Anime is typically renowned for putting much effort into making food look even more fantastically delicious than even real life. That is, when not bringing the food alive to fight. But there are some cuisines in anime that are so beyond inedible, they can even look like indistinguishable globs and take on rank purple auras. As much as some grub has been strangely notable like Brock’s “jelly donuts” from Pokémon, some foods in anime are just so cursed they shouldn’t ever try to be recreated, neither in the shows they’re from and definitely not in real life.
While these foods are definitely all pretty gross, they each have their own unique level of nastiness. Some are simply disgusting from taste alone. Some have more questionable concepts. And others are all around downright horrid in taste, concept, execution, intention, morals, and just every way imaginable. These dishes may be punishment enough for even just being briefly seen on screen, but while some characters have foes they might like to dish out revenge on that’s best served cold, some of these cuisines shouldn’t be wished upon anyone’s worst enemy.
K-On!: Black Blancmange
Starting out on the lighter end of unappealing glop, Tsumugi Kotobuki’s blancmange isn’t exactly what one may think of when imagining the gelatinous, molded, often light-colored dessert. Usually sweet and creamy, Tsumugi’s creation instead has a more umami, salty flavor with the use of kelp and hijiki (a type of dark brown seaweed), giving it a very dark, questionable look.
While not outright inedible, Tsumugi’s friends aren’t exactly excited about eating such a strange “dessert”. But at least Tsumugi made it with the good intention of preparing everyone for a marathon by building up essential iron minerals and preventing anemia.
Gintama: Hijikata Special
Toushirou Hijikata is the Vice-Commander of a special police force. You’d think someone in such a prominent position would have more refined tastes, right? Well, not in Gintama. Saying that Hijikata enjoys mayo is an understatement. When he’d once been followed by an assassin to a restaurant, before he could be attacked, the assassin was instead distracted by being absolutely disturbed and disgusted when the Vice-Commander ordered the Hijikata Special, i.e. mayonnaise in a bowl.
But when Gintoki ordered the Gintoki-don (sweet beans over rice), all bets were off as the two argued over which dish was superior. Although the assassin was literally sent to kill Hijikata, it’s hard not to sympathize when he passes out after Hijikata and Gintoki force him to taste-test their questionable creations.
Gintama can be streamed on Hulu and Crunchyroll.
Food Wars!: Peanut Butter or Honey Squid
This nasty creation is by Sōma Yukihira in Food Wars! While the basic idea of a sweet and savory combination isn’t far-fetched, the execution is definitely a disaster. Although Sōma tends to get experimental with his cuisine, this is one of the more bizarre, becoming more disgusting with every iteration.
The grilled calamari with its peanut butter, honey, yogurt, and even coffee-soaked peanuts and habanero sweet and sour pork style with mint sauce variations was a dish specifically made to be served as a punishment. In fact, it’s so offensively disgusting that it apparently leaves its victims feeling as though they’d been disrespected by the squid itself.
Food Wars! can be streamed on Hulu, HIDIVE, and Crunchyroll.
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations: Super Sour Lemon Burger
As the latest item on the menu from the genin students’ favorite fast food restaurant in Konohagakure, Lightning Burger, Boruto just had to get this lip-puckering abomination. While Boruto and a girl ironically named Remon both seem to somehow enjoy the sour and savory combo, Konohamaru nearly barfs from the extreme flavor.
Even so, there is still hope in this niche flavor experience as Alvin from the Babish Culinary Universe, as per his anime culinary skills, is able to turn this gross burger into something more palatable.
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations can be streamed on Hulu and Crunchyroll.
Sket Dance: Pelollipop Candy
Although a reference to Chupa Chups Lollipops, Pelollipops’ odd flavors are more akin to being the lollipop equivalent of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans from Harry Potter. Some of the disgusting notable flavors include: liver, century egg, blue cheese, durian, sea cucumber, margarine, tako (octopus) wasabi, seaweed vinegar, corned beef, and bitter gourd.
Often shortened to just Pelocan, even though the unusual flavors make for a literal recurring gag in the series, with most who attempt to try them ending up vomiting, Himeko doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, she seems to be quite the fan, with how many she’s constantly eating. Heck, even Hijikata from Gintama would surely also be one of the few Pelollipop fans with their mayonnaise-flavored pop.
Sket Dance can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
Spy x Family: Yor’s Cooking
Although Yor tries her best to be both a good wife-figure to Loid Forger and a nurturing mother-figure to their adopted daughter Anya, she hasn’t exactly been the best of cooks. In fact, her attempted dishes often yielded completely inedible results. As an assassin herself, having her dishes even being described as deadly seems apt.
