"Little Hamsters, Big Adventures" is the theme of these three new Hamtaro picture books. They teach kids to use their imagination and creativity by playing games and puzzles and using the colorful reusable stickers, which can be applied to the pages in different spots. Hamtaro is the star of the top-selling children’s home video and children’s music soundtrack in Japan.
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. She was born in Osaka, Japan, and received a design degree from Kyoto Saga University of Arts. After graduation, she set out to Tokyo to seek her fortune as a comic-book artist.
Kawai originally created Hamtaro as storybooks for children first published in 1997 (serialized in Shogaku Ni Nensei, a magazine for Japanese schoolchildren published by Shogakukan) and adapted into an anime television series in Japan in July 2000. The animation series based on her Hamtaro books began broadcasting in English in the United States in July of 2002. Her Hamtaro books have sold more than 6 million copies in Japan.
Other than Hamtaro, Ritsuko Kawai has created other shōjo manga, serialized in Ciao magazine.