Yanase Takashi, Creator of 'Anpanman', Passed Away at 94
Yanase was born on February 6, 1919 and after graduating from an industrial design course, he worked on many jobs including industrial copywriting, publishing columns for newspapers, writing movie reviews for magazines, writing for and hosting radio programs, working on marketing for a department store chain, writing screenplays for television, writing songs and lyrics, as well as writing children's literature. In 1973, he created the character Anpanman, a superhero with a head that looked like "anpan", a bun filled with red bean paste which is very popular in Japan. The illustrated stories of "Anpanman" were serialized in the monthly picture book "Kinderbook".
In 1988, "Anpanman" was adapted into a TV anime series named "Sore Ike! Anpanman". The show proved to be extremely popular with children and their parents and is still ongoing with more than 1,200 episodes aired (it holds the Guinness record for "the animation series with the most characters" with almost 1,800 characters). Moreover, every year a movie on "Anpanman" has been released, with 25 films to date. "Anpanman" is also a huge merchandise franchise, with sales in 2010 estimated to be 1.1 trillion Yen (sponsorship deals excluded). It has also been adapted into games on many platforms.
Yanase was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure by the Japanese government in 1991. At the time of his death, he was the chairman of Nihon Mangaka Kyoukai (Japan Comic Artists' Association) and editor for the literature quarterly "Shi to Fantasy" (Poem and Fantasy).
Wikipedia page for Anpanman: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anpanman
Official Anpanman website: http://anpanman.jp/
Source: NHK, Yomiuri, Nikkei
20 of 32 Comments Recent Comments
Anpanman will be the 4th series that will be continued after creator's death, right?
Oct 19, 2013 8:35 AM by symbv
Oct 18, 2013 3:05 PM by kokoroanime
Oct 18, 2013 10:24 AM by MyNameSucks
Watched Anpanman when I was a kid. I loved it.
I love the Currypanman and Dokin-chan xD
Oct 16, 2013 12:10 AM by Sideliner
Oct 15, 2013 9:50 PM by deg
Oct 15, 2013 9:42 PM by Hiryu12
Oct 15, 2013 4:33 PM by BiiteYouToDeath
Oct 15, 2013 2:44 PM by Aveja
Oct 15, 2013 2:37 PM by Minagatachi
RIP
Oct 15, 2013 2:00 PM by AL19
Rest in peace
Oct 15, 2013 12:48 PM by TriZen
Oct 15, 2013 11:19 AM by Mr_Gutts
Oct 15, 2013 10:52 AM by FireHeart
Oct 15, 2013 10:51 AM by minimiau
R.I.P Thanks for a brighter childhood ^_^
Oct 15, 2013 10:46 AM by Aozure
Oct 15, 2013 10:43 AM by seikipunch
Oct 15, 2013 10:23 AM by bakatengu
Oct 15, 2013 10:12 AM by Nasty001
Anpanman was one of my childhood favorites.
Oct 15, 2013 10:00 AM by Chibi-Alice
Related Database Entries
Anime: | Sore Ike! Anpanman |
People: | Yanase, Takashi |
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Anpanman will be the 4th series that will be continued after creator's death, right?
Or maybe it would be like Doraemon? 40 years passed since the author died but the show is still popular.
Oct 19, 2013 9:44 AM by seikipunch