August 6th, Happy Birthday Hamtaro!
Hamtaro is our main protagonist of the show! Finally, it’s his time to shine!
Hamtaro is often referred to as a “golden hamster”, albeit his fur being cream-colored like pretty much all males in the series, and he sports an orange semi-circular stripe that runs around his forehead. He also has an orange spot in his butt and his back is orange up to the tail.
Hamtaro’s personality is the embodiment of childish innocence, kindness and adventurous. He is also apparently oblivious to love matters, as he considers them “too complicated”. That, however, doesn’t stop him from becoming a great friend to anyone that spends more than 2 minutes talking with him. Hamtaro likes to help his friends, and he is also a natural born leader, that all the Ham-Hams run to him to ask him for an opinion or decision on a subject. Hamtaro is also very dumb not only to love, but other stuff that should be quite obvious for many, but to be honest this is a common occurrence between all the Ham-Hams You could say many of them are just small furry 5 year olds though that might be a given due to the target audience. During the series he keeps growing up, if only subtle, and sometimes we can see an slightly annoyed or a blatantly angry Hamtaro, but these times are quite rare.
Hamtaro lives with his owner Laura Haruna, the human side protagonist of the series. He is a good friend to Brandy, the Haruna’s dog . The series starts when Hamtaro’s family moves to a new town, and he goes out to explore. However, before that, he lived in Sumire Town together with Laura. Hamtaro is the only Ham-Ham of whom we know his parents are, more specifically his mother. He was born to Yuki, a white hamster that was a pet to a kindergarten in Sumire Town, which Laura attended.
However, and we won’t go too deep on this, the Hamtaro manga originally gives a whole lot of different family trees for Hamtaro (there’s 5 of them in different generations!).
Hamtaro’s Japanese name is Hamutaro-kun, which it’s pretty much a direct translation. The “taro” part is a common suffix for boys names. For example think of Momotaro (Peach Boy). Hence, Hamtaro’s translated name would be “Hamster Boy”.
In the Japanese dub, Hamtaro finishes most of his sentences with “nanoda” or “noda”. This is just a cute addition to his speech, emphasizing his childish portrayal as it is mostly used by kids. He also refers to himself as “boku”, which is mostly a young boy’s way of saying “I” or “myself”. Compare to Boss’ “Ore-sama” which is more smug and thinks very highly of himself.
Hamtaro’s birthday is once again another Goroawase pun. Same reason as Cappy is the fact that the words for 8 and 6 can be read as “Hamu” or Ham. According to some interviews from Ritsuko Kawai, Hamtaro’s creator, Hamtaro’s original birthday date before the anime started was July 24th! (That might be why Prince Bo’s birthday is that specific date now.)
Hamtaro is an involuntary stud. For a guy that literally has no interest on love, he has quite a bunch of ladies after him.
Bijou, naturally, is the main one. Albeit Hamtaro only sees her as his “best friend”, multiple media and merchandise like to picture the two together, sometimes even in clearly couple situations, for obvious reasons, as they’re both the main characters of the series. They interact in pretty much any episode, and they even have a “date episode”. However, Hamtaro is too dense and never really officially reciprocates Bijou’s feelings. This is the most supported pairing from the fans, but sadly the series never offers a proper conclusion. There is, however, the third movie, in which Hamtaro appears to be really focused on his task to “retrieve” Bijou from the pirate gang. This can be interpreted as he being jealous, or he just being his usual goofy self of “don’t be mean to my friends”.
Sparkle comes a close second. Although she was very abrasive to the Ham-Hams at first, in later episodes she develops both a crush on Hamtaro and a rivalry for Bijou, which given her straight-forward and fighting nature, makes her a quite obvious contender for the hamster’s heart.
Continuing on, and to far less degree, we have a whole array of secondary hamsters that one way or another fall in love with the hamster, but we won’t get on much detail:
Oshare, Bijou’s French friend, apparently out of nowhere, develops a crush on Hamtaro that is not hard-pushed as she is only officially in love with him for one episode.
Lapis, although not ever really developed, is very close and friendly to Hamtaro, and that makes Sparkle put her under the radar of possible love rivals. The kiss she gives him in the cheek (which make him blush like crazy) doesn’t help either.
