Dokin-chan

Name: Dokin-chan

Gender: Female

First appearance: TV Episode 13A, “Anpanman and Dokin-chan”

Homeworld: Baikin Planet

Residence: Baikinman’s castle

Birthday: No official birthday is set, but October 19 is commonly treated as her birthday because the episode “Dokin-chan’s Birthday” aired on that date in 1992

Hobbies and tastes: Likes flowers, jewels, musicals, drawing, acting, cleanliness, and other pretty things

Hiromi Tsuru: Episode 13 to Episode 1389A, and films 1 to 29

Active period: December 26, 1988 to January 19, 2018

Miina Tominaga: Episode 1390A onward, and films 30 onward

Active period: January 26, 2018 onward

Rei Sakuma: Substitute voice in the 2017 Christmas special

Dokin-chan is a girl from Baikin Planet who came to find Baikinman after hearing rumors about him.

She began as a lodger in Baikinman’s castle and worked with him in various schemes.

In recent years, she usually bosses around the castle’s owner instead of carrying out evil plans herself.

When she is not helping Baikinman, she is often seen talking quite normally with the residents of the Anpanman world.

Series creator Takashi Yanase once joked that Dokin-chan had become too strong as a character.

He also remarked, with amused bewilderment, that Baikinman becomes helplessly weak in front of her for reasons even he could not explain.

She has a younger-sister-like companion, Kokin-chan.

In terms of appearance, unlike Baikinman, she has only one horn, large green eyes, and a long slender tail.

Her body color is orange.

In her earliest design, her eyes were more sharply slanted than they are now.

Within the Anpanman world, she is treated as one of the prettier characters.

Many male villain characters fall for her at first sight, including Baikinman in his earlier impressions of her.

Baikinman later grumbles that Dokin-chan used to be cute and innocent, but has become selfish.

Her bright colors and cute gestures also made her very popular as a character brand, especially on clothing and accessories for young girls.

She appears so frequently that she is effectively one of the core regulars of the series.

Since her debut, she has appeared more often than nearly anyone except Anpanman, Baikinman, and the three residents of the bakery, though a tiny number of episodes exist in which she does not appear at all.

Dokin-chan is free-spirited, selfish, and completely runs at her own pace.

At the same time, she has enough warmth and charm that her kindness shows through surprisingly often.

She is deeply in love with Shokupanman, whom she addresses with an honorific equivalent to “Lord” or “Sir.”

This affection began in “Anpanman and the Bread Thief,” when Shokupanman treated her gallantly after she pretended to be injured.

In the early anime, this setting was not always handled consistently.

Despite her crush, there are scenes where she attacks Shokupanman or tries to make him a servant just like Anpanman and the others.

She often becomes jealous when she sees Shokupanman getting along with other girls.

Even so, she is so pure-hearted about him that she still struggles to confess her feelings directly.

She usually blushes and loses her composure around him.

Because it is still unclear whether Shokupanman returns her feelings, she often keeps some distance and sometimes uses disguises when trying to express herself.

Toward Baikinman, she is extremely overbearing.

She constantly orders him around and scolds him with insults whenever he disappoints her.

She is also adored by Horrorman, but she has absolutely no romantic interest in him.

As a result, she typically treats him very harshly.

If one of Baikinman’s schemes puts Shokupanman in danger, she immediately turns on Baikinman in outrage.

She may punish him on the spot or even betray him if it means saving Shokupanman or repaying a kindness she has received.

Even so, she is not heartless.

Now and then, she does show kindness to Baikinman or Horrorman.

She can also be unexpectedly gentle with guest characters.

That mix of selfishness and hidden kindness is a big part of her appeal.

Her tastes are very feminine.

Even though she is a germ character, she is basically clean and neat, tidying her room and taking baths regularly.

She likes beautiful things such as flowers and jewels.

She is not bad at housework or cooking either, though she usually leaves such tasks to Horrorman.

She also has a decent artistic sense.

She is good at drawing and performing, and she especially loves the musicals of Shiratama-san, whom she admires deeply and addresses respectfully.

She is sometimes assigned to guard captured characters.

However, she can be talked into releasing them by Anpanman, Jam Oji-san, and their friends, after which she may simply leave.

In more recent stories, she is sometimes pushed around by Kokin-chan.

Still, she scolds her when needed, gets along with her well enough, and rushes to save her if she is in danger, showing a genuine older-sister side.

