Bye, Kitty

According to an article from the New York Times, 36-year-0ld Hello Kitty is fading in popularity (In Search of Adorable, as Hello Kitty Gets Closer to Goodbye).

What's Japan's favourite cartoon character now? Anpanman.

How do I explain Anpanman? I'll let Wikipedia do it. Here's their character synopsis for the anime's protagonist:

[Anpanman is] the main character of the anime, whose head is a bun made by Uncle Jam. His name comes from the fact that he is a man with a head made of bread (Japanese: pan, a loanword from the Portuguese word meaning "bread") that is filled with bean jam (Japanese: an) called an anpan. His weakness is water or anything that makes his head dirty. He regains his health and strength when Jam Ojisan bakes him a new head and it is placed on his shoulders. Anpanman's damaged head, with Xs in his eyes, flies off his shoulders once a new baked head lands. He was created when a shooting star landed in Uncle Jam's oven while he was baking. He is in love with Melongirl. He has two special attacks called: An-punch and An-kick (with stronger variations of both). When Anpanman comes across a starving creature or person, he lets the unfortunate creature or person eat part of his head. [Ed's note: Now you're just blowing my mind] He also has super hearing in that he can respond to anyone that calls his name out in distress from anywhere in the world.

Sorry, Hello Kitty. Anpanman is way cool.