Hamtaro

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Revision as of 20:30, 16 August 2007

Hamtaro (とっとこハム太郎, Tottoko Hamutarou) is an anime about the adventures of a hamster named Hamtaro and his hamster friends. Tottoko Hamutarou first started out as a children's picture book, written and drawn by its creator Ritsuko Kawai. Ritsuko Kawai eventally began on a Tottoko Hamutarou manga which has been serialized in Ciao, a Japanese magazine.

The series was eventally produced into an anime, and aired on TV Tokyo from July 7, 2000 until the series' conclusion in March 31, 2006. By it's end, Tottoko Hamutarou had about 224 TV episodes, a couple of OVAs, four movies, and six Nintendo video games(all for the handheld systems).

As of April 5, 2006, Tottoko Hamutarou was able to 'continue' on in a seperate anime produced by a different company. The five-minute series is known as Tottoko Hamutaro: Norisuta Hai!. Like the original Tottoko Hamutarou series, Tottoko Hamutaro: Norisuta Hai! has inspired another Tottoko Hamutaro Nintendo video game for the Nintendo DS.

Overview

The inside of the secert, underground Ham-Ham Clubhouse.

Hamtaro is about a golden hamster named Hamtaro whom moves with his owner, Laura Haruna and her family, to a new neighbourhood. Hamtaro then finds a way to escape his hamster cage and safety of his family's house, and already starts to meet various other hamsters. In the second episode, Hamtaro and some of his hamster friends decide to form a club just for Ham-Hams (Hamuchans in the original).

From there, Hamtaro and his friends share many adventures. The genre of this anime could be considered to be a "Slice of Life", as there is really no actual plot. Nearly all the episodes hold a life lesson at the end, mostly things like being nice, saying sorry, keeping promises etc.

Primary Characters

A screenshot of the American opening theme, featuring the entire hamster primary cast.

Tottoko Hamutarou has many characters, espically those based on hamsters. Many of the characters are minor, and don't appear in a lot of episode(but usually appear more than once). This list contains the primary characters that are seen more often. The others will be listed under their respective catagories.

Hamutarou ((ハム太郎 Hamutarou. Also sometimes ハム太郎くん Hamutarou-kun) / Hamtaro He is the main character of the Tottoko Hamutarou anime, books, manga, video games, OVAs and the movies. He loves to make new friends and often hangs out in the Ham-Ham Clubhouse. He doesn't know of Bijou's feelings toward him.

Ribon (リボンちゃん Ribon-chan) / Bijou Bijou is a hamster who used in live somewhere in France with her owner, Maria. Maria and her family have since moved into a mansion in Japan. Bijou apparently seems to have a crush on Hamtaro, and dosen't know about Boss's feelings.

Koushi (こうしくん Koushi-kun) / Oxnard Oxnard is Hamtaro's best friend, and the pet hamster of Kana Iwata who is Laura Haruna's best friend. He is a chubby hamster who likes to eat sunflower seeds. He also loves a hamster named Pepper, and married her in the final Japanese Tottoko Hamutarou episode.

Taisho (大将君 or タイショーくん Taisho-kun) / Boss Boss is a gruff field hamster, who owns many underground tunnels. His house is also underground. In epsiode two, the hamsters all pitched in to turn his house into the Ham-Ham Clubhouse(doubling as his house and a club). Boss is in love with Bijou, who doesn't know his feelings. He tries to tell her, but he keeps messing up.

Maido (まいどくん Maido-kun) / Howdy Howdy's owner is Goldie, a woman who owns a small market store. His Japanese family seems to be very keen in their Japanese culture. In the American dub however, Howdy and his human family are protrayed as western folk with western accents. Howdy loves to tell jokes and thinks he is funny, alhough he is not and no one laughs at his jokes. He is in love with Pashmina, and is rivals with Dexter for her affection.

Megane (めがねくん Megane-kun) / Dexter Dexter's owner is Curtis, a 'gentleman' who owns an eye glasses store. Like his owner, Dexter is very formal and loves eyeglasses. Dexter is in love with Pashmina, and is rivals with Howdy for her affection.

Mafura (マフラーちゃん Mafura-chan) / Pashmina Pashmina is a girl hamster. She is never seen without the pink scarf she always wears. Pashmina once mentioned that her owner knitted it for her with love. Pashmina is best friends with Penelope, and the two can never be seperated. Unfortunly her caring toward Penelope, gives Dexter and Howdy a chance to babysit Penelope for the sole purpose of 'impressing' Pashmina. Pashmina is in no interest to be in a love life with anyone.