Lazuli, Lapis’ sister, also falls in the same category in early episodes, however she quickly leans towards Snoozer.
Barette, in her original episode, appears to be interested on Hamtaro, but that fades away later on.
Penelope, apparently, has a crush on Hamtaro, but we don’t know if this is short lived or not. In the presentation audios and also in the Love Love Attack Plan song, as well as a bunch of episodes, it is implied that Penelope has a crush on Hamtaro. Given how easily she crushes on many other creatures, this might be just a phase.
And then, we have two other contestants, although these are up to debate as they were probably more meant as a joke than actual love interests:
Jingle, who apparently can’t ever remember Hamtaro’s name, is always around to offer his jammin’ support, and even take care of him when he was sick. He also pushes Hamtaro into becoming a wild hamster and travel with him a few times, so clearly has an interest in the golden boy.
Bo, who considers Hamtaro his best friend, clearly expects a lot from the boy and acts a little embarrassed and nervous about him. Their relation in the third OVA clearly shows there’s something going on.
Now, although I have been pointing out that Hamtaro clearly has no interest in love, this has two exceptions. Both are exclusive for movies, so it is debatable whether we should consider them canon or not since Hamtaro acts pretty ‘non-canon’ in these movies to be honest.
First, and this one is also featured in the series, is Laura. Mainly in the first movie (but also in later episodes), Hamtaro develops a clear crush on Laura. And we’re not talking innocent “I love my owner”, he really loves Laura romantically. The whole plot of the first movie is how he wants to spend Laura’s birthday with her and he is sad and jealous when she goes out with her friends, but specially freaks out when Kana mentions Travis. In the anime he also worries when Laura tells him she is going out on a “date”, and he stalks her to see with whom. We can discuss if this is some kind of innocent love, but it is undoubtedly romantic love.
Lastly, we have Hamtaro’s only love for a same species critter: Princess Cye-Ra. In the second movie, Hamtaro falls in love the very same moment he sees Cye-Ra in the flesh for the first time. This is painfully clear as he gets awe struck and then nervous and blushy around her. Later on he gets a kiss from her on the cheek, and he pretty much freaks out and ponders why his heart is beating so fast. Later on, Cye-ra reunites with her fiance, and Hamtaro is truly devastated. But, to date, this is the only time Hamtaro has truly loved someone.
Now, since pretty much all Hamtaro episodes focus on the boy one way or another, we will only highlight a few.
Episode 1 – Hamtaro!
Naturally the first episode of the series is a very important one! Hamtaro gets to explore his new house and meets a few new friends!
Episode 24 – Hamtaro, please come home!
Hamtaro gets trapped in a box inside a truck that is going to some place far away! Laura and the Ham-Hams frantically look for him but will Hamtaro ever returned?
Episode 114 - Hamtaro, the Knight
A typhoon blocks Laura’s parents from getting home, so Laura and Hamtaro spend a scary night alone. Hamtaro decides to act as a Knight and protect Laura!
Episode 135 – Hamtaro gets Cold
Hamtaro overhears Laura wrong and thinks she doesn’t like him anymore, so he goes on a journey with Jingle. But he catches a cold, and Jingle has to take care of him!
Episode 251 – Oh no, Hamtaro!
Hamtaro is stuck at Mindy’s house after playing, and he has to return, but Boss decides to pretend to be him so Laura doesn’t get worried!
Episode 271 - Hamha-Man the Justice Hero
Hamtaro dreams that he is a Hero of Justice and have superpowers! Who will he fight?
Movie 1: Adventures in Ham-Ham Land!
It’s Laura’s birthday, and he prepares a lot of gifts for her! However, Laura leaves with her friends, which makes him really sad. And a bit angry when he learns that Travis is there too. Later, the Ham-Hams learn of Ham-Ham Land, when there’s a magical seed that allows a hamster to speak the human language! Hamtaro wants to use it to wish Laura a Happy Birthday!
OVA 1: 3000 Hammy Steps on Search of Mommy
It is Hamtaro’s birthday and he decides to go search for his mother! She is apparently in a far away place, but his friends are there to help! Meanwhile, the Ham-Hams that are left preparing his birthday party!
Hamtaro’s birthday is a very special day for everyone! Happy birthday!
