is a Japanese character from the company

San-X is a Japanese stationery company known for creating and marketing cute characters such as Tarepanda, Rilakkuma, and Sumikko Gurashi. The characters are usually anthropomorphic representations of animals or inanimate objects. Each character ha ...

, who, like

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creations

Hello Kitty , also known by her real name , is a fictional character created by Yuko Shimizu, currently designed by Yuko Yamaguchi, and owned by the Japanese company Sanrio. Sanrio depicts Hello Kitty as a British anthropomorphized white cat with a red ...

and Badtz Maru, can be found in books,

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

, 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 is Japanese for "loan word", and indicates a transcription into Japanese. In particular, the word usually refers to a Japanese word of foreign origin that was not borrowed in ancient times from Old or Middle Chinese (especially Literary Chine ...

'' 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'' (beautifully baked red bean bread), ''kuriimupan'' (a burnt cream bread), and Sumipan, a bread even more burnt than Kogepan.

Media

Anime

The

series, animated by

Studio Pierrot , previously known as until 2002, is a Japanese animation studio established in May 1979 by Yuji Nunokawa, previously an animator and director for Tatsunoko Production. Its headquarters are located in Mitaka, Tokyo. Pierrot is renowned for ...

and produced by

Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese company, established on October 1, 1966, which distributes music, films, home video, and video games. It is affiliated with the Japanese media group Fujisankei Communications Group. Pony Canyo ...

, consisted of ten 4-minute shorts, the majority of which introduce simple aspects of the character.

Books

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

References

External links

San-X Official Kogepan Page

* Animax original programming Fictional food characters San-X characters Pierrot (company) {{fict-char-stub