One of the most fun parts of being a fan of a particular anime or manga is seeing the many ways in which the material can be brought to life in new and interesting ways. In particular, seeing beloved characters from your favorite series being represented is always a special and fun experience whether it is through a format like a stage play, movies or merchandise.

Food is another delicious format and cafes provide a way of enjoying a series and filling your stomach at the same time! Themed and collaboration cafes not only recreate the iconic food that you see in the anime and manga, they also create entirely new dishes, drinks and desserts based on the characters and themes in a series.

Our staff got to experience that creativity at the TV Anime Ranma 1/2 Cafe held at the newly opened BOX cafe&space Grand Scape Ikebukuro.

Ranma 1/2 is an anime series based on the popular manga written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. The story is centered on Ranma Saotome, a teenager who is a skilled martial artist and who is cursed to turn into a girl when doused with cold water. He only changes back into a boy when hot water is poured over him. This provides many challenges for Ranma who also has to deal with friends, enemies and his many fiancees along the way.

In this article we will be taking a deep dive into the way that the TV Anime Ranma 1/2 Cafe used food design and flavors to bring this iconic show and its characters to life and provide a fulfilling atmosphere for fans of the series. The cafe puts ​​a lot of focus into the themes of the characters and the quality of the food and hopes to deliver an experience that feels like visiting an amusement park.

Both the cafe menu and decor was meant to evoke the feeling of a retro Japanese cafe. Not only is the anime set in the 80’s but the Showa-era (1926 - 1989) retro style has recently been popular among young people in Japan. Thus the design of the cafe tapped into both the theme of the show and a popular trend. The decor featured original illustrations of each of the characters in traditional cafe service attire drawn to match each character’s personality and color scheme. The decor was mainly red and white with retro patterns adorning the walls complete with motifs of sakura flowers as well as a bucket and kettle representing Ranma. In between the character illustrations were still photos from the anime making you feel like you truly entered the world of Ranma 1/2.

When it comes to the food, we will start by looking at the dishes and the drink based on the titular character Ranma Saotome. All of these items played with the theme of transformation just like Ranma himself. To showcase both his girl and boy sides, two different dishes were used that played with flavor and temperature.

For boy Ranma, an omelette pilaf dish came served on a bright blue tray with a motif of boy Ranma decorating the tray. Since hot water is needed to return Ranma to a boy form, the dish was served hot together with a mini kettle in the iconic retro design. Inside the kettle was a hot beef bone broth that you poured over the food. You could easily imagine being part of the anime and helping to return a disgruntled Ranma back to normal! Before pouring the broth, the dish had a primarily ham and egg flavor but after adding the broth, it brought out a new flavor of corn that complimented the rest of the dish perfectly.

A splash of cold water turns Ranma into a girl and this was represented by a creamy omelette pasta dish served cold on a contrasting red tray with a motif of girl Ranma adorning the side. Instead of water though, a mini bucket containing cold tomato soup accompanied the dish. The main flavor of the pasta was egg but once the tomato soup was added, it balanced the flavor and brought out the taste of mushrooms.

To continue the theme of liquid that transforms, the drink themed around Ranma was a butterfly pea tea. It came accompanied with a slice of grapefruit so when squeezed into the tea the color would change from blue to violet.

Next up is Akane Tendo, the deuteragonist of the show, one of Ranma’s fiancees and fellow martial artist. The items themed after her were a dorayaki-style pancake and a hot matcha milk drink.
Both of these were based on traditional Japanese menu items and tend to be popular cafe choices among women and girls. Akane is often shown wanting to be more feminine like her older sister and both items had similar color schemes of light green, pink, red and white that created a visually soft atmosphere highlighting her feminine side.

Every good martial artist knows that balance is important and the slightly bitter green matcha of the hot matcha milk drink was balanced with a topping of bright white rich whipped cream. There were marshmallows under the whipped cream for a pop of extra sweetness. This was representative of the fact that while Akane might be a tough martial artist in public, she will display a sweeter, softer side in private.

The dorayaki pancake was topped with strawberry whipped cream, white peaches and matcha flavored rice flour dumplings which are more flavors that would be preferred by a high school girl like Akane. Accompanying that was a wafer featuring an illustration of Akane in a pastel yellow and white top that matched the look of the pancakes. However, all of the softness was contrasted with the abundance of red bean paste sandwiched between the pancakes that packed a visual and flavorful punch much like Akane herself!

While we didn’t get to try any of Ryoga Hibiki’s menu items in person, the cafe did an excellent job of portraying important aspects of this character in the food design. In the anime, Ryoga is rivals with Ranma both in martial arts and in love and he has the unfortunate curse of turning into an adorable black pig (named P-chan) when splashed with water. His food item was the P-chan curry that featured rice in the shape of P-chan making it almost too cute to eat! A slice of pumpkin was used to recreate his iconic yellow and black bandana and the entire dish was served on a yellow tray. The addition of meat and vegetables made this a hearty meal perfect for a character like Ryoga who needs lots of food to keep his strength up.

Keeping with the theme of strength, Ryoga’s drink was hot Viennese coffee. The strong coffee was balanced with a topping of whipped cream. More visual and flavor interest was created with the addition of pumpkin powder and crumbles of cocoa-flavored biscuits that evoked Ryoga’s iconic yellow and black color scheme.

The final character in the cafe lineup was Shampoo. Shampoo is a Chinese Amazon warrior who crashes her way into Ranma and Akane’s lives after she gets beaten in a battle by girl Ranma. Things get complicated when she falls for boy Ranma and becomes one of his many fiancees. Her menu items consisted of an Anmitsu (agar jelly cubes) parfait and a float drink.

The parfait was visually stunning, combining all the bright, expressive colors of Shampoo’s character in one item. At the very top of the parfait was a scoop of cassis sherbet designed to look like the top of one of her chuí weapons. Together with that was a wafer with an illustration of Shampoo with a battle-ready expression on her face. Each layer of the parfait provided a new flavor and a new texture that was just as exciting as Shampoo’s dynamic character.

Finally her float drink came in a shade of purple that immediately made you think of her purple hair. Unlike the parfait that featured a battle-ready image of Shampoo, the drink came with an illustration of her looking much softer and cute as she stares out. A scoop of white peach sherbet tops the drink and adds to the overall sweet visual of the drink. Both of these menu items highlight the different sides of Shampoo’s personality especially in relation to Ranma.

The TV Anime Ranma 1/2 Cafe is a perfect example of using food in a creative way to bring out the best qualities of our favorite characters in a way that’s both visually appealing and delicious.

We enjoyed seeing which parts of the characters would be present in the food and drinks and it made eating and drinking a much more interactive and enjoyable experience. If you ever have the chance to visit a theme or collaboration cafe we definitely recommend it!

We also have a video of our time spent at the cafe so be sure to check it out!

©Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan / Ranma 1/2 Production Committee