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Interest
We Tried the Konosuba Explosion Magic Ramen

posted on by Kim Morrissy

As soon as I heard that the ramen chain Yaro Ramen was going to recreate Megumin's explosion magic, I knew I had to try it. In the interest of journalism, it was important to verify the veracity of Yaro Ramen's claims. So I went to the Akihabara branch to see the ramen for myself.

This is what the Yaro Ramen storefront looks like from the outside. It is a bit off the main street of Akihabara and right across the road from the Mandarake complex. As you can see, the store is advertising the KONOSUBA collab front and center, with a poster for the recent movie out the front and flags with the characters printed on them hanging over the entrance.

Although the store itself is small and cramped, much like your typical ramen bar, the interior still found space for KONOSUBA decorations, mostly on the walls and machinery. Remember these iconic scenes?

That's enough dawdling - I went to the machine to order some ramen. They made it pretty easy to find what I was looking for. I went for the medium size rather than the large size or the "man size." (The assumption is that you pick that size as a test of your manhood.)

After waiting for a while upstairs, which was much quieter and had more space than downstairs, the ramen arrives! Aesthetically, it's pretty great. The spicy broth reflects the redness of Megumin's color scheme and her explosions, and the seaweed shows a cute picture of her. I also got a coaster with an image of the film's poster on it.

I tried eating the ramen. It's... not bad. I wasn't actually expecting it to taste great because most of the emphasis was on the presentation rather than anything else. I understood that it was an "explosion ramen" because the spice "explodes" in your mouth, so to speak. On the other hand, This is Japan, where spicy food is toned down (at least compared to other Asian countries), so the taste didn't really explode in my mouth. Which is good because I'm not really a fan of spicy food on a personal level, but it did come as a bit of a disappointment as someone expecting "explosion ramen." If you're gonna have a ridiculous concept for your ramen, at least go all the way with it!

The collaboration will last until September 30, so there's still time to try out the ramen for yourself if you're in the area. The collaboration started on August 30, the same day the film came out in Japan.


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