Day Of Anpanman 2015

The Day of Anpanman 2015 was a special day of programming hosted by Kabushiki Gaisha ABS. The Day of Anpanman 2015 was aired by multiple stations all over the world, including regional ABS affiliates in Japan, new regional sub-hosts in the Sovereignty of Dahrconia, Taiwan, China and the United States, and international ABS channels.
== Return of The DoA 2015 ==
A short Anpanman video clip mysteriously appeared on the ABS website just 3 months after the network claimed to have "totally scrapped" and "shut out" the franchise; the anpanman.abs.jp website was also brought back live. Some people claimed that this was signalling Anpanman's return to the ABS Television Network, and the potential return of the DoA. When asked for comment, Kenji Yukimura (head of Kabushiki Gaisha ABS) claimed that "he [Anpanman] is coming back, but don't expect us to go all-out and make him our network mascot, and we are most definitely NOT cancelling that new show that effectively took his place".
Kenji made no mention of the DoA in his Anpanman statement, however 12 days afterwards, it was confirmed that the DoA would be held in 2015. However, due to the late nature of this announcement, ABS has disclaimed that the DoA may not be held until late November at the earliest. ABS has now launched an "urgent setup plan" that aimed for the speedy revival of the DoA, and STB, HBS, Nippon TV, TMS Entertainment and many other Anpanman merchandise licensees have been contracted to head the operation.
Another statement released by ABS read:
"We have officially reversed our decision to cancel the Day of Anpanman event, and our 2015 edition of said event will indeed be held, albeit much later than scheduled, on the 20th of November 2015. Many overhauls to the format are expected in order to introduce brand new features and events, as well as stopping the total Anpanman lockout that lead to us cancelling the event. This is not going to be the date forever: The 2016 DoA, and all events held afterwards, will be scheduled annually for the 19th of May. However, new 'regional DoAs' will be held on a prefecture-by-prefecture basis on assorted dates that are yet to be announced."
Upon announcement of the "urgent setup plans", The Spyder Valley Translator District board members placed a call to Kenji Yukimura in regards to the return of the DoA. The board in a statement related to the fact there was interest in seeing at least one viewing of the DoA.
"We believe the people of The Spyder Valley should experience the Day of Anpanman one time in order to get a true sense of how the show [Let's Go! Anpanman] made it's impact within Japan. and to those who saw the DoA over the affiliates who carry the Aso Broadcasting System's programming. And in the interest of having this come to life, the board of directors for the district placed a call to Mr. Kenji Yukimura, and asked him if there was anything we could do on our end to assist in the return of the DoA."
ABS' American annexe announced on that day that it would support the Dahrconian DoA movement, and would hold events on the day within the Valley. In addition, as part of Kabushiki Gaisha ABS' foreign broadcast partnership programme, a dedicated run for Let's Go! Anpanman in the Spyder Valley on DNRCT-TV channel 30 was announced, with the series starting on November 20th, 2015 (coinciding with the date of the 2015 DoA). The show will be run by DNRCT alongside ABS International's broadcasts on a 1-hour timeshift.
This is not the only country/company running its own DoA events outside of Japan: ABS announced that it has currently appointed the following companies as the DoA's "International Hosts", who would hold a small number of their own Anpanman events on the day; see below.
Kabushiki Gaisha ABS would still be concentrating its own DoA efforts on Japan, but will work with its international partners to make sure that the 2015 DoA attracts more global attention than their previous efforts. This ties in with Froebel-Kan's/TMS'/Nippon TV's plans to expand the franchise's outreach further outside of Japan (the first stage of which happened by opening its first ever official merchandise store in Taiwan).
Advertising campaigns that were being "executed on such a scale, that the amount of effort and work going into them is totally immeasurable", according to ABS insider Yamajima Kunimoto, were launched across the world in order to attract attention to the new DoA.
== Reception ==
Generally the DoA was well received by viewers across it's broadcast affiliates. This reception was especially well received in the Spyder Valley, who broadcast the Day of Anpanman via the Spyder Valley Translator District on DNRCT-TV.
ABS was initially unsure as to how the event would fare in Japan after being cancelled, but its new scheduling policy (allowing major non-Anpanman programmes that last no more than 30 minutes to air once every 3 hours) made for a less patronising DoA than before. This meant more people, who were fans of other ABS programming, were drawn in.