Food in Anime/Manga - A Slightly Strage Request...

So, this is going to sound a bit silly...but for reasons I can't full explain myself, I'm interested in documenting depictions of food in anime and manga - ramen, bento, sushi, pastries, etc. The more detailed the depiction is, the better! So, I'm sending out a request...okay, I'm kind of begging...as y'all are watching and reading your many different series, if you see food being depicted, could you reply to this post and send the info my way? All I would need is the name of the series and the episode or volume number.

I know of several series that have multiple depictions - XxxHolic, Antique Bakery, Oishinbo...but even if the whole series only has ONE SINGLE depiction of food, I'd like to know about it.

So...yeah, crazy request...but any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! :)

- EDIT -
Series that have been mentioned:

Addicted to Curry
Anpanman
Aria
Aqua
Antique Bakery
Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji
Black Jack
Bambino
Battle Royale
Card Captor Sakura
The Cat Returns
CLAMP in Wonderland 2
Genshiken
Gente
Hotman
InuYasha
Iron Wok Jan
Kinou Nani Tabeta
Kitchen Princess
Kogepan
Library Wars/Toshokan Senso
Maid Sama
Mixed Vegetables
Naruto
Oh! My Goddess
Oishii Kankei
Oishinbo
Ouran High School Host Club
Planet Survive/Uninhabited Planet Survive/Mujin Wakusei Survive
Poor Man's Dining Table
Pretear
Revolutionary Girl Utena
Ristorante Paradiso
Saint Tail
Samurai Champloo
Sangetsu no Lion (March Comes in Like a Lion)
Toriko
Vampire Knight
X/1999
XxxHolic
Yakitate!! Kapan
Yotsubato!
Yumeiro Patissiere
Ze
Zodiac PI

Oishii Kankei is almost all about food. (Every single chapter has some kind of food feature.)

Also, there's a newer series (I mean, Oishii Kankei is from the '90s and all >.>) that's basically a recipe manga with shortish stories involving a gay couple and what they eat (lots of loving detail of what one of them cooks for their meals). But I totally can't remember the title.

> 2
i think you're referring to "kinou nani tabeta?"

i think bambino, yakitate!! japan, and addicted to curry are supposed to feature food as well.. although i haven't actually gone through those.

(i know a little more about asian dramas with food... XD)

Yeah, that sounds like the title. I couldn't remember the Japanese words, but knew it was something like "what did you eat yesterday?" in English.

trying not to spam... but to prove my last point in the parentheses... XD;;

shota no sushi and teppan shoujo akane were both jdramas based on manga that concentrated a lot on food and training with food preparation... kuitan was also a jdrama based on manga that has food in it...

(and, if you've ever watched kdrama... dae jang geum and gourmet have a lot of food... djg was especially lovely with the detail they went into for food preparation for the imperial family back in the old days... not quite the request, i know.. but couldn't resist...)

Well mixed vegetables is a series all about food.

The is also Manga Cookbook which might interest you.

Naruto's favorite food is ramen. There are a lot of references to ramen in the original series.

Oh, glad you bumped this, because I stumbled across another one.

Hotman (ホットマン) 15 volumes, from 1997, not licensed in English, is another with a big emphasis on food. The main character Enzo is a health-food nut and really obsessed with balanced vitamins and stuff because of his daughter's allergy condition. (I'm discovering that I really don't like manga where food is a central aspect of the story.)

There's Oishinbo, which is about a newspaper food critic who's been assigned to create the Ultimate Menu for his paper's anniversary celebration - each story focuses on a different food. I think the series has 100+ volumes in Japan, but Viz released a best-of series of volumes called "Oishinbo A La Carte"; each volume follows a particular food theme, like sushi.
(EDIT: Woops - didn't notice that Oishinbo was already mentioned. Sorry about that.)

If you prefer something over-the-top, there's Iron Wok Jan!, about chefs who engage in Iron Chef-type battles.

Vampire knight
Ch 14 book 3
Pokkin choco (chocolate pocky?)

You guys rock! :D Just keep them coming as you find them. And as you're reading/watching, just keep this request in the back of your mind. Thanks so much! ^_^

.....do kogepan and anpanman count? XD;
kogepan is the story of a this burnt bread who lives in a bakery. he tries to make friends with other bread items in the bakery and tries to think of ways he could become better bread.
anpanman is.... anpanman. XD;

Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji makes a lot of references to food. Teas, pastries, and they even did a complete semi-crack arc about curry.

