The cat is out of the bag…
I find myself really hoping Ramen Akaneko gets another season. Not surprising for a series I’ve come to really love, but even more than most. It’s just such an easy charmer, this show – so full of warmth and dry wit. Red Cat Ramen is probably the closest to the Shirokuma Cafe experience of any series since that one ended, as different as they are in many respects. There’s enough source material, the manga is quite a good seller, and the anime has even popped up in the Top 10 TV ratings. So it’s certainly not impossible, though I’m trying not to get my hopes up.
We start out with a scene I especially loved, which finds Bunzou taking Tamako’s glasses off while she’s curled up asleep with the staff. It’s such a quietly lovely moment, and it segues into our first real flashback of Bunzou’s past. Or should I say “Tart” – as in, Tart and Pudding. We knew the two of them were taken in by the owner of the original Ramen Akaneko yatai, who now has a voice (Uramaya Jin) but still no name. I’d thought the moniker “Akaneko” might have been due to Bunzou’s presence but no, it was just fate I suppose – the name came first.
Fearing that a ramen cart is not the place to raise two kittens, Owner-san gives them to a customer, Sasaki Erio (Sasaki Yuuko). She in turn gives them their Pudding and Tart monikers (so is she the “only one” Bunzou lets use that name, or is it the owner?). But Bunzou is loyal to the old man, breaks a window and escapes. Eventually he gives in and red cat meets Akaneko full-time, though Pudding stays behind and lives the domestic life (and takes his owner’s last name). There’s obviously more to tell with their backstory, but it’s not yet forthcoming.
Next up it’s the tale of another kitten. Tamako picks up a stray on the way to work, somewhat thoughtlessly though not being a cat person (at least before recently) she doesn’t realize that. Bringing in a stray to a house full of cats puts them at risk, for fleas and mites at the very least. But obviously they’re not going to turn it away (just quarantine it). This whole segment is kind of a public service message for cat adopters (including that bit about the dangers of bathing a weak cat). There’s also a fascinating discourse where Hana explains the vagaries of why some cats learn to talk (apparently it comes down to not having an owner who understands meows well enough to provide the good life).
Eventually that kitten gets adopted by Goghogawara-san the lawyer, who finally gets to indulge her nekozuki obsessions (as Hana said, that little one will never learn to talk). After a funny aside about Sabu being afraid of the vacuum (if you know, you know) we focus on Krishna’s struggle to make the thin noodles for the new house special. She has too much integrity to follow Hana’s suggestion that she let the machine handle it – those wouldn’t be tiger-paw made noodles. But what she doesn’t have is a sharp enough knife, and fortunately that’s one of Bunzou’s specialties.
Hidden inside the “Daily Akaneko” is a bit of Sabu’s backstory (though I want more). He was dumpster diving Akaneko’s trash, prompting Bunzou to ask Sasaki for a new void-proof dumpster. Sabu was a stray in Chinatown, so he knows something about noodles (though cats shouldn’t be eating human food). Again there’s more story here – how Sabu went from trash raider to sous chef – but the telling will have to wait for another day. A day I sincerely hope will come, though it’ll probably take another season to make that happen.
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