Kogepan
Kogepan (こげぱん) is a Japanese character from the company San-X, who, not unlike 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.
One day, Kogepan was disillusioned with his life as a burnt bread bun. He was jealous of all the other beautiful white buns around him. So, he left home and went on a smoking and drinking binge. Kogepan drinks milk, but to bread buns, milk is like beer. After 2 days, Kogepan came to his senses. He returned home to the bakery where he was born and began reading a self-help book titled "How to become a delicious 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 Suripan, 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?)