Catbread Nekopan — Cat with head sticking through a loaf of bread

Catbread Nekopan

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Published September 24, 2026

Catbread Nekopan is a Japanese picture-book cat that sits in a loaf shape, drawn by Hirose Takuro in 2000. It jumped to English-speaking forums as 'Kitty Loaf' in 2002 and hit peak virality after Max Goldberg's 2004 YTMND page 'CuppyCake' paired the character with a cutesy song and racked up over 25 million views.

cats ytmnd memes japanese internet memes early internet memes cute character memes

Overview

Catbread, also known as Kitty Loaf, Kitty Bread, or Neko-Pan, is a chubby illustrated cat that sits in a compact loaf shape, drawn in a soft Japanese picture-book style1. The character comes from an early 2000s children's book and jumped into English-speaking web culture through icon files and forum avatars3. Its round body and blank stare made it a favorite reaction image on early sites like YTMND and the Magic: The Gathering community2.

The design shows the cat from the front, tucked into its own paws so it looks like a fresh loaf of bread. That visual pun powered its spread as an early forum-friendly cat mascot1.

Origin & Background

Platform
Japanese picture book / YTMND (viral spread)
Creator
Hirose Takuro
Date
2000

Neko-Pan (猫パン) was created by Japanese author and illustrator Hirose Takuro, who introduced the character in the self-published picture book Catbread and Cardboard Box (猫パン と だんぼーる君) in 20003. Takuro built the book using a web tool from Hewlett-Packard and posted the artwork on his personal site, later releasing more icon files and illustrations of the same cat1. Promotional toys from the book eventually surfaced in English-language forums, giving Western fans their first physical proof that the loaf cat came from a real Japanese children's series4.

How It Spread

The earliest known English discussion appeared on December 23rd, 2002, when Neo-Geo forum user MegaDrive20XX asked 'What is the Origin of Kitty Loaf?' and gave the character its unofficial Western name3. One of Takuro's icons landed on e-thug.net by May 24th, 2004, then bounced to the MTGNews site, and a 'Kitty bread' entry hit Urban Dictionary on March 6th, 20046.

The breakout moment was April 23rd, 2004, when YTMND founder Max Goldberg built the 'CuppyCake' page pairing the Catbread animated GIF with the 'Cuppycake Gumdrops' song, which later crossed 25 million views and inspired imitations like 'Waves of Catloaf' and 'Country Cuppycake'2. BoingBoing picked up the trail on February 16th, 2006, calling out the Japanese roots of the cat4.

The Nekopan Bakery webcomic domain was registered on March 25th, 20075, and the character then hopped to I Can Has Cheezburger, Tumblr, and deviantArt. Cat blog Catsparella ran a January 26th, 2011 post gathering photos of real-life bread shaped to look like the loafing cat7.

How to Use This Meme

People typically use Catbread Nekopan as a forum avatar, icon, or reaction image when they want a cute low-effort mascot. The common convention is to post Takuro's original illustration untouched, though bakers and pixel artists often recreate the loaf shape in bread, beads, or fan art1.

Frequently Asked Questions