I just realized: what kind of dumbass whom likes Japanese cat type things doesn’t mention Neko Ramen?
Not to mention: What kind of dumbass whom loves cats and Japanese culture doesn’t mention Neko Ramen that hasn’t posted in almost two to three weeks?
My apologies, children. This dear writer can be quite the forgetful moron. And self-deprecating.
Neko Ramen is about a Purebred American Shorthair named Taisho. He hates being purebred, since it’s associated with the fact that his father is a cat model and spent most of his childhood being forced to model as well. After escaping that, Taisho found his true calling in the ramen business. Problem is: it’s terrible ramen. But for some reason his only customer -businessman Tanaka- keeps coming back. Maybe he sympathizes with Taisho, or it’s still a marvel for him to see a cat make ramen. I know I would go for that.
The series is basically gimmicks that Taisho tries to pull off to attract customers, from elaborate puzzles (ie, “FILL IN THE BLANK: Taisho is a CA_T.” That’s one of my favorite parts. Tanaka was so confused. :D) to actually making curry. And Taisho hires some interesting characters, mostly two cats who just sleep all day, Shinge-chan: silent hippie looking guy whom steals constantly from the store, Second Shop Guy who keeps changing the other Neko Ramen location. Other weird people that come by are Tetsu: a friend of Taisho’s whom creates card games with no actual point to them, Mariko: Tanaka’s coworker whom he likes, but she’s too ditzy to notice and always insults Taisho’s ramen, Taisho’s family (his mother, father, and brothers.) and a few others too.
I just got the fourth book today, and I’m happy to be able to put it on my shelf. Tokyopop’s American branch is being shut down, meaning a lot of their manga series are being stopped, dropped, and hopefully will be picked up by other American publishers. I actually saw the price on the fourth book as being over two hundred dollars. I couldn’t believe it, but it still freaked me out and made me want to get my hands on it while I could. But the German branch however is not shut down though. I mean, that’s so dumb. I don’t know the selling demographic for Germany, but I think Americans make up most of the anime/manga loving people, second to the Japanese, of course. Well, we might be first since our country is bigger...I don’t really know. But it shouldn’t have closed. It’s the one that I’ve identified as the best publishing company. It’s really disappointing.
I suffered the same incident with the thirteenth volume of Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad. Well, there weren’t volumes that cost hundreds of dollars. I just kept running into sites that said it was available, so I would order it from the site. But then an email would show up saying how it wasn’t available and I ended up being refunded. And I did it a few times. And I never got the manga.
I’m a big fan of that series. And I fought to find that book. Book selling sites: PLEASE DON’T SAY YOU HAVE SOMETHING AND YOU ACTUALLY DON’T. Hypocrites. And I’m sorry I subjected you to the dreaded all caps shouting thing. I don’t like to use it, but it somewhat gets the point across.
But Beck has been moved to number two on my list of favorite manga series. Well, it’s definitely tied with this one: Muhyo and Roji’s Bureau of Supernatural Investigation. It’s about these two characters (I don’t have the proper grounds to call them men or boys. Maybe guys? I don’t know how old ANY of the characters are. Hear that, Nishi Yoshiyuki? Now would be about time to tell us since the series has been over for about three years) Toru Muhyo and Jiro Kusano (is actually called Roji, ninety-eight percent of the time), who use Magic Law to solve cases of the supernatural. It goes so much deeper than that, and it's a tad hard to explain. Reading it would be the best option from here. The plot is fantastic, and I love most of the characters, even the villains. Except Teeki. No on likes Teeki. Except murderers, maybe...Or crazy people. Then again, he is pretty interesting- Okay, this is just an awesome, AWESOME series that you need to get into right now so it gets really popular again to the point where Shonen Jump can’t deny it and may Muhyo and Roji into an anime. SJ, if you ever do and need an American voice actor for Muhyo or Rio, blog me.
Sigh. What I wish for...
Until next time, kitties.
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