Hamtaro

Hamtaro, known in Japan as Trotting Hamtaro (とっとこハム太郎, Tottoko Hamutarō), is a Japanese manga and storybook series created and illustrated by Ritsuko Kawai. The manga is serialized in Shogakukan's all-girl's magazine Ciao in 1997, focusing on a hamster named Hamtaro who has a variety of adventures with other hamsters, known as "Ham-Hams" ("Hamuchans" in the Japanese version). Viz Media published the manga adaptations and storybooks in English.

Multiple anime adaptations were produced by TMS Entertainment and aired on TV Tokyo. The English dub was produced by Zuniga/Schreiber Entertainment and started airing on Cartoon Network and Gingo in the United States, Teletoon in Canada, and Fox Kids and then Jetix in the UK in June 2002.

Plot
The series revolves around a hamster named Hamtaro, who is owned by a 10-year-old girl named Hiroko Haruna (Laura Haruna in the English dub). Curious by nature, he ventures out each day to make friends and go on adventures with a clan of fellow hamster friends known as The Ham-Hams. The Ham-Hams meet at a special clubhouse built by Boss ("Taisho").

Manga
There are three manga about Hamtaro, A Home for Hamtaro, Hamtaro Gets Lost, and Jealous Hamtaro. In the first two, Hamtaro's owner is named Yukari while in the latter, her name is Amy.

Anime
In Japan, Hamtaro aired three anime series, released four movies, several specials, many video game/DVD releases and merchandise. By 2002, the franchise had generated $2.5 billion in merchandise sales.

The English dub was produced by Zuniga/Schreiber Entertainment and started airing a two years after it first aired in Japan, in June 2002. The two companies got the rights to produce an English dub in September 2000. The dub was officially announced in March 2001, and was originally slated to air in July 2001 under the name Hamtaro Tales. After numerous delays, the dub finally premiered on June 3, 2002, under the name Hamtaro. The anime was originally dubbed into English using Ocean Studios in Vancouver while using actors from Blue Water Studios in Calgary for the first 104 episodes, by episode 105 ("The Kindergraden Monsters") the series was dubbed at Studiopolis in Los Angeles. The dub aired until July 2008.

It short form series that followed this series, ''Hi! Hamtaro: Little Hamsters, Big Adventures'', has it's dub aired 2 months after the Hai! series ended in Japan. The dub of this series was aired from September 2008 until October 2010.

On 23 February 2011, it was announced that Hamtaro would be receiving a series titled Tottoko Hamtaro Dechu.

Games
The Hamtaro franchise has multiple video game titles with independent storylines. These titles include adventure and educational games that can be found for various consoles.

In popular culture
On July 26, 2020, a group of more than 2.000 protesters in Bangkok called the Free Youth Movement, led a protest against the government of Thailand which involved singing the theme song for “Hamtaro” with modified lyrics to say “The most delicious food is taxpayers’ money. Dissolve the parliament! Dissolve the parliament! Dissolve the parliament!” Other student protests during the same week have continued using Hamtaro as a symbol for the government's "feasting on taxpayer's money," and have involved groups running in circles, as if in hamster wheels, while singing the modified version of the jingle.