Hangyodon (ハンギョドン, Hangyodon) is a male fish character from the Japanese company Sanrio. He was born under Halley's Comet[1] and his blood type is B. He was created by Hisato Inoue and debuted in 1985.
Hangyodon is a nice guy who loves to make others laugh, but has a soft spot and doesn't like being alone. He desires to be a hero but his plans of heroism often go awry. Hangyodon also loves collecting merchandise based on himself and is a bit of a romantic despite being somewhat shy towards women, as seen with his various interactions with Kingyochan, his love interest. Hangyodon is also a member of Hapidanbui.
Hangyodon's previous love interest was a human girl named Kumiko who starred with him, Sayuri, Otamaro, and others in a comic series that lasted for several issues of The Strawberry News.
Friends and Family[]
- Sumire (Hangyodon)
- Kingyochan
- Itaro
- Mr. Seahorse
- Sayuri
- Otamaro
- The Sea Otter Bar Owner - He is the owner of Ebisen's Bar, a place Hangyodon sometimes visits.
Others[]
In one of his first jobs after leaving Sanrio and becoming a Freelancer, Hisato Inoue was tasked with assisting in the Japanese only 1998 video game Sanrio Timenet: Kako-Hen and Mirai-Hen. While some of the characters may strictly be Imagineer/Timenet's creations, he did talk about his role in the creation of two evolutions of Hangyodon; Great Hangyo and Hangyodon Robo on Twitter.[2] In the staff credits, Hisato Inoue is listed as working for the character design for a company called Inspace.[3]
Great Hangyo is Hangyodon wearing a super hero suit, while Hangyodon Robo is Hangyodon in a mech/robot suit.
Rankings in the Sanrio Character Ranking[]
In the 2013 Sanrio Character Ranking, if Hangyodon reaches 15th place or higher, a shrimp bar will be opened, However, he failed to reach that place.
- 1986: 3rd place
- 1987-2012: To be added
- 2013: 18th place
- 2014: To be added
- 2015: To be added
- 2016: 30th place
- 2017: 18th place
- 2018: 18th place
- 2019: 18th place
- 2020: 15th place
- 2021: 13th place
- 2022: 8th place
- 2023: 7th place
- 2024: 8th place
- 2025: 8th place
Trivia[]
- Hangyodon's huge round eyes and full lips were based on Hisato's own.
- Hangyodon has had his own comic series in the Strawberry News, "Hangyodon" and "Hangyodon's Lecture of Manners".
- Hangyodon was a regular guest in the Strawberry News' Chitty Chatty Strawberry column.
- Hangyodon has starred in several anime films of his own such as Meitantei Hangyodon: Kaitou Ruzu Arawaruno-kan, Hangyodon no Parallel Daisakusen: Hana no Oedo wa Oosawagi, Hangyodon no 007/2: Doctor Sunday Arawaru no Maki, and Hangyodon no Parallel Daisakusen: Kyouryuu Oukoku wa Oosawagi.
- Hangyodon also stars in Sam to Chip no wa Hachamecha Dai Race as a racer, with other characters from his universe such as Otamaro and Kingyochan appearing as audience members.
- Hangyodon plays a big role in the Sanrio anime film Pokopon no Yukai na Saiyuuki.
- Despite debuting first, Hangyodon shares some similarities with Badtz-Maru including being made by Hisato Inoue:
- Both characters usually don't wear clothing unless something such as going into space or surfing takes place.
- Both happen to be animals whose species' are linked to water in some way.
- Hangyodon and Badtz-Maru both have at least one female friend (Hangyodon with Sayuri and Badtz-Maru with Pandaba).
- Both characters have several brothers and sisters.
- There is at least one romantic pairing where one character is blue and the other is red (Hangyodon himself with Kingyochan and Badtz-Maru's parents).
- Both feature characters that are a part of a gang; Papa (Badtz-Maru) and Lucius from various anime films featuring Hangyodon. The members of both gangs also share similar designs and happen to be of the same species.
- Hangyodon's name is spelled out to read "Half-fish man" in Kanji.
- Hangyodon was first displayed on The Strawberry News' magazine cover in the October 1985 issue (No. 212)
- In The Strawberry New’s "Sanrio Character Awards", Hangyodon won 3rd place in 1986.
- At one point Hangyodon was set to have an anime series, but nothing has come to fruition aside from him starring in several films of his own.
- Hangyodon's parents and older brother has been confirmed by Hisato on Twitter to never have gotten names.
- While Hangyodon's parents have never been seen again, his older brother appears in Hangyodon no Parallel Daisakusen: Kyouryuu Oukoku wa Oosawagi as a prehistoric ancestor version of himself.
- Despite several merchandise items made for the Hangyodon in Ebisen's Bar series depict Hangyodon playing Billiards, Hisato himself had never actually took part in cue sports.[4]
- Before his official debut in The Strawberry News, Hangyodon's debut was originally part of a promotion for a company called Kids Press where he was simply called Hangyo. According to Hisato, this is a little known factoid to even people who've worked at Sanrio in the past.[5]
- In various anime films starring him, Hangyodon is shown to have a job as a detective.
- His voice actor Ryūsei Nakao is also famous for being the Japanese voices of Frieza and Baikinman from both the Dragonball and Anpanman franchises respectively.
- Hangyodon appears in the multimedia Sanrio project Fragaria Memories. In this project, he is the ruler of the Hangyodon Kingdom, as well as the lord of the Fragaria Hangyon.
Gallery[]
Sources[]
- Hangyodon Profile on Sanrio.co.jp
- Hangyodon Ranking on SanrioCharacterRanking.com via Archive.org (2016)
- March 2016 Calendar on Sanrio.com
- March 2017 Calendar on Sanrio.com
- Hangyodon's Japanese Wikipedia Article