Name Ritsuko Kawai | Role Television Series Creator Books Hamtaro | |
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Similar People Kurumi Mamiya, Kazusa Murai, Rikako Aikawa, Haruna Ikezawa, Yu Sugimoto | ||
Ham slapped
Ritsuko Kawai (河井 リツ子, Kawai Ritsuko, born March 3, 1964) is a Japanese manga artist known as the creator of the Hamtaro franchise. Kawai originally created Hamtaro as storybooks for children first published in 1997, but it was adapted into anime in Japan in July 2000.
Hamtaro is about a little hamster and his friends. Hamtaro has gained great popularity and was made into an anime series and a line of merchandising. However, the animated show has since been cancelled.
Kawai has had a say in the message that Hamtaro promoted, which was non-violence, teamwork, cooperation and sharing.
Hamtaro has also been made into many different games for Nintendo hand held systems such as the Game Boy Advance.
Other than Hamtaro, Ritsuko Kawai has created other shōjo manga, serialized in Ciao magazine.