Red Cat Ramen (ラーメン赤猫, Ramen Aka Neko) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Angyaman. It began serialization as an independent comic published on Shueisha's Shōnen Jump+ app and website in March 2022. It later became a full-fledged series in October 2022. An anime television series adaptation produced by E&H Production is set to premiere in July 2024.
Plot
Red Cat Ramen centers around the titular establishment, a ramen shop established and run by talking cats. Focusing on Tamako Yashiro, a human woman who is working as a part-timer behind the scenes, the series focuses on the day-to-day antics of her and her fellow feline employees: Bunzo, the head chef; Sasaki, the owner and finance/business expert; Sabu, the sous-chef; Hana, the customer service manager; and Krishna, a tiger in charge of making the base ramen noodles in-house.
Written and illustrated by Angyaman, Red Cat Ramen was originally published on Shueisha's Jump Rookie website from November 26, 2021, to February 20, 2022.[5] It later began serialization as an independent comic published on Shueisha's Shōnen Jump+ app and website on March 14, 2022.[6] It later got promoted to a regular serialization on October 2, 2022.[7] Its chapters have been collected in seven volumes as of March 2024.[8]
The series is published digitally in English on Shueisha's Manga Plus platform. The series is also published in France by Kurokawa.[2]
An anime adaptation was announced on November 27, 2023.[16][17] It was later confirmed at Jump Festa 2024 to be a television series produced by Good Smile Company and E&H Production and directed by Hisatoshi Shimizu, with Toru Kubo overseeing series scripts, Michinori Chiba designing the characters, and Hirotaka Matsuoka composing the music.[3] It is set to premiere on July 4, 2024 on TBS and its affiliates. The opening theme song "Akaneko" is performed by Wednesday Campanella,[4] while the ending theme song "Honjitsu no Osusume" is performed by Rikon Densetsu.[18]Crunchyroll licensed the series.[19]Medialink licensed the series for streaming in Southeast Asia and Oceania (except Australia, New Zealand and Vietnam) on its Ani-One Asia YouTube channel.[20]
Reception
The series was nominated for the eighth Next Manga Awards in 2022 for the web manga category and was ranked fifth out of 50 nominees.[21] The series was also ranked fifteenth in the Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics of 2023.[22] It ranked nineteenth on Takarajimasha's Kono Manga ga Sugoi! list of best manga of 2024 for male readers.[23]