Binchō-tan (anime)

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Binchotan

びんちょうタン (Binchōtan)
Genre	seinen
TV anime
Directed by	Kazuhiro Furuhashi
Studio	Studio DEEN
Network	TBS
Original run	2 February 2006 – 30 March 2006
No. of episodes	12^[1]

Bincho-tan (びんちょうタン, Binchōtan^?) (also Binchou-tan) is a mascot character, created by mangaka Takahito Ekusa (江草天仁, Takahito Ekusa^?) and produced by game goods company Alchemist.

The name is a play on words: binchōtan (備長炭, binchōtan^?) is a kind of charcoal, which is mainly used for cooking. A piece of charcoal lies on her head. However, in otaku culture -tan is a suffix used with the name of a cute girl.

An anime began airing in February 2006 that was produced by Studio Deen.^[1]

1 Characters
2 Music
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Characters

Character		Voiced by
	Binchou-tan	Ai Nonaka
	Binchou-tan, the main character in the anime, is a young girl who lives by herself in an old house far from town. As her name suggests, she often wears a piece of charcoal on her head. Each episode depicts a day in the life of Binchou-tan who needs to work in order to buy food and necessities. Binchou-tan is assumed to be an orphan because she lives by herself, refuses to answer shopkeepers who ask where her mother is and keeps to her habits of greeting and farewelling herself when travelling. Binchou-tan apparently possesses the ability to change the size of her body. Normally she is the size of a small child, but in some cases she can shrink herself to for instance fit in a shoe or to ride on the back of a duck. She also treasures clothing made by her grandmother which becomes a plot point in one episode. Binchou-tan is initially a very lonely person.

	Kunugi-tan	Sakura Nogawa
	Kunugi-tan, who is seen many times in the anime before meeting any of the other characters directly, is a rich girl living in a large home with many servants. Kunugi-tan is still very lonely despite being surrounded by many older people as well as her school peers. Unable to adventure outside her home and school due to her father's strict instructions carried out by her butler, Kunugi-tan often stares into the distance blankly. Kunugi-tan takes a great deal of interest in Binchou-tan and attempts to become better acquainted with her. Kunugi-tan wears two pieces of what appears to be charcoal in her hair. Her name comes from the charcoal made from the sawtooth oak tree.
	Chiku-tan	Mai Kadowaki
	Chiku-tan is an enthusiastic person who enjoys inventing things and helping others. The viewer sees that like Binchou-tan, Chiku-tan also lives far from town in an old house but lives with others, her younger sister, Chiku-rin and her grandfather. Chiku-tan often takes on jobs like Binchou-tan and after meeting, they quickly become friends. Chiku-tan and Binchou-tan also begin raising a dog together. Chiku-rin often mimics Chiku-tan but is unable to talk fluently due to her age. She is named after bamboo charcoal.
	Aroe	Momoko Saito
	Aroe is a young girl whose hair is made of Aloe which does not benefit her as she often requires water. Aroe does not often make direct contact with the other characters in the anime and her appearances are often a sidestory. Aroe's Aloe hair bursts many of her vinyl wading pools due to its sharpness. Aroe is often seen throughout the series in a dizzy state, sometimes due to needing water and on other occasions due to misfortune.
	Ren-tan	Rina Satou
	It is explained during the story that Ren-tan is a miko and as such enjoys communicating with spirits. When Ren-tan summons spirits, they often approach Chiku-tan, much to her dismay. Rentan means a charcoal briquette

[edit] Music

The soundtrack of this animation includes the instrument Ondes Martenot.

Opening themes
#	Transcription	Created by
	Iroha (いろは)	CooRie
Ending themes
	Transcription	Created by
	Bincho Ondo (びんちょう音頭)	Mai Kadowaki^[1]