Sangetsu no Lion (March Comes in Like a Lion) (by the author of Honey & Clover, I believe) has a lot of scenes centered on food-activities. Some of the main characters are a family who own a Japanese sweet shop, and then one of those girls spends a chapter making a bento for the boy she likes. Mostly, though, the food is involved because the author uses meals as a way to develop the story. (IE: how to get these two characters to reveal a secret to the other two? have them stop by for dinner! Or how to show that she is the nurturing type who cares for him? have her cook for him!)

You know, I'm starting to think that it's easier to name manga where food doesn't appear in any big way.

In Ouran High School Host Club the main character Haruhi loves giant tuna and Tamaki develops a fixation with eating Ramen.

do you have to see the food or can it just be mentioned?

Battle Royale Volume 4, P167 you see the pot of rice and it's mentioned by the characters

I'd prefer it to be visual, where you can actually see the food that is being (or already has been) cooked. Thanks! :)

Oh wow, I just realised that I can't name any manga / anime that I've seen that didn't have some kind of foodie-ism prominently in it. If they're at home, they're making breakfast/lunch/dinner/snacks/dessert, if they're out, they're getting crepes, ramen, yummies-on-a-stick, octopus balls... if they're at school/work then there's the bento box, and if they're somewhere else entirely, out comes the bento / picnic / candy drops.... huh. I'll just have to do it for ones I watch / read from this moment on then, because the backlog of everything that had food in it would be too big....

19> Exactly! That's why I'm thinking it might be easier for purpledragon42 if we switch to listing manga where food doesn't appear. :D

19>
Yeah, when I decided to start on this random little project, I basically realized the same thing, which is why I figured it might be useful to ask for help from other anime watchers & manga readers. ^_^

Revolutionary Girl Utena, for example, has several bento boxes and X/1999 has a couple of food/cooking scenes. But it's hard to know about little scenes like that if I haven't watched/read a series - another reason I'd love some help.

So, yeah, as your watching/reading, if you notice something just jot it down and post it when you can. I'd be very grateful! ^_^

Thank you!

Yumeiro Patissiere Which in one of my faaaaaaaaaaaaavorite shows right now, depicts a lot of food. But it is all sweets and rarely, rarely anything else. Like, it almost leads you to believe that breakfast, lunch, dinner & snacks all = sweets. I think they showed a regular lunch like ONE time. xD

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who's offered up help so far. :D I've begun my documentation in a blog here:
http://animegourmet.blogspot.com/

There's not much to it yet, because right now I'm just skimming through series that I own and that takes time. ^_^; But I've finished Wallflower and will probably start on XxxHolic or Antique Bakery next.

Or I might take a break and work on my "Shitajiki Project", which is less than halfway completed: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/purpledragon42/shitajiki

OoOoo. Yay! I think this is interesting too. ^_^ *clips site with amplify*

InuYasha numerous times depicts Pocky and Raman and in a couple of magna's Kagome packs a picnic lunch and tries to describe the food to those in the past.

I don't know many series strictly about food. But, One Single Depiction, I can give you:

+ CardCaptor Sakura (Quite a lot, actually. Anime and Manga Both. And all different types. I can help with screenshots if you'd like)
+ CLAMP in Wonderland 2 (Music Video)
+ The Cat Returns (Movie)
+ Planet Survive/Uninhabited Planet Survive/Mujin Wakusei Survive
+ Saint Tail
+ Toshokan Senso/Library Wars
+ Pretear
+ Zodiac PI (manga)

I'm sure there's more, but this is all I can think of. Hope it helps. :3

Battle royale #5 p.92 rice gruel

I haven't seen anyone mention it, but many of the volumes of Black Jack that I've read tend to show characters cooking and eating. One story in particular revolve around a sushi master who loses his arms if I remember correctly and ends up training himself to cut with his feet. Can't remember which volume it was in though.

My guess would be it was one of the Vertical publications, maybe one of the later volumes? Looks like I've read up to volume 6.

Maid Sama! has food, which it kinda has to since Misaki works at a café. Also Genshiken has a few scenes with bentos that Madarame brings to the clubroom, though I can't recall if there's anything more.