She is rarely affected by Kokin-chan’s blue tears, often blocking them in advance with an umbrella or some other precaution.

That means she is less likely than others to be made to cry by them.

In her normal state, Dokin-chan mainly uses feminine speech.

When she is disguised, she adjusts her way of speaking to match the role.

Her usual first-person pronoun is equivalent to “I.”

On rare occasions she refers to herself by name, and in the early period she sometimes used a rougher self-reference.

For people she is familiar with or sees as opponents, she tends to say “you” in a blunt, casual way.

For people she is less close to, or those she cannot dominate, she uses a more polite form.

She speaks respectfully to people she admires, such as Shokupanman and Shiratama-san.

With most others, she speaks casually regardless of status.

In the earliest period, she sometimes used a more forceful, bossy style of speech.

Her famous catchphrase is essentially “Dokin-chan is here too!”

Another signature line is her angry complaint calling someone an idiot.

For forms of address, she uses respectful titles for superiors and admired figures, “name + sama” for those she adores, and otherwise uses a name alone or with familiar suffixes such as “-kun,” “-chan,” or “-san.”

Dokin UFO

Dokin-chan uses a sleek red UFO.

It is roomier than Baikinman’s UFO and has two control sticks.

She does not use many of its functions aside from the mechanical hand.

However, the antenna also contains a ray gun.

Expanding and shrinking spear

This spear can enlarge or shrink whatever it touches for two hours.

It was used in her first appearance.

The red side causes shrinking.

The blue side causes enlargement.

It was likely the model for the twin ant guns later used by Ant Kid.

Dokin-chan once used the spear to kidnap Batako-san.

She and Baikinman also tried to defeat Anpanman with it.

But they accidentally struck him with the blue side, enlarging him instead.

That mistake allowed Anpanman to reverse the situation with the red side of the weapon.

The spear is not used in current stories.

Baikinman

Dokin-chan first came to help Baikinman, then became a lodger in his castle.

Over time, their relationship settled into something like equal partners, though she usually dominates him.

Anpanman

She sees Anpanman as the enemy of the germs.

At the same time, he is often more the target of her pranks and schemes than a figure of deep hatred.

Shokupanman

Shokupanman is the object of her one-sided love.

In the early anime, however, the exact portrayal of that affection could be inconsistent.

Hedoro-man

She defeated him in a one-on-one quarrel.

He later became her partner for a plan, but the operation failed.

Baikin Sennin

She gets along well with him.

Their interactions are generally friendly.

Sunao Otoko

He once jokingly proposed to her.

This remains one of her more unusual character connections.

Peter

He is someone who brings out a gentle feeling in her.

Their connection highlights her softer side.

Akachanman

In 1989 stories, they were on friendly terms.

In later portrayals, he may instead end up scolding or punishing her.

Koori Oni and Kaze Konkon

She is particularly compatible with both of them.

Their personalities and story roles tend to fit well together.

Horrorman

Horrorman constantly trails after her because he is in love with her.

This attachment is one reason he can function on both the good and bad sides of the cast.

Shiratama-san

Dokin-chan deeply admires Shiratama-san.

She loves her performances and treats her as an ideal.

Kokin-chan

Kokin-chan is her younger-sister-like companion.

Their relationship is lively, troublesome at times, but ultimately affectionate.

Rollpanna

Since 2018, the connection between Dokin-chan and Rollpanna is sometimes noted through their shared voice actress.

This is more of a casting-related link than an in-story one.

Kankichi Ryotsu

In a special crossover contribution for Super Kochikame, she flirted with him and called herself sexy.

It is a playful and unusual extra-media reference.

In the earliest picture books, Dokin-chan sometimes had a much more model-like figure than in her current design.

That rare version of the character appeared in books that are now out of print.

At that time, she did not call herself Dokin-chan, but simply Dokin.

Her language was rougher, and she was portrayed as a far more outright villain who could be genuinely ruthless.

According to Takashi Yanase, her model was Scarlett O’Hara, the heroine of Gone with the Wind.

That influence can be felt in her mix of charm, selfishness, willfulness, and emotional intensity.

In the comedy sketch Gorenjai from Downtown no Gotsu Ee Kanji, the comedian Honkon appeared dressed in a Dokin-chan costume.

This became one of the character’s stranger pop-culture side notes.