There are a few anime series that can be credited with adding legions of larval fans to the otaku army. Sailor Moon is a big one. There's Dragonball Z, too. One of the works to be blamed for spawning the youngest generation of weeaboo, though, is Hamtaro. The dubbed anime was broadcast on Saturday mornings and became popular enough to be called a "phenomenon" and "the hottest new thing" on all those soul-crushing morning tv talk shows. Even I point to that unnaturally orange hamster when asked what my gateway drug was - I signed up for an "anime drawing class" in fourth grade because I wanted to learn how to draw Hamtaro's eyes and ended up being drawn into the (totally batshit insane) teacher's descriptions of fantastic worlds and entrancing romances and tentacles.

The anime's Hamtaro is a creature decidedly evolved from the relatively-realistic, dumpy-looking creature drawn in the first book, which focused primarily on tips on keeping a hamster of your own. Each book is about a different Hamtaro, though, and by the last in the series the hamster is nearly as adventurous and deformed as his animated ancestor.

One thing that stays constant in each of Hamtaro's reincarnations, though, is his utter charm. There aren't many little girls who won't fall in love with the domesticated rodent. There aren't many people in the world that can resist a good hamster.