Anpanman is the hero of this beloved anime and picture book series, and yes, his head is literally a bun. Uncle Jam created him when a shooting star mysteriously landed in his oven mid-bake, resulting in a sentient superhero whose entire head is made of red bean paste-filled bread (anpan, in Japanese). It's exactly as charming and absurd as it sounds.
Unlike most characters, Anpanman doesn't eat or drink—the bean jam packed inside his head is all he needs to survive. His design comes with a pretty significant weakness though: water and anything that dirties his head can seriously damage him. Fortunately, Uncle Jam is always ready to bake him a replacement. When a fresh head lands on his shoulders, the old one (complete with those iconic X-eyes) flies right off.
What makes Anpanman genuinely heroic isn't his powers—though he can throw an An-punch and An-kick, with powered-up variations of both. It's his willingness to literally give a piece of himself to anyone starving. Whenever he encounters someone in need, he tears off part of his own head to feed them. He's also got incredible super hearing that lets him pick up anyone calling his name in distress, no matter where they are in the world.
He typically operates as part of a trio alongside Shokupanman and Currypanman, making for a bread-themed hero team that's absolutely iconic in Japanese children's media.
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
