Interview with Noriaki Sugiyama (Sasaki) and Michiyo Murase (Sabu) for the anime "Ramen Red Cat! Interesting everyday drama where you can feel the love even in the slightest misunderstanding!

This unique work depicts the daily life of the main character, Tamako Yashiro, a human who works at a ramen shop run by cats called "Ramen Akaneko," and her cats, and is a unique work story full of "cat stuff. It won first place in the "JUMP+ Serialization Contest Ranking" and was awarded an indie serialization on JUMP+, with a book to be released in 2022 and regular serialization starting with episode 30. In the "Next Coming Manga Awards 2022," it was ranked fifth in the web manga category. This time, the long-awaited anime adaptation has been made.

The cast includes Kenjiro Tsuda, who plays Bunzo, the manager of "Ramen Red Cat," Rie Kugimiya (Hana), Saori Hayami (Krishna), and Kurumi Orihara (Tamako Sha), all of whom are very attractive. Akiba Research Institute interviewed Noriaki Sugiyama, who plays Sasaki, a customer service, cashier, and accountant, and Michiyo Murase, who plays Sabu, a cook of gyoza and other side dishes and a ramen server. They talked about everything from the charm of the work to postrecording, as well as cats and ramen.

His favorite scenes are the ones where everyone is full of love and ...... clever tricks!

-- "Ramen Red Cat" has cute and healing cats and delicious ramen, but also impressive heartwarming episodes. What do you two find attractive about the work?

Murase: The attraction is that nobody dies (laughs). Nobody fights. There are fights in everyday life, but you can watch them all the time. Not only is it healing, but there is also depth in the little words, and I like the fact that you can see (read) it through the reader's life.

Sugiyama: Of course there is the cuteness of the cats and the healing element, but that's not all. There are many heartwarming and enjoyable things in the loose, everyday life, such as the relationships between the characters (cat relationships). Everything is also heartwarming, even when everyone overcomes the troubles that occur at the ramen shop. The annoying YouTubers of the assault type will eventually become .......

Murase: I'm looking forward to that part.

Sugiyama: The people in the story are not "100% evil," but are portrayed as "a little troubled," which is redeeming in the long run.

Murase: That's also a human quality, isn't it?

Sugiyama: That's right. Not many people are 100% evil. Even if 30% or 40% of them are in trouble, there are also good parts of them that you can't hate.

--What episodes or scenes would you like the audience to particularly enjoy about Sasaki and Sabu, the two actors in this film?

Sugiyama: There are many funny and cute scenes, but my favorite is the scene where Sasaki-san prepares an outfit for Sha-san to wash dishes in the kitchen. I also wanted to make sure that Sha-san and Hana-chan got along well with each other. How do you get Hana-chan to get along with Sha-san and Hana-chan? How do we convince Hana-chan, who is angry with us, that a ramen shop based on the concept of a cat would be ruined if there were humans there? How do we convince her? Instead of saying, "It's the boss's decision; please follow it," I tried to avoid making a corner, and finally got Hana-chan to say, "This is the best one.

Murase: That's a clever trick (laughs).

Sugiyama: That's right (laughs). It's a clever trick, but I think it's very kind of Mr. Sasaki to try to make the store, the cat relationship, and the human relationship run smoothly like that. He could have just said, "He's going to work in the kitchen, so don't complain," but I think it's cute that he is so considerate of everyone.

Murase: With such dull eyes.

Sugiyama: And he doesn't just tell them to go buy their costumes, he buys them himself.

Murase I wonder if she went to Don Fatty Hote to buy them. (Laughs)

Sugiyama: He might have. I would think of a strategy, like "Hana-chan would be upset with this outfit," and then go shopping at the store myself. You are a very diligent and light-footed person, Mr. Sasaki.

--How about your sub?

Murase: The sub is the scene where she oversleeps because she plays too many games. He is misunderstood and told by everyone, "If you want to quit the store and become a professional gamer, I'll send you out.

Sugiyama: The misunderstanding is interesting. "Am I fired? (laughs).

Murase: It's a scene where there are slight misunderstandings, but you can feel the love between everyone through it. I am looking forward to seeing it.

--Personally, I don't know if it will be depicted in the anime, but I thought it was very cute to see Sub wearing the regent wig in the original story.

Murase: It's a very cute Subu (laughs). The picture of him wearing the wig is very popular on the Internet.

Sugiyama: It's cute. It's not easy to find a kitten wearing a regent's wig (laughs).

I tried to find the right balance of how realistic the meow should be.

--Sasaki and Sabu are both cats, although they speak human language. When you play such characters, are you aware of any differences compared to normal human characters?

Murase: On the contrary, we were instructed not to be particularly conscious of the fact that they are cats.

