The latest consumer good to receive an upgrade via the otaku fine art of ita-fication is modern Japan’s favorite foreign dish, curry. Toradora, ef: a tale of melodies, Musubi of Sekirei and even dear Nagisa-chan of Clannad have received their own ita-curry products, catered specifically for otaku culinary taste.
Eroge illustrator Aoi Nishimata (Shuffle!), the same artist whose moe ita-rice became a huge marketing coup for a small town last year, has also lent her talents to the creation of moe curry, illustrating the cover art for the farming region’s brand of beef curry with the above image of a moe kimono-clad woman.
Apparently, the growing reach of Akiba (and moe) knows few boundaries.
The store display pictured below (from otaku megastore Gamers main Akihabara branch) displays a couple of the varying brands of ita-curry that have been recently released:
Below are the individual packages, all containing the standard of 2 curry pouches inside, along with with brief translations of the blurbs on the boxes:
Nagisa’s Homemade Curry
Eat lots and lots, please ♥
Ryuuji Takasu’s Special Curry
Is dinner still not ready!?
Mizuki’s Handmade Curry
Kuze-san ♪
This is the “Mizuki’s special beef curry” that I made. I made two pouches so we can eat together ♪
Musubi’s Full of Love Curry
It’s a delivery of delicious curry ♥
M-a-s-t-e-r ♥♥
The back of the Musubi curry bag, with cooking instructions and nutritional information.
A Gamers banner advertising the 4 types of curry, which are exclusive to the store chain.
The Aoi Nishimata illustrated ita-curry also went on sale recently, opening sales on Jan. 31 with a special event in Ugomachi (Akita Prefecture).
The curry comes from JA-Ugo (the town farmer’s association), who undoubtedly are eager to repeat the huge success of the earlier ita-rice, also illustrated by Nishimata.
The package contains 2 pouches of curry and sells for ¥1,764 (a steep price for Japanese instant curry), but there also tenative plans to introduce 3 and 5 pouch packages in the future.
As with the earlier ita-rice, the primary method of sales will likely be mail order through the JA-Ugo website, but the flood of otaku gourmets rushing to purchase the curry have apparently overwhelmed the site, which is currently down as of this writing.
Sales seem set to do repeat the success of the ita-rice regardless, with the 200 packages prepared for the Jan. 31 introductory event selling out quickly, and JA-Ugo reports 700 pre-orders for the curry on their website on the first day of sale.
Aoi Nishimata handing out packages of curry at the introductory event. Her earlier ita-rice is visible on the left.
The ita-curry illustration in a higher resolution, from Nishimata’s blog.
Gamers’ store photos are from Akiba Kakaku. Aoi Nishimata ita-curry: Asahi, Livedoor, Nishimata’s blog.
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I would Mizuki or Nagisa's curry anyday XD
Otakus are not after the food but more of the moe art that goes with it.
It is like, the curry is just an extra XDD
What!?! No MANLY Hosaka curry!?!
"Jala jala jalapeno...."
This totally pwns Lingam's curry, Baba's curry or Adabi curry.
Damn.
I'm a little disappointed. :(
The rice that started it all had special-made art for the rice packages.
These seems to just be taken from anime screen shots.
Buying curry at Gamers... the world has gone mad! I love akiba...
Looking forward to the Akiko (Kanon) curry... with mysterious jam flavour. >.<
I don't care about the art as long as the food tastes good.
Do want
Although I did see Tomoyo, which I want more
Mizuki’s Handmade Curry FTW!!!
Where's Yuuko? Where's Yuuko? YUUKO~!!! I WANT YOUR HOME+HAND MADE CURRY!!!
Instant curry? Phail!!!!
Real asians would cook their own curry, only the lazy otakus would buy them like that. =P
Which is exactly why I would buy them!
Actually.. I need them to be microwave ready. (This means the rice needs to come in the package as well... with disposable plate and utensils... )
The marketing behind this is fantastic.
Right now, in the experimental stage, the images are merely being used to market to a specific market segment. This segment however could actually grow it's own oddball culinary delights.
