Mrs pacman viral video on twitter.
One of the most widespread rumors about Pac-Man out there is the "origin story" of Pac-Man. As stated by Toru Iwatani, the concept for the Pac-Man character is said to have come from Iwatani seeing "a pizza with one slice missing". This supposedly formed the concept for Pac-Man, with the missing slice being the basis for Pac-Man's mouth. The claim has gone on to be featured in numerous pieces of media; it is a staple of video game documentaries and guide books and has even inspired official Pac-Man-pizza products (e.g. Pac-Man Pizza Parlor and a 2021 Pizza Hut promotion).
However, for as much as it is spread, the pizza story is almost certainly not true. Iwatani has gone on record to say the pizza claim is a "half-truth", as early as 1986. He explained that Pac-Man's shape was designed by heavily rounding the Japanese kanji for "mouth" (口, Kuchi), with the indented bottom of the symbol being where Pac-Man's mouth was derived from.[1]
Going even further back, however, even the kanji explanation is likely a half-truth at best. Contrary to popular belief, Pac-Man first appeared in the 70s as a toy series by Tomy - predating the video game by six years. It remains unclear if Namco and Iwatani took inspiration from Tomy's toy line, or if it was some sort of bizarre coincidence; but the latter seems unlikely, as the Japanese names of both Tomy and Namco's products (パックマン, Pakkuman) were identical. Regardless, due to Tomy's Pac-Man character being a 3D sphere as opposed to a flat circle, it being derived from a pizza or kanji character is unlikely.
In the Pac-Man: Birth of an Icon book, several instances of interview quotes from Toru Iwatani are gathered, highlighting inconsistencies in different iterations of the pizza story. For instance, most reports state that Iwatani went to a restaurant and ordered pizza; though in one specific interview, Iwatani conflictingly states he "researched a keyword" related to eating and found an "image" of pizza that inspired him. In one interview with journalist Chris Hohler, Iwatani stated that the pizza story has "[...] already been passed into legend, so I'm going to stick with [the story]".[2]
In a 2017 interview with Masanobu Endo, the creator of Namco's Xevious, Endo states that the "pizza" story was fabricated after Pac-Man's release. Endo claims that Pac-Man's pizza resemblance was noticed shortly after the character's creation; but it was not the "inspiration", with Pac-Man merely being a yellow circle conceptually. Endo states that "the media inflated this story", and that Namco/Iwatani ran with it. In recent years, Iwatani and Endo have had discussions about the pizza story (as both are professors at Tokyo Polytechnic University) - with Endo implying the record will eventually be set straight.[3]