Alt name: Project X - Nissin Cup Noodle
Author: Kadoh Tadashi (Story & Art)
Volumes: 1 | Chapters: 8
Genres: Historical
Who don't know Cup Noodle, that famous instant noodles made from Nissin? Well, I'm not here to do adv but to talk about this "Hidden Gem" of a manga!
Story: first of all, this manga is a historical one about how Cup Noodle was born. There isn't any magic, contracts or fantasy in this manga, this is the story of a man called Momofuku Andou and about his battle to seek a new type of food for a new era. Andou ordered the development of noodles that can be eat anywhere at anytime. Thanks to his staff he slowly overcome public skepticism.
Everyone knows how it ended... Cup Noodles is today a really famous food but I liked they idea of the behind the scenes (sadly the page on Wikipedia is a little short so I don't know how much in the manga is true... maybe something was added to make the manga a little more interesting).
The story was really interesting, every chapter focused on a step of how to create Cup Noodle. For example there's a achapter where they have to create the cup and its shape, another chapter where they have to make the noodles cook in 3 minutes (and they need to be perfectly cooked) until they finally start to sell. I really liked how Andou stay true to his idea to have noodles that can be eat anywhere at anythime. there isn't a lot of chapters and I think that for this kind of manga it's positive because the author can't do fillers.
The characters are nice and from the beginning you cheer them (well, we already know that they were able to create Cup Noodles but the manga is really interesting and you still wish for them to be able to achieve this project!). A lot of the first chapters are focused on a specific character since they didn't work all together but everyone had its task to accomplish.
The drawings are really simple and try to stay realistic but without losing the manga style. I really love manga style that try to be realistic but without being too much realisitc. The panels are good to look and the noodles seems real (I'm glad that I ate something before starting to read this manga XD).
The pages have some basic screen tones but they are really nice to look at and the few landscapes are really well made.
My rating: 8/10
