History Trivia / Anpanman

** Also extremely rare is an English version of the film ''Fly! Fly! Chibigon'', which was made in the mid-to-late 90's as a test pilot to get English TV stations to pick up the series. One of the actors in this pilot was Richard Kind, famous for playing Paul Lassiter on Series/SpinCity and Bing Bong in WesternAnimation/InsideOut as Baikinman.

** There's a streaming service in Japan called "Anpanman Channel" [[note]] Available on Nippon Television On Demand, Creator/{{Hulu}} Japan, and U-Next.[[/note]], which streams some episodes, including the ones that have never been released on DVD. However, there are two downsides to it: '''1.''' The only episodes on the service are just from 2010 and beyond (except for episode 1000, which aired in 2009), making the service useless to fans who want to legally watch the pre-2010 episodes online. '''2.''' The episodes are only available for a limited time. So if there's a particular episode on the service that you want to watch, don't put off watching it for too long.

** There's a streaming service in Japan called "Anpanman Channel" [[note]] Available on Nippon Television On Demand, Creator/{{Hulu}} Japan, and U-Next.[[/note]], which streams some episodes, including the ones that have never been released on DVD. However, there are two downsides to it: '''1.''' The only episodes on the service are just from 2010 and beyond, making the service useless to fans who want to legally watch the pre-2010 episodes online. '''2.''' The episodes are only available for a limited time. So if there's a particular episode on the service that you want to see, don't put off watching it for too long.

** Also extremely rare is an English version of the film "Fly! Fly! Chibigon'', which was made in the mid-to-late 90's as a test pilot to get English TV stations to pick up the series. One of the actors in this pilot was Richard Kind, famous for playing Paul Lassiter on Series/SpinCity and Bing Bong in WesternAnimation/InsideOut as Baikinman.

** However, this is technically averted in North America since the series currently airs in Japanese (with no subtitles) on TV Japan. There's still no word on an English dub, though.

* HeyItsThatVoice: Baikinman is voiced by Creator/RyuseiNakao, who was also [[Anime/DragonBall Freeza]]. Likewise, Dokinchan is [[Creator/HiromiTsuru Bulma]].
** Anpanman himself is Creator/KeikoToda, who was also the original voice to [[WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine Thomas]].
** In fact, many of the various former and current Thomas [=VAs=] in Japan did voices for Anpanman characters!
** As for other voice actors who worked on Western preschool shows who worked on Anpanman, Tonto is [[Series/EureekasCastle Eureeka]] and [=SLM=]an is [[WesternAnimation/MagicAdventuresOfMumfie Bristle]].

** Also extremely rare is an English version of the film "Fly! Fly! Chibigon'', which was made in the mid-to-late 90's as a test pilot to get English TV stations to pick up the series. One of the actors in this pilot was Richard Kind [[note]] (famous for playing Paul Lassiter on ''Series/SpinCity'' and Bing Bong in ''WesternAnimation/InsideOut''[[/note]] in his second children's role after ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryTheMovie''.

** Also extremely rare is an English version of the film "Fly! Fly! Chibigon'', which was made in the mid-to-late 90's as a test pilot to get English TV stations to pick up the series. One of the actors in this pilot was Richard Kind (famous for playing Paul Lassiter on SpinCity and Bing Bong in ''WesternAnimation/InsideOut'' fame in his second children's role after ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryTheMovie''.

** Also extremely rare is an English version of the film "Fly! Fly! Chibigon'', which was made as a test pilot to get English TV stations to pick up the series. One of the actors in this pilot was Richard Kind of SpinCity fame in his second children's role after ABugsLife.

** The 2012 adapts the book ''Anpanman and the Banana Dance'' (2012), with generous amounts of original material. As always, this will also get a picture-book treatment from the original author, which will be a [[RecursiveAdaptation book based on a movie based on another book of his]].

** Anpanman himself is KeikoToda, who was also the original voice to [[WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine Thomas]].

* ActorAllusion: Naganegiman is a parody of Zorro. His voice actor, AkioOhtsuka was the dub voice for Zorro in ''TheMaskOfZorro''.

** As for other VAs who worked on Western preschool shows, Tonto is [[Series/EureekasCastle Eureeka]] and SLMan is [[WesternAnimation/MagicAdventuresOfMumfie Bristle]].

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: With the series being as long in rarely exported, year-sorted episode packs in VHS and DVD with about a dozen each year, many, ''many'' episodes have never been officially released for home viewing. Likewise, with a publication history spanning the better part of four decades and 100+ titles, a large number of older ''Anpanman'' books are out of print (the 25-volume "Anpanman Mini-Books" series from 1983-'84 was only recently republished), and some stories (including the ''entirety'' of the monthly manga) appears never to have made it out of the periodicals where they were serialized. The last three years' worth of the newspaper strip (whose books only cover the first 18 months or so) is ''relatively'' easier to obtain, provided you have access to a library that collects old issues of the ''Yomiuri Shimbun''....

* TechnologyMarchesOn: In the original cel-animated episodes, Baikinman's control panel on his computer was a [[NintendoEntertainmentSystem Famicom controller]]. In the recent digital ink episodes, it's changed into a [[SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem Super Famicom controller]].

* HeyItsThatVoice: Baikinman is voiced by Creator/RyuseiNakao, who was also [[DragonBall Freeza]]. Likewise, Dokinchan is [[Creator/HiromiTsuru Bulma]].
** Anpanman himself is KeikoToda, who was also the original voice to [[ThomasTheTankEngine Thomas]].

* RelationshipVoiceActor: There's a lot of them, but here's an interesting one. In the "Yuukirinrin! ABC" video, one of the maids is voiced by Helen Morrison, who voices Arche Klein from the TalesOfPhantasia game. Melonpanna's voice actress, Mika Kanai, also voices the same character in the Japanese version of the game!

* HeyItsThatVoice: Baikinman is voiced by RyuseiNakao, who was also [[DragonBall Freeza]]. Likewise, Dokinchan is [[Creator/HiromiTsuru Bulma]].

* TechnologyMarchesOn: In the original cel-shaded episodes, Baikinman's control panel on his computer was a [[NintendoEntertainmentSystem Famicom controller]]. In the recent digital ink episodes, it's changed into a [[SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem Super Famicom controller]].

** Anpanman himself is KeikoToda, who was also the original voice to [[ThomasTheTankEngine Thomas].
** In fact, many of the various former and current Thomas VAs in Japan did voices for Anpanman characters!

* HeyItsThatVoice: Baikinman is voiced by RyuseiNakao, who was also [[DragonBall Freeza]]. Likewise, Dokinchan is [[HiromiTsuru Bulma]].

* TalkingToHimself: With a cast this large, it’s inevitable. To name just one example, KoichiYamadera is Cheese, Kabao-kun, and Kamameshidon, plus a number of side characters.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: The series being as long as it is, many, ''many'' episodes have never been officially released for home viewing. Likewise, with a publication history spanning the better part of four decades and 100+ titles, a large number of older ''Anpanman'' books are out of print (the 25-volume "Anpanman Mini-Books" series from 1983-'84 was only recently republished), and some stories (including the ''entirety'' of the monthly manga) appears never to have made it out of the periodicals where they were serialized. The last three years' worth of the newspaper strip (whose books only cover the first 18 months or so) is ''relatively'' easier to obtain, provided you have access to a library that collects old issues of the ''Yomiuri Shimbun''....