Sugiyama: That's right. In the first episode, Mr. Sasaki's initial intention was "not to make it too much like a character. Characters are characters, but he didn't want to make it too much like a "character conversation" or a "character piece.

However, as the story progressed, comical scenes and character scenes appeared, so we had a lot of discussions about the consistency and balance of these scenes. If you change one thing, you can make it very character-driven, or you can make it a normal human drama. It was difficult to find the right balance between the scenes and the whole story.

Murase: I am a woman, so it was a little difficult to control. If I make it too much like a character, it becomes too much like a girl. I just had to control that, and I wasn't conscious of being a human or a cat.

--I didn't want to make her look like a human or a cat, so I controlled for that.

Murase: But there are times when you have to say "business meow. Like "nyaa" in reply. In such cases, I was a little worried at first about how much "nyaa" I should say.

Sugiyama: It's a balance between how realistic to make the unique cat voices like "meow" and "shhh", and how much to make it sound like a fantasy anime. When we recorded a game (*), if we did a realistic "Sha! I was told, "Sorry, it's a little too realistic. It's a bit too realistic, so I was told to make it more like the characters. (Laughs.) I kept Mr. Sasaki's taste in the "Sha! (laughs).

Ramen Akaneko Nyan de Suteki na Ramen Ten (Ramen Red Cat: Nyan's Wonderful Ramen Shop), a game for smartphones currently under development.

Murase: It was difficult, wasn't it? Gorogoro (a cat's purring sound) was also difficult.

Sugiyama: "Gorogoro" can be realistic or symbolic, but when we imitated our cat and made it realistic, we were told, "Sorry, that's too realistic. That would be too realistic and raise the bar for other people, so let's not do that" (laughs). (Laughs.) So we went with a symbolic "rumbling.

--It is difficult. When Mr. Sha brushes me, I am in full cat mode.

Sugiyama: It's very close to a real cat. However, the older Bunzo and Sasaki are less cat-like and behave more like adults, so the cat flavor is less pronounced in their behavior.

Murase: The sub takes care of that part (laughs). (Laughs.) I think the cat is very stretchy, and I make it feel "ah, it feels so good!

--So you can enjoy the role of each sub or the cat.

Sugiyama: That's right. Cats also go through a process of growing up from their kitten days, gradually becoming adult cats, and then becoming elderly (......), and I think that is also expressed in this work.

Murase: Mr. Angerman is really good at characterization, so much so that you can tell that he must like cats.

Talking about the appeal of cats and their favorite ramen

--What do you think is the attraction of cats?

Sugiyama: "Their freedom. They are honest about their feelings of joy, anger, sadness, and embarrassment, and I think it is very cute that they put their own feelings first and do not make decisions based on hierarchical relationships. Of course, there is cuteness in terms of form and appearance, but in terms of the inside, I find that kind of freedom without flirtatiousness appealing.

Murase: What I think about cats is that they have a strength that humans do not have. My cat was paralyzed in all four limbs for the last six months of his life, and I had to care for him. If it were a human, paralysis of all four limbs would be very depressing. But the cat really only thought about living, and would say, "Give me food! Give me water! I don't like what I don't like! They are like, "I don't like what I don't like! It is generally believed that cats do not have the concept of death, but I think they transcend such things and know everything, and their strength and mysterious power is fascinating.

--It has a mysterious power that transcends such things and seems to know everything. And speaking of this work, I am also interested in the ramen. Do you both like ramen?

Yes, we do!

--What kind of ramen in particular, in terms of flavor?

Murase: I definitely like soy sauce!

Sugiyama: I like soy sauce, and I also like miso, but if you ask me what is the best ......, I would say salt. But even if you have soy sauce, miso, tonkotsu, and many other kinds of ramen, there are still stores that don't have salt ramen. That's why I love restaurants that specialize in salt ramen or are particular about their salt ramen.

Murase: People often say, "If the rice tastes good, everything tastes good. In the case of ramen shops, I wonder if everything tastes good if the rice tastes good. I think about it (laughs).

Sugiyama: Some restaurants only serve soy sauce or pork bone broth, so it's hard to make a blanket statement. It depends on your taste.

Murase: I thought soy sauce was the standard.

Sugiyama It's a regional thing, like Hakata has tonkotsu (pork bone) and Hokkaido has miso butter.

--I guess that's true. Then, if there are any ramen shops that you recommend or that you are interested in, please let us know.

Sugiyama: I would like to recommend a ramen shop, but I can't get in because there is always a long line.

--Is it "San-no Torasan"?

Sugiyama: Yes, that's right. Whenever I pass by there for work, I always have to wait in line for an hour or so, and I have yet to try it because I thought it was impossible.

Murase I don't know the restaurant at all, so I would like you all to tell me about it!

(Reporting, writing, and photography by Kenichi Chiba)