Even though her mishaps were notorious for being bizarre to a comedic level, Yor forged on, seeking help to improve her skills for her family. But, to her credit, Yor does indeed eventually improve her culinary skills after succeeding at recreating her late mother’s southern stew and receiving cooking lessons from her co-worker Camilla.
Spy x Family can be streamed on Hulu and Crunchyroll.
Persona 4 the Golden Animation: Nanako’s Mystery Food X Chocolate
In the Persona games and animated series, Mystery Food X is a substance that refers to comedically inedible food typically as attempts at cooking by Investigation Team female members. When protagonist Yu Narukami’s younger cousin Nanako attempts to make chocolate for him for Valentine’s Day, enlisting the “help” from some of the Investigation Team girls was probably a bad idea.
The combination of suggested ingredients sounds as downright horrid as the resulting Slime-shaped “chocolate” looks: iced coffee, bacon, bell peppers, wheatgrass juice, vinegar, ponzu sauce, fish sausage, and fermented squid. It ends up being so incredibly nasty, the taste causes Yu to black out.
Persona 4 The Golden Animation can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
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That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: Shion’s Cooking
As much as Shion is passionate about her interests, especially cooking, she didn’t exactly start out with the best of dishes. Using her massive sword as her sole universal cooking utensil certainly didn’t help. For a while, her cooking had been notorious for being comically bad. Fortunately, Shion later receives the Master Chef skill. But while her food eventually becomes actually edible and even tastes good as she intends it to, it unfortunately is still offensive in every other aspect including look, smell, and texture.
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime can be streamed on Hulu and Crunchyroll.
Made in Abyss: Netherworld Stew
As Nanachi focuses on healing Riko after being attacked by a monster within the dangerous Abyss, Reg is sent to fetch ingredients to make some grub. Mash a whole Demonfish, entrails and all, in a pot, add a giant hammerbeak egg, mash the yellow-shining grass thoroughly into a sticky paste, and voila: Nanachi’s Netherworld Stew.
With the consistency and color of sticky mud and the unspeakable taste of waste, being Nanachi’s signature dish, it’s the natural result of never having learned to cook and is probably what both Nanachi and Mitty subsisted on for the most part when having lived on their own. While Riko manages to make a lot of the Abyss’s available edible items palatable, Nanachi’s cooking is truly irredeemable.
Steins;Gate: Gel-nana
The PhoneWave / Phone Microwave is Future Gadget No. 8 of the many wacky inventions the Future Gadget Laboratory headed by Rintaro Okabe has created. Serving as the basis for the more advanced Time Leap Machine, it allows the user to send messages, known as D-Mail, to the past. But the lab members happened to notice a strange effect the device emits — when bananas are placed into this technologically souped-up microwave, they become composed of a green, slimy, gel-like substance.
But while the bananas were obviously changed as seen by the naked eye, upon closer, microscopic inspection, they’d also been changed on the molecular level with the molecules having been forcibly ripped apart. The gel-nana isn’t just gross in general, but is literally gross on a molecular level.
Steins;Gate can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
Delicious in Dungeon: Parasite
While much of the food in Delicious in Dungeon manages to become tasty meals despite once being monstrous enemies, it’s still not a good idea to eat parasites, especially when even the parasites have parasites. Although Senshi managed to not only make the parasite edible but also delicious, Laios’s worst mistake was to eat some of the large parasite while still raw.
The fishmen hunted the bladefish, the kraken ate the fishmen, the other fish ate the kraken after they’d defeated it, Laios ate the kraken’s parasite, and finally the parasite’s parasites wreaked havoc on Laios. Senshi mused over the wonderous circle of life in the dungeon’s ecosystem while Laios keeled over in pain, enduring the consequences of the smaller parasites worming their way through his stomach lining.
Delicious in Dungeon can be streamed on Netflix.
Made in Abyss: Wazukyan’s Soup
With dishes created from sheer vice, this series had to be mentioned twice. As gross as Nanachi’s Netherworld Stew was, it doesn’t even come close to how grossly, truly irredeemably heinous this particular dish is. As the Ganja suicide corp journeyed to the bottom of the Abyss in search of what is known as the legendary Golden City, they faced many hardships as the members dropped like flies, one by one, due to starvation, disease, predators, and other struggles in the dangerous landscape.
Made by the group’s leader, Wazukyan, out of necessity for survival, it’s still difficult to excuse a dish made from the offspring of a young, disfigured girl. This is a dish that’s to remain buried at the bottom of the Abyss.
What’s the grossest food you’ve come across in anime? Let us know in the comments so we can be sure to avoid them.
The post 12 Grossest Anime Foods That Should Never See the Light of Day appeared first on ComicBook.com.
