Neko Rahmen

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Neko Rahmen
猫ラーメン
Genre	Comedy
Manga
Author	Kenji Sonishi
Publisher	Mag Garden
Demographic	Seinen
Serialized in	Comic Blade Masamune Comic Blade
Volumes	2
TV anime
Studio	Think Corporation
Licensor	Think Corporation Vuze
Episodes	13

Neko Rahmen (猫ラーメン, Neko Rahmen^?) also known as Neko Ramen, is a Japanese flash anime series based on Kenji Sonishi's yonkoma. The comedy centers around a cat (Taishou) and his encounters running a ramen shop.

The yonkoma series has been adapted into a TV anime produced by Think Corporation, with 13 episodes to date. The original yonkoma is still being published in the monthly Japanese manga magazine Monthly Comic Blade. Neko Rahmen was the most watched short animation series on Yahoo! Japan official streaming site in August 2007. ^[1]

The series is also noted for being the first anime series to be licensed exclusively by a US IPTV company, Vuze, and made available for free download to own and without digital restrictions. ^[2] Vuze also subtitled the series into English.

[edit] Principle characters

Taishou is voiced by Rie Nakagawa

Taishou (translation: “boss” or “chief”), is the entrepreneurial ramen chef and sole proprietor of Neko Rahmen, the only restaurant in Tokyo run by a cat. His primary goal is to make money and expand his ramen business, with a secondary plan of customer satisfaction, or at least entertainment. He was a former kitten model, who ran away from home and had a hard life on the streets before being saved by kind ramen shop owner who later served as Taishou’s mentor. He takes pride in his noodles and is easily angered when customers are dissatisfied.

Mr. Tanaka is voiced by Atsushi Yamada

Mr. Tanaka is a Japanese business man who is the only regular customer at Neko Rahmen, despite rarely receiving a decent meal. Mr. Tanaka plays the straightman to the easily excitable and scheming Taishou. He is extremely diplomatic and polite, but will try to intervene to sooth Taishou when he gets agitated.