show featuring one of the popular recurring characters on the show, Omusubiman. Anpanman overtook Hello Kitty as Japan’s top-grossing character in 2002,[5] and has remained the country’s top-grossing character as of 2019.[6][7] Anpanman has sold over 80 million books as of February 2019, the franchise generated ¥4.5 trillion in total retail sales revenue by 2013. Works inspired by Anpanman include the manga and anime series One-Punch Man, and the K-pop song “Anpanman” by BTS.
Voiced by: Keiko Toda (Japanese); Ghia Burns[8][9] (English)
The main character of the anime, whose head is a Anpan made by Uncle Jam. His name comes from his being a man whose head is made of bread (Japanese: pan) that is filled with red bean paste (Japanese: anko) called an anpan. When translated into English, Anpanman means “Bean Bun Man.” He doesn’t need to eat or drink to sustain himself and has never been seen eating, as it is believed the bean jam in his head allows him to sustain himself in this manner. His weaknesses are water and anything else that makes his head dirty. In order to prevent his head from getting wet when underwater or in wet weather, he wears a bubble-like helmet to protect it. He regains his health and strength when Uncle Jam bakes him a new head and replaces the old head. Anpanman’s damaged head, with his eyes turning into X’s, flies off his shoulders once a new baked head replaces it. Anpanman was born when a shooting star landed in Uncle Jam’s oven while he was baking an anpan. In movies and other media, the shooting stars that brought Anpanman to life were called “the stars of life”. Anpanman has two special attacks; An-punch and An-kick (with stronger variations of both). When Anpanman comes across a starving creature or person, he lets them eat a part of his head. This can also make him weaker and causes him to replace his head to regain his strength. He also has super hearing, which allows him to respond to anyone who calls his name out in distress, anywhere in the world.
Voiced by: Hiromi Tsuru (1988–2017), Rei Sakuma (2017 Christmas Special), Miina Tominaga (2018–present),[12] Krystal Valdes (English)
Baikinman’s female partner in crime. She is selfish, demanding, childish, and greedy, but sometimes shows kindness, as demonstrated by her crush on Shokupanman. Her Japanese name is a combination of “Doki”, the Japanese onomatopoeia for a quickly beating heart, “baikin” (meaning “germ”, also the case for Baikinman), and the diminutive/affectionate suffix “-chan”. She first appeared in episode 13a. In the English TMS Entertainment website, she was called Spark, however in the English Tubi dub she’s called Dokeen
The villain from the “Germ Planet” and is the leader of the Viruses. His Japanese name means “Bacteria Man”. His ambition is to destroy Anpanman and spread bacteria all over the latter’s world, yet he is perfectly content to play tricks, steal, and bully those weaker than him. He and Anpanman were born at the same time, making them physical representations of moral dualism. He has a weakness to soap, which shrinks him to the size of a fly. He constructs machines and thinks of intricate plans to counteract Anpanman’s strength. His two famous phrases are his battle-cry, “Ha-hi-hu-he-ho!” (based on the h-row of Japanese kana); and “Bye-baikiiin!”, which he utters out whenever he’s sent flying by Anpanman or another character. In the English TMS Entertainment website, he was called Bacteriaman. In the English Tubi Dub, he keeps his original Japanese name. Anpanman and his main enemy Baikinman combine in the view of the media expert Thomas Hoeren elements of Milton Paradise Lost, Frankenstein (Roman) and Star Trek[11]