Chibimaru (ちびまるちゃん Chibimaru-chan) / Penelope Penelope is a baby hamster, she is always seen with a yellow cloth over her head. It was proven in some offical drawings that she looks like Maxwell under her cloth. Penelope can only say "Ook-wee'" and "Ook-you", a baby talk that hamsters say when they don't know how to speak yet. Penelope is Pashmina's best friend, and is often babysat by her.

Torahamu-chan (トラハムちゃん Torahamu-chan) / Sandy Sandy has the markings of a tiger, hence her name. Her personality can only be described as a 'valley girl'. Sandy has a obsession with gymnastics, and is often seen with a dancing ribbon. She is the twin brother of Stan, and often gets angry at him whenever he tries to flirt with girl hamsters. She has a huge crush on Maxwell.

Torahamu-kun (トラハムくん Torahamu-kun) / Stan Stan is Sandy's older twin brother. He likes to make music by shaking his maracas, but often he keeps them around with him to flirt with girl hamsters. His flirting often gets Sandy, Boss, Dexter and Howdy angry at him and is quickly stopped. He has also been seen riding his skateboard.

Noppo (のっぽくん Noppo-kun) / Maxwell Maxwell is the most intelligent among the ham-hams, and is often seen carrying a 'reference book of everything' with him. The hamsters often come to him when they are in need of advice (alhough they usually go to Snoozer or Elder-ham). Maxwell has a huge crush on Sandy, and there are atleast two episodes that focus on their relationship in the series.

Panda (パンダくん Panda-kun) Panda is named after the fact that he looks like a panda. He is very talented in crafts and building things, and has built many things including chairs and more. His most hardest work was building the Ham-Ham Park, a miniture theme park just for hamsters. Alhough he did needed some help.

Kaburu (かぶるくん Kaburu-kun) / Cappy Cappy is a young hamster, who is obsessed with hats. His owners really love him, to the point of building small furniture models for his cage. Cappy's life was once saved by Boss, and so he admires Boss very much. Cappy's favorite hats is a green swimmer's cap, and red cooking pot.

Neteru (ねてるくん Neteru-kun) / Snoozer After the completion of the Ham-Ham Clubhouse, Snoozer appeared inside the clubhouse(also Boss's house) from seemingly nowhere. Snoozer loves to sleep and does it 24-7, hence the name Boss gave him. The ham-hams once tried to solve the mystery of where Snoozer came from, but instead met a look-a-like named Omar. To this day, no one knows where Snoozer came from. Snoozer has been known to give helpful information in his sleep talk, whenever the ham-hams need it.

Tongari (トンガリくん Tongari-kun) / Jingle Jingle is a wandering ham-poet. He speaks in rhymes, poems or riddles.. often while playing the red guitar that he always has with him. Jingle first met Hamtaro, Oxnard and Penelope.. and eventally the others in a later episode. Jingle's best friend is a pink pig, whom he rides on to travel. He also has been seen riding a pidgeon/dove named Françoise(who is a friend of another hamster, Sabu) in the Hamtaro movies. Jingle usually only appears in the movies to give advice, and nothing more.

Hiroko Haruna (Sometimes also Roko-chan) / Laura Haruna Laura is a fifth-grader, and Hamtaro's owner. Hamtaro and Laura really love eachother like any loving family would. Often some of the problems in the episodes, are involing Laura in one way or another. Hamtaro wants to help her, and so the other ham-hams usually pitch in. Laura's best friend is Kana Iwata, Oxnard's owner. She also has a crush on a student from her class, a boy named Travis.

Kana Iwata Kana is Laura's best friend and Oxnard's owner. He is an outstanding artist, and her hamster is the subject of many of her works. Kana also has an older cousin who is the owner of a farm. Her cousin owns a hamster named Pepper, who is in love with Oxnard and marries him in the final Japanese Tottoko Hamutarou episode.

Trivia

• The character Hamutarou's birthdate is August 6th. The anime refers to his birthdate in many cases. In the TV series, clocks nearly always read 8:06 AM or PM, no matter how early or late it looks like outside.
• Most of the background music was re-used from the anime series, Monster Rancher.
• Several fan artists of the anime have created 'Ham-Humans' or Gijinkas of the hamster cast. An artist by the name of Chicko is the most well known, who has drawn the ham-hams in preteen or teen human ages.
• Hamtaro toys can be seen on an office computer in the Jackie Chan film, New Police Story.

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