His head is made from currypan, a pastry filled with red-hot curry. Currypanman ( カレーパンマン, Karēpanman) Voiced by: Michiyo Yanagisawa (Japanese) Paul Louis (English) Another of Anpanman's friends. Cheese tends to be an effective sidekick when he's around. In the anime, a young Anpanman finds Cheese starving during his very first patrol, and gives a part of his head to eat. In the manga, he became Anpanman's loyal friend after he saved his life. Cheese ( チーズ, Chīzu) Voiced by: Kōichi Yamadera (Japanese) Clay Cartland (English) A dog that lives in Uncle Jam's bakery. Her name literally translates to "Butter Girl." She makes and mends the capes of Anpanman and the other heroes in the story. She is dedicated and hard working, but prone to forgetting things. Batako-san ( バタコさん, Batako-san) Voiced by: Rei Sakuma (Japanese) Elaine Flores (English) Assistant to Uncle Jam. He is a skilled cook with knowledge of nearly everything in the world. Uncle Jam ( ジャムおじさん, Jamu Ojisan) Voiced by: Hiroshi Masuoka (1988–2019), Kōichi Yamadera (2019–present), Berry Tarallo (English) The creator of Anpanman and a very kind baker. He also has super hearing, which allows him to respond to anyone who calls his name out in distress, anywhere in the world.
This can also make him weaker and causes him to replace his head to regain his strength. When Anpanman comes across a starving creature or person, he lets them eat a part of his head.
Anpanman has two special attacks An-punch and An-kick (with stronger variations of both). In movies and other media, the shooting stars that brought Anpanman to life were called “the stars of life”. Anpanman was born when a shooting star landed in Uncle Jam's oven while he was baking an anpan. Anpanman's damaged head, with his eyes turning into X's, flies off his shoulders once a new baked head replaces it. He regains his health and strength when Uncle Jam bakes him a new head and replaces the old head. In order to prevent his head from getting wet when underwater or in wet weather, he wears a bubble-like helmet to protect it. His weaknesses are water and anything else that makes his head dirty. 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 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. Heroes Īnpan Anpanman ( アンパンマン, Anpanman) Voiced by: Keiko Toda (Japanese) Ghia Burns (English) The main character of the anime, whose head is an Anpan made by Uncle Jam.
In 2009, Anpanman was verified as a Guinness World Record Holder for the highest number of characters in an animated franchise, with a total of 1,768 characters appearing in the first 980 episodes of the TV series and the first 20 films. Anpanman has a long history, and new characters are frequently introduced, keeping the series fresh. He is a symbol of justice, fighting for good every day.
He goes on daily patrols around the house of Uncle Jam. In each episode, Anpanman fights with Baikinman and saves people. Works inspired by Anpanman include the manga and anime series One-Punch Man, and the K-pop song " Anpanman" by BTS.ĭuring the Second World War, Takashi Yanase faced starvation countless times, which made him dream about eating an anpan. Anpanman has sold over 80 million books as of February 2019, and the franchise generated ¥4.5 trillion in total retail sales revenue by 2013. Anpanman overtook Hello Kitty as Japan's top-grossing character in 2002, and has remained the country's top-grossing character as of 2019. The series spawned a short-lived spin-off show featuring one of the popular recurring characters on the show, Omusubiman. Heavily merchandised, the Anpanman characters appear on virtually every imaginable children's product in Japan, ranging from clothes and video games to toys and snack foods. 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. 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. Cover of the First Book, released under the "Kinder Ohanashi Ehon Masterpiece Selection" imprintġ,491 (2,860 segments) ( List of episodes)Īnpanman ( 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.