Kogepan

nihongo|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. 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" (beautiful bread), "kuriimupan" (a burnt cream bread), and Sumipan, a bread even more burnt than Kogepan.

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.

There have been three children's picture books published in the Kogepan series, written & drawn by Takahashi Miki:
*こげぱん：パンにも出会いがあるらしい... (Kogepan: Even Among Bread, They Meet One Another)
*こげぱん：パンにもいろいろあるらしい... (Kogepan: Even Among Bread, There Are Many Kinds)
*こげぱん：パンのしあわせってなんだろう... (Kogepan: What Is the Happiness of Bread?)

Trivia

Kogepan is seen in Willow and Tara's room in the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" episode "The Body".

External links

* [http://www.san-x.co.jp/pan/index.html San-X Official Kogepan Page] (Japanese)
* [http://pierrot.jp/title/kogepan/ Official Page - Anime] (Japanese)
* [http://www.burnedbread.com/ Unofficial Kogepan Site] (English)
* [http://www.lazyjuice.com/!/kogepan/ Kogepan's Story] (English)