A few that I know about that I don't think have been mentioned yet that definitely have food:
Kitchen Princess
The Poor Man's Dining Table
Toriko

Also probably:
Ristorante Paradiso and Gente by Natsume Ono
Samurai Champloo (at least there was in the anime)

Second on Kitchen Princess - lots of food images
Oh My Goddess has some too. I particularly remember one with people eating ice cream with chopsticks that was a very nice image.

Oh, don't forget Yotsubato!! She's always bumming ice cream from her neighbors, and there's a few scenes where she and her dad talk about instant noodles and how they're a Once A Week Food. And whenever Yanda comes by (at least so far?), it's during his lunch break with his bento.

In Aria, I think volume 4 or 5, Akari and President Aria eat ice cream in the plaza. There's also a scene where the three girls prepare a party for their friends, which includes cooking. But Aria is more about the scenery porn than food porn... I haven't read the manga past volume 5, but the anime does have several points where they're eating or doing something with food. Also, there's the really cute story where President Aria runs away from home because he feels like he's not useful enough during cleaning day, and he shares his lunch with some birds (Aqua, Volume 2 I think). Oh, and when Akari first goes to Orange Planet with Alice, she eats in the big canteen and there are some jokes about ketchup on the omurice and how Athena puts too much syrup in her drink.

Oh! If you don't mind some yaoi with your food, at least the first volume of Ze has a few nice shots of food. Raizou is a culinary student and cooks for the household.

>33 PhoenixTerran:
I never mind yaoi with my food. >:) *laughs* I actually just got Ze, V.05 in the mail yesterday and it had a couple of good food images, too. ^_^

Once again, thank you everyone for all of the wonderful recommendations! I've already been contacted by a couple of people about contributing actual images to the blog itself. If anyone else is interested in doing this, please send me a private message and let me know. :)

do you have a separate blog for this too?

>35 novelandmangacrazy:
Sorry for the late reply - work took over my life for awhile. ^_^;

Anyway, I'm not sure what you mean by "too", but I currently only have two anime/manga related blogs.

Manga for Librarians
http://manga-for-librarians.blogspot.com/

Anime Gourmet (the food blog)
http://animegourmet.blogspot.com/

Like I said, work stole my life away, so there haven't been any updates to either of these in quite some time. ^_^; But I'm hoping to get back in the groove of things soon.

Dramacon volume 1 they eat burgers and fries

(I'm sure at one point in the series their eating pocky, but I'm not sure)

How come there is no Cooking Master Boy/Chuka Ichiban?

This is a excellent manga that shows mostly realistic Chinese cooking battles with some interesting super natural bent. The anime, however, suffers from the low budget production that was eventually handed off to a mainland Chinese animation studio to finish off with a completely unrelated ending on the second half. I seriously doubt there is an English fansub of the manga, since I've never seen it before, but if you are able to read Japanese/Chinese, it is available online somewhere. However, there is a fan sub of the anime series, and the first half does follow the manga faithfully.

The aforementioned Shota no Sushi is a excellent sushi manga that should be a required read for anyone interested in sushi, alas, there isn't even fan subs out for it. You could, however, watch the live action version spliced with a comedic bent on various sites.

Oishinbo is always great for those interested in other aspects of the Japanese cuisine. It's just too bad that it's licensed by viz.

I hate to say it, but a lot of the series listed above can't really be called food/cooking manga. If anyone tried to look for food and cooking in some of the titles listed, they might be really disappointed.

I have to recommend two of my favourites Shinmai Shimai no Futari Gohan and Shinya Shokudo

Also, Hell's Kitchen and Wakakozake are food based manga and anime

Assassination Classroom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4EomdfiBps (ramen... and gun!)
http://ansatsukyoshitsu.wikia.com/wiki/School_Festival_Time_(episode) (Class E makes their own food from ingredients on the mountain... so yummy)

Saiki Kusuo no Psi Nan (honestly every 5 seconds Coffee Jelly or cake or something is mentioned cause MC loves sweets that much)

Takeo-chan wa bukkairoku has a chapter where two characters compete with cooking to please MC that ends with a massive picnic but I forget the chapter number (tho i really recommend this series it's one of my favourites as well)