Soreike! Anpanman now holds the Guinness World Record for the highest number of characters in an animated franchise. As of March 27th, 1,768 characters have appeared across the first 980 episodes and 20 films of the children's superhero comedy series.

Producers submitted an application for the show in May with over 2,000 characters, but some of these characters (such as Pan Koujou (Bread Mill) and Baikin Shiro) were disregarded by Guinness.

The TV series premiered on October 3rd, 1988, and will mark its 1000th episode on August 28th. The 21st film, Soreike! Anpanman: Dadandan to Futago no Hoshi, opened on July 4th.

Bandai opened the Anpanman Children's Museum in Yokohama in 2007, as well as a themed hair salon at the museum later that year.

Takashi Yanase, the 90-year-old creator of Anpanman, commented that he was the person most surprised by the world record.