Ramen in Anime, How Many Do You Know?

Naruto is well-known across the planet, and within the main character naruto's home The Hidden Leaf Village, there is a ramen restaurant where the cast is often seen known as Ichiraku. The restaurant itself is run by the owner Teuchi and his daughter Ayame, feeding the various ninjas around the village delicious ramen dishes.

Naruto has the nine-tailed fox apparition sealed within him, the fox once destroyed The Hidden Leaf Village, and it caused Naruto to get bullied during his younger years. However, he would always visit Ichiraku with his teacher Iruka, a father-like figure to Naruto and the only one who would treat him with kindness.

According to the writer of the shower, Kishimoto Masashi, the ramen restaurant was based on one that was on his university campus at Kyushu University which also had the name "Ichiraku Ramen". The restaurant, unfortunately, closed in 2014, however, you can still find various "Ichiraku" ramen chain restaurants around Fukuoka Prefecture, meaning you can even try the same ramen that Naruto eats in the show. If you're wondering what the ramen Naruto always eats is, it's a miso roasted pork filet ramen that has a pork-based soup and is topped with beansprouts, spring onion, and A LOT of pork filet. People say that the slightly fatter noodles go well alongside the rich soup.

Koizumi-san Loves Ramen

The main character of "Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles", Koizumi, is a beautiful, calm, and collected high school student. This anime series is completely dedicated to showing scenes of Koizumi eating various types of delicious ramen dishes. Currently, there are many menu items and methods for ordering ramen within the anime which makes it a creative resource for people wanting to learn more about ramen in Japan!

In episode 1 of the anime series, you see Koizumi transfer to a new school and one of her classmates Yū Ōsawa takes a great interest in her. During his trip home from school, he finds Koizumi lined up at a ramen restaurant, and designs to line up with her. The model for this restaurant is "Ramen Jirou". Koizumi first purchases a ticket for her meal sits at the counter, and then states "Yasaimashi Niniku Abura Karame", which, when translated, means she wants more vegetable toppings than usual, more fatty parts of the meat, more garlic, and finally a slightly richer soup.

In episode 2, she finds herself with a different classmate, Misa Nakamura, being challenged to an extremely spicy eat-off. The model for the ramen restaurant in this episode is Mōkotanmen Nakamoto. Misa, ignoring the staff's warning about the level of spice, orders the same thing as Koizumi, the "Hokkyoku Ramen". After finishing the dish, Misa's eyes are awakened to the deliciousness of spicy foods.

You'll also often see a character known as Jun Takahashi, the class president, who often joined Koizumi in delving deeper into the world of ramen throughout the show.

One Piece's Wanze - A Ramen Martial Arts User

One Piece is known all around the world, with its straw hat donning main character Monkey D. Luffy, it also has a character who's highly related to ramen! He's a martial arts fighter working alongside Cipher Pol (CP for short), or the World Government Intelligence Agency, known as Wanze.

Wanze eats flour, kneads the dough in his mouth, and then is able to fire the hardened noodles out of his nose at will, with moves such as a "Ramen Beam". He can even make a suit out of ramen, which, when attacked, gets the opponent's hands and legs stuck in between the noodles!

Wanze has many more interesting moves such as "Tonkotsu Spank", or Fukumen Spank" where he splits the arms of his noodle armor into several smaller ones and launches a barrage of punches towards his opponent. There's even a move called Ramen Gyoza Set - Clapping! 

Ponyo's Ham Ramen

Ramen also makes an appearance in Studio Ghibli's "Ponyo". Lisa makes some ramen for Sōsuke and Ponyo, the dish itself is ramen topped with ham! You can see the 2 characters waiting for around 3 minutes during the show, meaning it's probably instant ramen that's being made! 

Lisa tops the instant ramen with some of Ponyo's favorite ham, and boiled egg, and some spring onions. It might be instant ramen, but you can tell that Lisa has a mother-like spirit ensuring that there are many nutrients included in the dish.

What's the Local Dish from the Movie Your Name?

Due to a comet shower that only appears once every 1000 years, Highschooler Taki, who lives in Tokyo, and Mitsuha, who lives in the countryside switch places many times over, it's a love story with many twists and turns known as "Your Name".

During the story, both the main characters head towards Hidatakayama in Gifu Prefecture. As they're making their way there, they stop at a ramen restaurant known as "Takayama Ramen". 

Takayama Ramen is a chicken-based soup that has had soy sauce mixed in, with thin noodles. The toppings include bamboo shoots, roasted pork filet, spring onions, and other such simplistic toppings.

There are a few of these restaurants dotted around Takayama City, and it's often said that the flavor differs depending on which ones of these restaurants you visit.

The "Your Name. Yoshino's Takayama Ramen" cup noodle that Nisshin Foods released after the movie also became quite the hit.

How did you like this article? We hope you've learned a lot about the relationship between ramen and anime! Let us know what you would like to hear about next in the comments section.