Hamtaro

Hamtaro, is a Japanese children's 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 first series was dubbed in English by The Ocean Group.

The series is currently reruning on Qubo as of September 2008, reruns also air in syndication on Cozi TV, TBS and VH1.

Plot
The series revolves around an anthropomorphic 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").

Children's novels
Coming soon!

Manga
Coming soon!

Anime
In Japan, Hamtaro aired five anime series, released four movies, several specials, many video game/DVD releases and merchandise. The success was not paralleled in the United States, however, with only the first series, released four movies, some special episodes, three video games, and limited merchandise. On 23 February 2011, it was announced that Hamtaro would be receiving a series titled Tottoko Hamtaro Dechu.

Home media
This show also received some home media releases on DVD and VHS from Viz, with previews of Hamtaro stuff, including a UPN promo for the show, a trailer of the Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite! video game, a commercial of the Hamtaro Playhouse set, and a promos for Planetokio and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Episodes of the series was also released on VideoNow, Juice Box and Game Boy Advance Video.

On October 29, 2016, the entire English dub was released on DVD from RandomWorks, with trailers for RandomWorks's upcoming movies, a commercial for the Hamtaro Change House playset from Jazwares, and some extra special features.

Networks
More coming soon!

Trivia

 * The character Hamtaro's birthdate is August 6th. The anime refers to his birthdate in many cases. In the TV series, clocks nearly always read 8:06 AM or PM, no matter how early or late it looks like outside.
 * Most of the background music was re-used from the anime series, Monster Rancher and the TV series, Cland Ann.
 * Several fan artists of the anime have created 'Ham-Humans' or Gijinkas of the hamster cast. An artist by the name of Chicko is the most well known, who has drawn the ham-hams in preteen or teen human ages.
 * Hamtaro toys can be seen on an office computer in the Jackie Chan film, New Police Story, Hamtaro toys can also be seen on the Planetokio episode Girl on Blue, they are also seen inside Toys R' Us in Greeny Phatom: The Movie. And reliability Chance S. actually owns some the Hamtaro toys.