Anpanman cartoon superhero's creator, Takashi Yanase, dies aged 94
Takashi Yanase's self-sacrificial superhero cartoon creation a hit at home and in East Asia
Wednesday, 16 October, 2013 [Updated: 3:28AM]
Associated Press in Tokyo
Takase Yanashi at an Anpanman exhibition in May. Photo: AFP
Takashi Yanase, creator of one of Japan's most beloved cartoon characters, Anpanman, has died of heart failure, his studio said yesterday. He was 94.
Yanase died at a Tokyo hospital early on Sunday, it said. He had been treated for liver cancer since August.
Anpanman is a superhero with the head made of anpan, or bread filled with red bean paste, a typical snack in Japan. In the cartoon, the round-faced, smiley hero, clad in a red suit and long cape, fights his arch-rival Baikinman, or a germ man, while rescuing the weak.
The self-sacrificial hero, who even allowed starving people to bite into his head, rose to stardom in Japan in a picture book series that started in 1973, and racked up sales totaling 68 million copies over the past 30 years. The Anpanman television cartoon series started in 1988, and has spread across Asia. It is popular in places including Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The cartoon series, Let's go! Anpanman, entered the Guinness World Records in 2009 for the largest number of characters, at more than 1,700.
A former graphic designer, Yanase debuted as a cartoonist and served as lecturer on a "manga school" quiz show on Japan's NHK television.
"Mr Yanase was the Anpanman. He embraced us gently and taught us to share," actress Keiko Toda, whose voice was used for Anpanman's character on the TV show, said. "We've lost a precious guiding post."
Makoto Amano, an official at the publishing agent, said Yanase had briefly retired before the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters, but returned to work after learning an Anpanman theme song was cheering up people in the disaster-hit region, Kyodo reported.
