Soreike! Anpanman

Soreike! Anpanman (それいけ!アンパンマン, also advertised as Let's Go! Anpanman) is a Japanese animated children's TV series.
== Main premise ==
See the Wikipedia article for more information.
== History ==
Takashi Yanase first created Anpanman as a character who appeared in a series of picture books written by him, starting from 1973.Proposals for an anime series were drawn up for a scheduled premiere in 1987, but it took until October 1988 for the show to actually start airing on Nippon Television. The series became quickly one of the most popular amongst young children in Japan, spawning massive lines of merchandise, more than 25 feature films starring Anpanman, and over 1000 TV episodes. The show originally aired every Monday.
In November 1988, the Aso Broadcasting System added the show to its schedule, airing with English subtitles on Fridays. The 398th episode aired on a Friday (4th of October 1996), permanently changing its timeslot. Episode 588 was the first episode of the show to have been created using digital editing, with all subsequent episodes from November 10th 2000 onwards being created using this method.
The show reached a milestone of 1000 episodes aired on August 28th, 2009. Just 28 episodes later, Nippon Television started producing and airing the show in HD (the HD version of the show had no subtitles until August 24th, 2011, when ABS converted to full HD broadcasting). A 2011 survey confirmed that he was the most popular character amongst Japanese children for 10 consecutive years.
ABS dedicated an entire day of programming to the franchise in 2013. The "Day of Anpanman" has since become an annual event.
ABS dropped the show and placed the DoA into an extended hiatus on the 17th of May, 2015. The show's English-language webpage, letsgoanpanman.com, ceased to exist as well, asking users to either go to the Japanese website (anpanman.jp), or to ABS' front page (abs.jp). Nippon TV continued to air the show, but refused to air it with English subtitles in the same manner as ABS did.
3 months after the show was dropped from ABS schedules, Anpanman animation appeared in a video that surfaced on the 27th of September, 2015. The video allegedly beared an ABS watermark, sparking rumors that Anpanman would return to the network after being "scrapped" and "cancelled". A new English-language website, anpanman.abs.jp, launched on the same day, and letsgoanpanman.com was brought back online, as an English-language mirror of anpanman.jp.
12 days after the relaunch of its Anpanman websites, Kabushiki Gaisha ABS had officially announced that the Anpanman anime series would be coming out of hiatus, and subtitled versions would return on the 20th of November, scheduled to tie in with the "revived" 2015 Day of Anpanman, which ABS launched "urgent setup plans" for.
Aggressive marketing campaigns and "a brand-new, overhauled version of the show for English-speaking audiences" were initiated, and Shikoku Television Broadcasting even expressed interest in producing an English dub that would be distributed to other countries. The confirmation of such a dub's production, or even acknowledgement of the proposal, is yet to be received.
== Presentation ==
=== Opening and credits ===
The show's theme song, Anpanman's March (アンパンマンのマーチ, Anpanman no Machi) has become synonymous with the entire Anpanman franchise ever since the TV series' debut.
Numerous songs have been used in the ending credits sequence. 4 have been known to be played after the show on a regular basis:
* Yuuki Rin Rin (勇気りんりん)
* Anpanman Taisou (アンパンマンたいそう)
* San San Taisou (サンサンたいそう)
* Do, Re, Mi, Fa... Anpanman! (ドレミファアンパンマン)
Out of all four of these songs, Yuuki Rin Rin and San San Taisou are amongst the most frequently used.
Ever since 2010, ABS viewers noted Do, Re, Mi, Fa... Anpanman! as the only ending song used by the network. When an episode uses another ED song, ABS places their ending sequence over it, overriding the other themes. Despite many rumours about the exact reasons behind this, no explanation has been given by Kabushiki Gaisha ABS as of November 2015.
=== Advertising ===
ABS has aggressively marketed Anpanman's return to the network in late 2015, through the use of commercial spots and on-screen graphics appearing in other shows.
== Commonly-mocked Anpanman topics ==
=== Translation of the name "Soreike! Anpanman" ===
The actual representation of the show's name, in romaji and English, is disputed.
The romaji transliteration of the name can take two different forms:
* Soreike! Anpanman (most commonly used)
* Sore Ike! Anpanman
In addition, there is no officially agreed-upon English name for the franchise. Two different translated forms of the name are commonly used:
* Let's Go! Anpanman (official name according to Japanese multicultural TV operator Kabushiki Gaisha ABS)
* Go! Anpanman (most frequently mentioned English translation; not commonly used in practise)
* Anpanman (informal term used to refer to the franchise as a whole. Also used for international adaptations aired on other networks)
=== Takedowns ===
A fully fansubbed episode ("Anpanman and Tin Kid") was previously available on YouTube alongside many clips from other parts of the show until 2013, when TMS Entertainment started a chain of automated copyright takedowns involving numerous unofficially uploaded Anpanman clips. Those who did not get their videos blocked suddenly decided to delete all of their Anpanman anime content from their channels as a preventive measure. ABS even admitted, in April 2014, to sending private messages in bulk to the uploaders warning them about this situation.
Some people attribute this to the rising popularity of the officially-supported ABS Anywhere on-demand service, which alongside all its other shows, had an archive of officially subtitled Let's Go! Anpanman episodes stretching as far back as 2005, including feature-length specials. Others speculate that it was simply a corporate decision by TMS to ban the re-uploading of their anime clips, seeing as many other shows came under the same Content-ID banhammer.
ABS denies all responsibility for the mass deletion of the videos, blaming TMS instead. Despite this claim against the company's practises, they maintain a very tight relationship with each other, working together on shows such as PaRappa The Rapper and Kiteretsu Daihyakka.
== External links ==
* Anpanman's official website
Category:Television programs established in 1988
Category:Aso Broadcasting System
Category:Anime
Category:Day of Anpanman