Ranma 1/2 Cafe opening in three Japanese cities, features food with transformable flavors

Ranma is back on TV with a new anime series, and back in Japan’s character cafe circuit too!

In October, fans of Ranma 1/2 got a special treat as the martial arts/comedy/romance returned to television with an anime remake of the series whose original iteration premiered in 1989. Now there’s another encore of sorts for the franchise, with a brand-new Ranma 1/2 themed cafe set to open soon in Japan!

The first Ranma-themed eatery since 2018, the new Ranma 1/2 Cafe will be a popup restaurant with three locations, in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya. As is often the case with themed cafes, there’s a reservation system with a seating charge of 770 yen (US$5), but also some cool extras that come as part of the deal, as ordering food gets you two character art postcards, selected randomly from a set of five, and ordering drinks gets you one of five coasters, also chosen at random.

▼ Coasters

▼ Postcards

The new Ranma anime keeps the original’s setting of the late ‘80s/early ‘90s, but the cafe’s character artwork turns the retro dial back a few notches more by dressing the cast in attire evocative of the Taisho period (1912-1926), for an extra-old school kissa (coffee shop) aesthetic.

The cafe’s artwork is using the character designs of the new Ranma 1/2 anime as its base, and with it still in the early stages of the story, the themed menu items and merch highlight five of the most central characters in the cast: protagonist Ranma (in male and female forms), his fiance Akane, his rival Ryoga, and his second (though not his last) fiance Shampoo.

Ranma’s core plot point is that, due to a curse, he changes from a boy to a girl with a splash of cold water, and back into a boy with hot water. In keeping with that, there are two different Ranma-themed dishes, each with a bit of temperature-based transformation involved. First up is the Ranma Omelet Pilaf (1,790 yen [US$11.70]), a variation of Japan’s traditional rice omelets with scrambled egg and cheese over rice, served with a kettle of hot beef stock soup to pour over it.

There’s also the Ranma Chilled Omelet Pasta (1,790 yen), cream sauce pasta with egg and cheese served cold with a bucket of chilled tomato soup to add.

Ranma’s not the only one with a water-based curse, as his rival Ryoga transforms into an adorable little black pig, known to those unaware of his curse as P-chan. The Ryoga /P-chan Curry (1,790 yen) has black rice sculpted to look like P-chan, with a slice of kabocha (Japanese pumpkin) standing in for his bandana, along with meatballs, potatoes, and other veggies for a flavor you can lose yourself in.

Moving on to desserts, we come to Akane’s Dora-pancake (1,690 yen), a bold mishmash of eastern and western sweets. Sandwiched between the pair of compact pancakes is a whole lot of azuki (sweet red bean jam) and a plopping of vanilla ice cream, while on top there are white peach slices and matcha shiratama (mochi dumplings). As a nod to Akane’s status as one of the most terrifyingly unskilled chefs in the history of anime, the Dora-pancake purposely isn’t much to look at, but all of the ingredients sound delicious, so it’s likely a dessert whose inner beauty is what’s most important.

Alternatively, you can satisfy your sweet tooth with Shampoo’s Anmitsu Parfait (1,690 yen), a tall glass of azuki, shiratama, fruit, and blakcurrant sherbert.

As for drinks, Ranma is represented with a butterfly pea tea accompanied by a slice of grapefruit, which changes color if you add a squirt of the juice.

Also part of the lineup of drinks (all 990 yen) are Akane’s hot matcha milk with strawberry flakes…

…Ryoga’s hot Vienna coffee with pumpkin powder and cocoa biscuit topping…

…and Shampoo’s almond tofu-style float with white peach sherbert.

Attached to the cafes will be a merch shop with pins, key holders, acrylic mini character stands, stickers, drawstring pouches, and memo paper canisters.

The Ranma 1/2 Cafe opens in Osaka on December 5 at the Box Cafe & Space venue within the Umeda Kitte shopping center, where it runs until January 13. The Nagoya location will also open on December 5, at the Lachic 1 Box Cafe & Space, and be in operation until January 26. The Tokyo cafe doesn’t yet have an opening date more specific than sometime in 2025 and no location has been announced, though the Box Cafe & Space in the Sola Machi shopping center at the foot of the Tokyo Skytree seems like the most likely candidate.

Reservations can be made through the official Ranma 1/2 Cafe website here, which also has a storefront for online purchase of the related merch.

Related: Ranma 1/2 Cafe official website
Source, images: PR Times
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