While we love to indulge ourselves with tasty treats from time to time, there’s just something about anime food that makes our mouths water and our tummies rumble. Even after having a full-course meal prior to watching, seeing the bacon and eggs being prepared for breakfast in Spirited Away has us wishing we could have a plate of it too as we watched.
Without a doubt, a lot of anime has been well-recognized for their detailed scenes, smooth transitions, and amazing cinematography. But we think it’s safe to say that anime that highlight or focus on food takes the cake in illustrating just how much effort and detail is put into these works of art.
Eating with our eyes to satisfy our visual hunger
Anime food is a visual feast, from the delicate shimmer of the oil to the smoothness of the rice – truly a feast for the eyes. And while these words may come off as slightly over-exaggerated, they speak nothing but the truth.
Since the pandemic and quarantine period, social media has blown up with foodies recreating the food well-known anime.
If you’re not yet convinced that anime food can really look as scrumptious and heavenly as we think they do, here’s a list of our anime recommendations for your inner foodie!
Emiya-san Chi no Kyou no Gohan
Emiya-san Chi no Kyou no Gohan, or more commonly known as Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family, is an anime adaptation of its manga counterpart of the same title. Set in an alternate universe, the series mainly focuses on the protagonist as he plans and cooks delicious meals for his family and friends everyday.
Despite being set in an alternate reality, this anime showcases the protagonist’s family living peacefully and happily as they enjoy various Japanese dishes.
In addition to the mouth-watering meals prepared in the show, another reason why a lot of people appreciate this anime is due to the wholesome interactions between the Emiya family members.
Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma
In contrast to the first anime on our list, Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma provides a somewhat more exciting and thrilling experience to its audience. Sōma Yukihira, the protagonist, is a talented individual who was taught by his own father how to cook using the traditional Yukihira style of cooking.
When Sōma’s father decided to close their family restaurant, Restaurant Yukihira, Sōma was encouraged by his father to apply to Tōtsuki Culinary Academy, a prestigious culinary school where only a select few from each batch could successfully graduate.
With the goal of surpassing his father in terms of cooking skills, Sōma’s skills and knowledge are put to the test during his journey to overcoming the challenges hurled at him at Tōtsuki Culinary Academy.
From the intense cooking battles between students and professional chefs around the world to the notable growth in some characters, this anime is anything but boring — so, if you’re looking for something thrilling, this might be the anime you should binge on next.
Gourmet Girl Graffiti
If you’re looking for something that’s more wholesome and light, Gourmet Girl Graffiti is a great food-related anime to watch.
The protagonist, Ryō Machiko, is a middle-school girl who used to live with her grandmother. After the passing of Ryō’s grandmother, she was left to live on her own.
Ryō is known to have exceptional cooking skills, however, she felt that her food was always lacking or didn’t taste good enough ever since her grandmother passed. When her cousin visits her and starts to eat with her over the weekends, she then comes to the realization that food tastes so much better when eating with friends and family.
Mister Ajikko
The oldest of ur anime selection on the list, Mister Ajikko has been around for quite some time, first airing in late 1987. But don’t let that stop you from giving it a shot. Mister Ajikko is considered to be the first Japanese cooking anime! Making it a classic amongst anime foodie fans.
The main character, Ajiyoshi Youichi, is considered a culinary prodigy. When the head of the largest conglomerate of chefs in the country happens to dine at the restaurant managed by Youichi and his mother, he is surprised by the taste of the Katsudon that he was served.
Having discovered such a talent, the head of said conglomerate decides to invite Youichi to his company to introduce and immerse him in an environment of professional chefs to gauge how talented Youichi is in cooking.
With Youichi’s exposure to this new environment where a lot of professionals look down on him for his age and lack of professional training, will he be able to prove himself in the culinary world?
Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles
When you think of Japanese culture, what comes to mind? Well, for us, we think of anime and ramen! Combine those two and you have Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san, or Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles — an anime about a girl who loves ramen more than anything else.
Koizumi is a high school student who transfers to a new school. Despite being beautiful, Koizumi is deemed to be mysterious by her peers due to her quiet personality. However, when a student chooses to follow her to a ramen restaurant without her knowledge, the classmate learns a side of Koizumi that was unexpected from her.
Turns out that Koizumi is quite the ramen connoisseur! In fact, Koizumi has tried various ramen flavors from different ramen shops; she loves ramen so much that she doesn’t mind waiting in line under the hot sun to be seated in a ramen shop.
Koizumi later gains new friends as she teaches them more about ramen and the variety of delicious ramen flavors there are to try.
Restaurant to Another World
Isekai Shokudou, or Restaurant to Another World, is a cooking-themed anime with a novel concept. Most days, everyone passing by Western Restaurant Nekoya assumes it’s just another diner. However, the restaurant is well-known for serving wonderful traditional Japanese and Western food to guests from another dimension once a week.
From dragons to mages, this restaurant literally caters to everyone regardless of species or dimension. A fun watch because of its attention to detail and mouth-watering culinary imagery.
Spirited Away
Spirited Away is probably the best Studio Ghilbi film that exhibits and highlights food. The film’s famous scene in which Chihiro’s parents are transformed into pigs as a result of eating food from an abandoned restaurant is a perfect example.
Although the overall plot of Spirited Away is more about Chihiro being trapped in an unfamiliar world by herself, with the task of surviving and restoring her parents to human form, audiences are treated to an assortment of delights along the way, ranging from sushi platters to sweets like castella cakes.
The smorgasbord of meals presented to No-Facealong, as well as the other delightful goodies shown throughout the film, is a visual feast
You’ll be quite amazed to see the food featured in this film — this is Studio Ghilbi we’re talking about after all.
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Yumeiro Patissiere
Yumeiro Patissiere is a dreamy and cute anime that focuses on a clumsy girl who is fond of eating cakes. While Ichigo, the protagonist, has no actual culinary background, she aspires to become a pâtissière due to her fondness of desserts.
Ichigo only discovers that she’s gifted with good tasting abilities and sense of smell when she encounters a famous patissiere at a festival. She was then encouraged by the patissiere to transfer to a prestigious culinary school that’s well-known for specializing in desserts.
As she finds her footing in her new environment, she strives to learn the basics and become a professional patissiere along with the Sweet Princes of the academy who are deemed to be gifted in dessert-making.
Be prepared to be hungry!
Each anime mentioned on our list stands out uniquely from the rest, with each being able to cater one’s various preferences in genre and plot. With the established popularity of various Japanese meals, there’s no doubt that cooking-themed animes are rising in popularity.
In addition to this, it’s evident that a lot of effort and thought was put into the creation of food in anime for it to appear so mouthwateringly delicious despite being limited to our screens.
Because of how well-drawn and animated these foods are, the number of people recreating these foods are steadily increasing by the day. You can easily search up videos of people recreating the noodles from Ponyo to the Rainbow Terrine from Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma.
If you’d like to try your hand at recreating some of these recipes, you can easily search up recipes from anime food recreations. What anime food would you want to try and recreate?
