I’m sure we’re all aware of the many lovely shots of food that we see in anime and manga and how delicious they look with examples that primarily spring to my mind being the food from the restaurants in the film “Your Name” and the ramen from the manga and anime “Naruto”. However, there’s also plenty of anime and manga that whose purpose when it comes to food is much stronger, being a central core around which the whole story revolves. Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to talk about some anime and manga that primarily deal with food as part of their story.
When it comes to the history of these food anime and manga, the earliest example that I’m aware of is a manga called “Cake Cake Cake” written by Aya Ichinoki and Moto Hagio, one of the Year 24 Group, which centred around a girl, who adores sweets and cakes, moving to Paris in order to learn more about preparing pastries. With regards to anime, the earliest example that I’d aware of is a series called “Mister Ajikko”, an adaptation of the manga of the same name that aired from 1987 to 1989. Of course, I’m sure there must be earlier examples and I would greatly appreciate it if you could leave a comment if you are aware of any earlier titles.
If you’re curious about the best-selling food-based manga series, that honour goes to a manga called “Oishinbo” which ran from 1983 until going on hiatus in 2014, releasing 111 volumes and selling 135 million copies across its lifetime. The premise of Oishinbo is that Shiro Yamaoka is working as a journalist who’s seeking to create the “Ultimate Menu” while dealing with his strained relationship with his father which is so poor that Shiro uses his mother’s maiden name rather than his father’s surname. The series’ success led to a long-running anime series of 136 episodes, a couple of anime TV films and a live-action adaptation. Unfortunately, Oishinbo has yet to see a proper English-language release with Viz Media releasing a seven volume best of release.
However, if we’re looking for the food manga that has seen the most volumes released, that would be a series called “Cooking Papa” which has run since 1985, sold 40 million copies and has released 165 volumes as of this article! The premise of Cooking Papa is that a salaryman called Kazumi Araiwa loves to cook but doesn’t want anyone at his workplace becoming aware of this. Thus, he tells everyone at work that his wife cooks his food when, in reality, she’s quite inept at cooking. Cooking Papa received an anime adaptation that ran between 1992 and 1995 for 151 episodes as well as a live-action TV series in 2008.
While these are amongst the more noteworthy anime and manga that deal primarily with food, there’s plenty of other examples that have proven to be very popular. Some of the most popular ones that spring to mind are Food Wars! and Toriko but other particularly notable ones include Drops of God, What Did You Eat Yesterday?, Antique Bakery etc. It’s a fascinating area of anime and manga that is quite often overlooked except for the occasional breakout hit and one that I’d love to see more of (particularly Cooking Papa, I really like that premise!)
Let me know your thoughts on anime and manga that are primarily about food, what some of your favourites have been, the earliest examples you’re aware of, whether you were aware of Oishinbo or Cooking Papa before reading this article and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!