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“Is Attack on Titan any good?” customer asks Japanese fried chicken chef – and for a good reason

Casey Baseel Apr 18, 2022
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Small talk takes a sudden turn.

Japanese Twitter user Takkun (@TORISEN11) runs a karaage (Japanese-style fried chicken) restaurant chain called Torisen in Oita Prefecture. It’s a small chain, with just two branches, so Takkun himself can often be found working on the front lines and dealing directly with customers.

▼ Torisen’s karaage (please resist the urge to bite your screen)

ツイートのネタがないので唐揚げを上げておきます。
1セット4個入り280円です。 pic.twitter.com/sWVfj3kLKt

— とり千 (@TORISEN11) April 6, 2022

Last Monday, Takkun was busy frying/selling chicken when a particularly chatty customer came to the restaurant. “Is your karaage good?” the customer asked.

It’s kind of an unusual question to ask a restaurant if their specialty dish is good, but still, wanting to know if the food is tasty before you order it is understandable. When Takkun, still focused on his work, said Torisen’s chicken is indeed good, though, the customer had another question: “In what way is it delicious?”

Again, a bit of an odd question, but still something a potential customer would probably like to know. The customer’s third question, though, came completely out of left field:

“Is Attack on Titan any good?”

The sudden shift from fried chicken to anime/manga prompted Takkun to stop what he’d been doing and take a better look at this uniquely inquisitive customer. and it was only then that Takkun realized that he was none other than Hajime Isayama himself, artist and creator of Attack on Titan!

昨日、変わったお客さんが来て、「唐揚げ美味しいですか？」「どういう風に美味しいですか？」「進撃の巨人って面白いですか？」とか聞いてきて、他所から来た観光客かなとか思ってたら、「久しぶり、元気？」って言われてよーく顔見てみたら諫山でした(;ﾟДﾟ,)

— とり千 (@TORISEN11) April 12, 2022

“It’s been a long time. How ya doing?” Isayama asked, and as his words indicate, this wasn’t a random coincidence. Isayama grew up in Oita, and he and Takkun are actually childhood friends, having met in preschool.

以上、諫山と保育園からの友達たっくんからでした。右が諫山です。※本人に上げていいか聞いたらOK貰いました。 pic.twitter.com/0vSyMV1dAV

— とり千 (@TORISEN11) November 10, 2020

They remained pals through their student years…

▼ Isayama and Takkun during a homestay in Idaho, U.S.A. during their first year of junior high

進撃ミュージアムに行かれた方、諫山の隣にいるこの細長い人間は誰？と思われたかもしれませんが、私です。 pic.twitter.com/8XFoceGo5N

— とり千 (@TORISEN11) March 21, 2022

…and 20 years later, they still find time to occasionally get together and screw around like the kids they were when they first met.

20年後の君へ pic.twitter.com/E8TRJqbcEW

— とり千 (@TORISEN11) March 21, 2022

出遅れました💦
諫山君誕生日おめでとうございます🎂

普段からネタにさせてもらってありがとうと先日連絡しました😅

保育園の時からの幼なじみが世界的な漫画家になったことが誇らしいです。これからも自慢させて下さい！#諫山創生誕祭 #日田より感謝を込めておめでとうございます #進撃の日田 pic.twitter.com/VlaYTBx5rn

— とり千 (@TORISEN11) August 30, 2021

With Isayama having left Oita to become a manga star, the two don’t get together as often as they used to. Even when Isayama isn’t back in his hometown for a visit, though, he’s still there in spirit, by way of a piece of custom artwork he drew that hangs on the wall of Torisen’s Wakamiya branch showing always-hungry Sasha chowing down on some freshly fried karaage from Levi.

うちにミカサいないなーと思ってたらいました。
サシャの迫力に押されてました。

#ミカサ・アッカーマン生誕祭 pic.twitter.com/excfjxt4cZ

— とり千 (@TORISEN11) February 11, 2022

Isayama hasn’t been in the media spotlight very much since the end of the Attack on Titan manga a year ago, but commenters were happy to see him enjoying his hiatus after a decade-plus of pumping out one of the industry’s biggest modern hits.

“Isayama is a pretty silly guy, isn’t he?”
“Looks like he’s having a good time having a break from working on serialized manga.”
“Nothing better than meeting up with old friends and feeling just like old times.”
“As an Attack on Titan fan, Isayama feels like something like a god to me, so it’s reassuring to see him doing human things like this.”

“Just like with his manga, he likes to surprise people in real life too,” Takkun says of his famous friend, though with all the tragic, gut-wrenching twists in the Attack on Titan plot, it’s good to know that Isayama sticks to more heartwarming surprises in real life.

Source: Twitter/@TORISEN11 via Jin
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