Anpanman Chocolate Treat
I was very impressed with the above package design the minute I spotted it at my local Japanese grocery store, matching the cartoon body to the chocolate face brings the character to life in a wonderful way (or a chocolate death in your mouth). The character featured on the chocolate treat is Anpanman, who I admit that I haven’t heard of before even though I’ve been following anime for too many years. So running to Wikipedia I found this interesting entry for Anpanman:
“Anpanman, written by Takashi Yanase, a Japanese writer of children’s stories, is one of the most popular anime cartoon series in Japan. It is produced by Nippon Television Network Corporation. Each animated cartoon is approximately 24 minutes long split into 2 episodes of approximately 12 minutes each. Yanase has been writing Anpanman since 1968. The television series called Soreike! Anpanman (それいけ！アンパンマン Go! Anpanman?) has been on the air in Japan since 1988. Yanase became inspired by the idea of Anpanman while struggling to survive as a soldier in World War II. He many times became faced with the prospect of starvation which made him dream about eating a bean-jam filled pastry called Anpan.”
Here’s the official website for the show:
And here’s a bit from the show: