YMMV / Anpanman

• Americans Hate Tingle:
  • Kokin-chan, Dokin-chan's blue sister who won't stop crying, tends to be wildly unpopular with American fans, but in Japan? She gets a lot of fanart from Pixiv.
  • Dokin-chan herself, who won't stop being a Tsundere towards Baikinman, is also wildly and regularly unpopular with American viewers, but she's ranked below Kokin-Chan in the Japanese Popularity Poll.
• Archive Panic: The anime has over 1,300 episodes and around 30 films as of 2020.
• Awesome Music: The "Epic" version of "Anpanman's March" from "Dolly's Star of Life".
• Fan Nickname: Dokinchan is frequently called 'DQN' at Nicovideo.
• Foe Yay Shipping: Between Anpanman and Baikinman, especially in the kindergarten movies...but that doesn't count, since in the movies, they are friends. But in other cases, such as in some of the main movies and episodes, Baikinman says he was born to defeat Anpanman, like it's his life's purpose. He's very dedicated to (defeating) Anpanman, to say the least. He even has a The Only One Allowed to Defeat You moment in Shine! Kulun and the Stars of Life and helps save him.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • The series often gets paired with Thomas & Friends for many reasons. For one, both the original stories came out from the aftermath of World War II and the series feature a lot of characters with colorful personalities. The other is that a lot of the voice actors from both the Japanese and Latin American sides work on the series (the best example is Keiko Toda who voices the titular character in both shows).
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Quite a bit of the fandom depicts Katsudonman as a gay due to his mannerisms. In early 2017, his voice actor Yuji Mitsuya came out.
  • Shokupanman is probably the first hero whose head is slice of bread, before POWDER TOAST MAN!
  • Horrorman is a cheerful skeleton who's too goofy and good-natured to be effective at his job, and enjoys being nice to people. One of Undertale's characters is a skeleton named Papyrus who ends up being an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain because of how kind-hearted and silly he is.
• Ho Yay:
  • Well, since they are friends in the kindergarten movies, Anpanman and Baikinman would count as this. They seem awfully close in these OVAs and some other educational specials.
  • Also Baikinman and Horrorman. There's a moment in one of the Edutainment OVAs where, after getting lost in a store and being found, Baikinman goes toward Anpanman for a hug whilst crying, only for Anpanman to put Horrorman in front of him, leading to Baikinman and Horrorman hugging and Horrorman blushing... despite Horrorman being a skeleton.
  • In a Valentine's Day episode, after watching Cupid go to work on some woodland creatures, Baikinman cheerfully has this monologue in his UFO: "Make Anpanman fall in love with me . . . I mean, no, make me fall in love with Anpanman - no, no , no!"
• Les Yay:
  • Shiratama and her assistant Tsukiko in the special "Tsuki Koto Shiratama". Being Takarazuka performers helps. Also Tsukiko with Dokinchan in the episode.
  • Rollpanna gets several moments with Laura in "Secret of the Cloud-sailing Castle".
• Periphery Demographic: It has to exist one way or another what with the show running this long. Though a more surprising case is that they do have fans from the West who are indeed not in the targeted age group albeit very underground.
• Quirky Work: Due to being based almost entirely on Japanese foodstuffs. It was especially trippy in its early years, but it is now merely weird.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • Princess Durian is sometimes fans' least favorite character due to how she relies too much for Anpanman and how she indirectly makes Creampanda suffer from her reckless actions whenever they get paired up. While it does give some comedic value to the character, some fans felt that it was too tiresome or hate how Creampanda is treated. By the 2010s, Durian became more self independent against Baikinman until Anpanman rescues her, a bit more kind and doesn't appear too much with Creampanda that much.
• Tear Jerker: Everyone's reaction to Rollpanna's supposed death in "Secret of the Cloud-sailing Castle."
• Ugly Cute: Baikinman.
• Viewer Gender Confusion:
  • One of the not-main characters called Shiratama was quite confusing, and is that even more when seeing her friend◊.
  • Shiratama and her friend are Takarazuka performers.
  • Akachanman, the young child wearing the pink costume who became a primary character sometime ago.
  • Rollpanna in the Tubi dubs has two voice actors, a more masculine one and a more feminine one. In at least one movie where her masculine voice actor is used, no clarification is given on her being a woman, which can lead to an audience member mistaking her for a male despite other Tubi dub movies confirming her as a woman and as Melonpanna and Creampanda's older sister.