Kogepan

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. Kogepan was created by Miki Takahashi (ja:たかはしみき, Takahashi Miki) in the year 2000.^[2]

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.^[3]

Books

There have been three children's picture books published in the Kogepan series, written & drawn by Miki Takahashi:

• 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...)

In 2021 the first Kogepan book in about 15 years was published in Japan.^[4]