A strange combo might take a long time to take root in regular markets (like say - peanut butter and jelly, bug-in-a-candy, Carrot-milk-egg.. ) but can easily support itself as a premier product in the otaku markets.
Previously mentioned Curries:
[Ararara-ra] Akikko Mysterious Jam Curry
[Palmtop Tiger] Ryuji Extra-Spicy Curry
[EcureuilMatrix] Ciel Vampire Ward Curry
Other possible examples:
Ja-Pan breads
Cooking Master Boy recipes
Astro Fighter Sunred Tarako Spaghetti (Actually Gen.Vemp)
Cecile Croomy Blueberry Jam Onigiri
Cecile Croomy Sugar and Wasbi Sandwich
"All Hail Otaku!"
"Nagisa’s Homemade Curry
Eat lots and lots, please ♥"
homemade in a factory -__-
Awww...we need more anime characters on our products. Like Haruhi on Chips ahoy or something :P
Yeah...so you could eat one cookie and then wait 3-4-5-10 years for the second cookie??...but the Marketing would be impressive!- lol.
This is marketing genius. I want the Nagisa curry.
Ita-Curry with Nagi pic = WIN
"Kuze-san ♪
This is the “Mizuki’s special beef curry” that I made. I made two pouches so we can eat together ♪"
There's something that'll send you to the psychiatric ward.
'So lonely... She said she would eat together with me...'
I want!!!
Slap a cartoon character on a package and you get a premium product. Ain't capitalism grand?
They missed the obvious: Ciel's Special Curry. Guaranteed to ward off vampires.*
*Might not work on Arcueid, or NecoArc for that matter.
Hey! That's right. Why are there no Ciel-curry?
How could they have missed that?
dammit now i want to eat curry.
Musubi is love
I recall a 2ch comment to the effect that the curry itself probably differs not at all from what you might buy in a discount supermarket...
Well of course it's not. Do special edition Star Wars Doritos taste any better than normal?
...Sssss.. That.. is a tough one.
I left out any mention of a taste test in the post, as that would be well outside the intended focus of these products. ^^
Yah they do. Just like how the blue M&M tastes better than the yellow one. Silly iapfah *rolls eyes*
Whoa, don't bring M&Ms into this. They're on a whole different level.
Yep, I knew this would happen.. after all the reports on ita-rice and moe strawberry packaging (my blog included.. oops), this is just the next step on the obvious ladder...
Product quality will probably be dubious, since the target is profiting from otaku anyways.
At least, I hope it helps food chains to face the crisis.
Like I said before, Otaku will save Japan from the crisis!
the day when otaku saves japan is the day god decides to watch a dirty movie, that being said i would like some curry right about now
"... is the day god decides to watch a dirty movie, ..."
... and God saw that it was good... ;D
Trying to milk every last penny out of the otaku population, eh?... haha at this rate, Japan's economy would be stable and secure again =P...
and just like what Artefact said, the curry itself is most likely not dissimilar to those that you can get at the supermarket. I mean, how different can curry get? Personally, I would save the money, buy cheap curry, and just print off the pictures and look at them while I eat the curry. Saves money.
yes, but you're the one looking at pictures of moe you printed out because you were so against the idea of paying a little more for something iconic of the otaku influence on product design...
no way could I eat Nagisa curry. Thats no way to dispose of a young girls body.
;_;
I don't get the Curry fasination. What's next Mellon bread by Shana- flame haze. Is Wilhimina Carmel going to have a dish to buy? who remembers "Best Student Councils" Curry-making competition?...would you get a free Indian to 'bless' your curry (*Nameste*)- lol.
To think I laughed about the plastic vagina from Toradora that was purchased at some recent con- lol.
Is Ryuji's curry extra spicy like how Minori likes it?
Ah yes, the purple bovine, a creature native to Japan, distant cousin to the green sheep.
They are only slightly less rare than attractive and miraculously clean milkmaids in expensive kimono.
I still prefer the maid cookies.
this reminds me of cereal in the US, and... now I'm hungry
I want Ryuuji's curry~ <3