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Pikachu-lid Cup Noodle design could be the cutest instant ramen package ever

Casey Baseel Aug 3, 2023
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Fingers crossed that Pikachu’s ears will be on Cup Noodle lids soon.

We all know how to make Cup Noodle, right? Just peel open the lid, pour in the hot water, and wait three minutes.

Believe it or not, though, it’s possible to screw up cooking Cup Noodles if you don’t cover, re-seal, or otherwise close the lid back up to trap the heat in while the noodles are cooking. That’s why Cup Noodle maker Nissin designed the otherwise circular lid with a pair of paper protrusions, which you can fold back down under the rim of the cup to lock the lid in place as the ramen cooks.

In constantly cuteness-craving Japan, people have noticed, and appreciated, how this makes the Cup Noodle lid look like a kitty-cat. But it turns out there was still untapped adorableness potential to those tabs, as proven by this recent tweet from the official Cup Noodle account.

だ～れだ？ pic.twitter.com/Mn0fSHKSqc

— カップヌードル (@cupnoodle_jp) August 1, 2023

“Who’s that?” asks the tweet, but you’d have to have been living under a rock/inside of a cup for the past 25 years not to recognize the silhouette of Pikachu, the most famous and beloved of all Pokémon.

Now before you go running out to the store to buy as many Pikachu Cup Noodles as you can carry home, there’s something to note. Nissin has become almost as famous for their creatively silly marketing as they have their tasty instant ramen, and the Cup Noodle Twitter account posts both official product announcements and one-off quirky art projects. Sometimes the images they post are sneak peeks at upcoming products, and other times they’re just for fun. Quite often it feels like it could go either way, like with the coveted Cup Noodle-specific measuring cup that the account shared a photo of back in the spring, and it’s entirely possible that Nissin itself gauges the reaction to its offbeat ideas before deciding whether or not to go ahead with making them commercial available.

As of this moment, Nissin hasn’t officially announced that the Pikachu Cup Noodle design will go on sale, but it wouldn’t be a shock if it does make it to market. From a production standpoint, lengthening and reshaping the tabs to match the shape of Pikachu’s ears doesn’t look like it’d be a monumental manufacturing challenge. Second, this year’s Pokémon World Championships are about to open in Yokohama, the first time ever that a Japanese city has hosted the annual event, and Yokohama also just so happens to be the site of one of Japan’s Cup Noodle Museums.

▼ Speaking of which, the Yokohama Cup Noodle Museum currently has two Pikachu Cup Noodle photo spots, with the giant-sized one shown in the left photo letting you get in the cup too.

今日から「カップヌードルミュージアム横浜」1階でふた裏ピカチュウの巨大カップヌードルの中に入って写真が撮れるよ！
階段にも巨大ふた裏ピカチュウが出現！
期間は8月28日まで、夏休みはぜひ来てね！https://t.co/MNOYmpr21Z #ピカチュウ #ポケモン #WCS #カップヌードルミュージアム横浜 pic.twitter.com/94Rm6f92yV

— カップヌードル (@cupnoodle_jp) August 2, 2023

So fingers crossed that Pikachu-lid Cup Noodles are going to be a reality, even if only as some sort of limited-time promotion for the Pokémon World Championships while they’re going on from August 8 to 14.

Source: Twitter/@cupnoodle_jp
Featured image: Twitter/@cupnoodle_jp
Top image ©SoraNews24
Insert image: Nissin
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Follow Casey on Twitter for more intersections of Yokohama and Pikachu-related news.