TMS Entertainment
- Start
- Oct 3, 198892% CONFIDENCEfrom myanimelist.net
Sore Ike! Anpanman Premieres
- 65%average
2 sources - AniList63%
- MyAnimeList6.79/10
TMS Entertainment's Soreike! Anpanman, based on Takashi Yanase's picture books, began its decades-long run on Nippon TV, making the bean-bun superhero Japan's defining preschool anime.
- Soreike! Anpanman by TMS Entertainment premiered on Nippon TV on 3 October 1988 and is still airing, with over 1,300 episodes[1][2]
- Based on Takashi Yanase's picture books (from 1973); Anpanman, a hero with an anpan for a head, fights the germ Baikinman[1][2]
- A full-length film has been released yearly since 1989 except 2020, along with 32 Christmas specials[2]
- The franchise overtook Hello Kitty as Japan's top-grossing character in 2002, with over 80 million books sold as of February 2019[2]
- It holds a 2009 Guinness World Record for most characters in an animated franchise (1,768)[2]
References 290% CONFIDENCE
The first entry is always the pin's source. Overall confidence is a weighted average of how firmly each reference supports the start and end times used above; a reference counts half as much for every 180 days older than the newest.
- [1]92%Sore Ike! Anpanman Premieresmyanimelist.net· Posted Sep 19, 2026· Starts Oct 3, 1988· 50% of score
Premiere date confirmed on the title's own MyAnimeList listing.
- [2]88%Anpanman on Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org· Added Sep 19, 2026· 50% of score
Wikipedia's Anpanman article confirms TMS Entertainment, the October 3, 1988 NTV premiere and the Guinness character record.
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