Kogepan (こげぱん) is a Japanese character from the company San-X, who, like Sanrio creations Hello Kitty and Badtz Maru, can be found in books, anime, toys, stationery, and a number of other formats.[1] The character is a burnt red bean bread bun who lives in a panya (Japanese bakery), trying to fit in and make friends with the other bread items. The name comes from kogeru, meaning to burn or char, and pan, a gairaigo word taken from Portuguese and meaning bread.
There are a number of other characters (breads) in the panya with Kogepan, including ichigopan (strawberry bread), kireipan (beautifully baked red bean bread), kuriimupan (a burnt cream bread), and Sumipan, a bread even more burnt than Kogepan.
Media
Anime
The anime series, animated by Studio Pierrot and produced by Pony Canyon, consisted of ten 4-minute shorts, the majority of which introduce simple aspects of the character.[2]
Books
There have been three children's picture books published in the Kogepan series, written & drawn by Takahashi Miki:
Kogepan: Even Among Bread, They Meet One Another (こげぱん：パンにも出会いがあるらしい...)
Kogepan: Even Among Bread, There Are Many Kinds (こげぱん：パンにもいろいろあるらしい...)
Kogepan: What Is the Happiness of Bread? (こげぱん：パンのしあわせってなんだろう...)
References
^de Vries, Nadia (2016). "Under the Yolk of Consumption: Re-Envisioning the Cute as Consumable". In Dale, Joshua Paul; Goggin, Joyce; Leyda, Julia; McIntyre, Anthony P.; Negra, Diane (eds.). The Aesthetics and Affects of Cuteness. Routledge. ISBN9781317331308.
^Clements, Jonathan; McCarthy, Helen (2015). The Anime Encyclopedia, 3rd Revised Edition: A Century of Japanese Animation. Stone Bridge Press. ISBN9781611729092.
