Anpanman: the hero with a bean-bun head

Created in 1973 by Takashi Yanase, Anpanman is one of the most beloved and famous characters in Japan. Soreike! Anpanman has been airing since October 3, 1988, and Nippon TV was still listing new episodes in October 2026. Each episode lasts approximately 24 minutes and is divided into two parts.

The figure of Anpanman is widely used on children's products: clothes, toys, video games and food. By 2006, the picture books from Froebel-kan had already sold more than 50 million copies in Japan. The publisher's own timeline later puts that total past 90 million, counting the books drawn in the anime style. On August 28, 2009, the show reached its 1,000th episode.

A little about Anpanman's history

The name of our hero comes from anpan, a bun filled with sweet red bean paste. Uncle Jam (Jamu Ojisan), a skilled baker, makes Anpanman. The anime shows a shooting star falling into the oven while an anpan is baking, and that bun becomes the hero's head.

Anpanman does not need to eat, because his head is already made of sweet bean bun. His "kryptonite" is water or anything that makes his head dirty. When that happens, Uncle Jam bakes a new head, and Anpanman gets his strength back.

Baikinman comes from the Germ Planet. He aims to destroy Anpanman and his friends, and to spread germs and bacteria.

Anpanman counts on the help of friends who are also shaped like food. One of them is Currypanman, named after currypan, a bun filled with curry. Another is Melonpanna, whose head is melon pan, a sweet bun with a crust scored like a melon. Her main power is a punch that leaves an enemy dazed with affection. Shokupanman has a head of shokupan, the square white loaf.

Takashi Yanase went hungry during the Second World War, and he dreamed of eating an anpan. In the stories, Anpanman and his friends take pieces from their own heads to feed those in need. The heroes of this story do not accept seeing anyone in need.

Curiosities about Anpanman

• In June 2011, Bandai reported that parents of children aged 0 to 12 had ranked Anpanman first for the tenth straight year. In the 2015 poll, Yo-kai Watch took that place.
• The Korean group BTS released the song "Anpanman" in May 2018, on the album Love Yourself: Tear, and they have performed it in concert.
• On June 23, 2009, Guinness World Records listed Soreike! Anpanman as the animation series with the most characters: 1,768, from the first 980 episodes and the first 20 films.
• Takashi Yanase died of heart failure on October 13, 2013. He was 94.
• The Japanese title of One-Punch Man is Wanpanman, which echoes Anpanman. In that anime, the first villain, Vaccine Man, shares Baikinman's voice actor, Ryusei Nakao.

The An-punch sends Baikinman flying, and he comes back. Yanase stayed with that pattern until 2013, and the television series kept it after him.