Welcome to My Anime Life

A little too much information about how I love anime and cooking, and how that turned into a newsletter

Hello, internet friend! You have graciously opted in for my first publishing experiment, a weekly newsletter about the anime I’m consuming (sorry, had to) and the food I’m making because of it. I’m calling it “Notes From an Anime Noob” because that’s what this is and that’s who I am. By day, I’m Elyse Inamine, the digital restaurant editor at Bon Appétit. But come evening, I’m a real life Umaru-chan, splayed on the couch, glued to the TV, and immersed in worlds that feel so fantastical and far from here.

During “these unprecedented times,” as the world imploded and my world became about 800 square feet, I binged anime like never before. It was an escape. In anime, food isn’t an afterthought but a key detail in completing a dreamed-up world, just as evocative as the thrum of cicadas to signal summer and the sparkle in one’s eye to hint at love. There is an otherworldly perfection in how the food is depicted in anime, almost pornographic with each voluptuous detail. Just think about any Miyazaki film: the absurdly thick cuts of bacon Calcifer fries with his flaming body and swallows up in Howl’s Moving Castle, the ICONIC chubby dumplings Chihiro’s dad inhales at the beginning of Spirited Away. 

But the thing that grounded me during this strange period was actually the food in the anime I watched. Each cameo of nikuman in ちはやふる (Chihayafuru) strengthened my resolve to learn how to make the steamed pork bun from scratch. So I did (my triumph pictured above), with a recipe from the OG, Cooking with Dog. As I was abruptly reminded why I hate August in New York (HUMIDITY!), I sought relief in the simple somen from the 2019 reboot of フルーツバスケット (Fruits Basket)—more on this in my next newsletter! The ikura-don from ヒナまつり (Hinamatsuri) glowed on screen, each little salmon roe so perfectly round and pearlescent. I wanted to pop those orange orbs in my mouth like bubble wrap. A few days later, in the park with my husband Travis, I laid out a make-your-own-ikura-hand-roll picnic, in lieu of the rice bowl. There, we met new friends: two little girls who announced to us that they also love sushi, especially salmon. What I made from these anime series were nowhere near as shiny and pristine as what I watched. But cooking what brought these characters joy and satisfaction in turn gave me joy and satisfaction when I needed it most. 

Some people babysat sourdough or got on TikTok in an attempt to control one small thing when it felt like the world was spinning out. I watched anime and cooked what I craved. And I’m still doing that, but now I’m attempting to turn my unrepentant couch potato ways and borderline ridiculous cooking projects into a newsletter that people will hopefully read. I’ll be honest, though; I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m no anime expert, just a recent convert as of a few years ago thanks to Travis, so I’m still catching up on classics and discovering the new stuff everyone on Reddit is talking about. All of the things that make me me—my fourth-gen Japanese American status, my straight cis female identity, my deep commitment to bangs as an adult—will probably come out in the way I understand and relate with anime and, in turn, write about it. 

I'm playing around with the format of this newsletter; right now I'm thinking it’s a breakdown of the TV series I'm watching (with occasional films) and my related cooking projects with recipes. Of course, there may be changes along the way, but I think we’re all pretty experienced with that at this point (I won’t type the dreaded “p” word). 

So welcome to my first newsletter entry, which was meant to be a short introduction and somehow turned into this long, indulgent ramble. But I wanted to give a little context for what I’m thinking and where I’m hoping this will go. Thank you for subscribing, and stay tuned for the first anime x cooking entry about Fruits Basket and cold, cold somen next Tuesday!