Neko Ramen

" A cat makes the ramen."

—Back of the first volume

Neko Ramen is a very Slice of Life manga by Kenji Sonishi, resembling what it may be like to walk into a friendly ramen shop where the chef knows your name and order. But your chef is kind of an idiot. And also a cat.

Taisho, the titular Neko to his counterpart Ramen shop, is determined to show the world, and his straight man, Tanaka-San, that besides the fact that...

He is a cat.
His father models for cat calendars.
He was expected to turn out just like his old man(cat).
He originally wanted to be a sushi chef.
And has multiple failed careers as a driving instructor, doctor, athlete, artist and horse race gambler behind him...

...he is in fact a truly great ramen chef.

Tanaka-San believes his ramen is adequate at best.

Originally a Japanese Flash Animation, now a Japanese full-length feature film. With puppets.

Compare Peanuts with Snoopy, or most newspaper comics with sentient animals. Unrelated to Cat Soup.

Tropes used in Neko Ramen include:

Anime First: Based off a Japanese Flash Anime
- Anime News Network and The Other Wiki beg to differ.
Character Development: Surprising for a comedic strip. Taisho is shown to be a Tragic Hero when we learn his back story, and Straight Man Tanaka gets just enough character development to show that more than just a straight man, he's genuinely kind.
Chiaroscuro: In the first episode of the anime.
Furry Confusion: Some cats appear to be sentient while others aren't. This leads to some weird situations, like Taisho keeping his former human girlfriend's cat as a pet.
Unreliable Expositor: Taisho's stories often end up not being quite true, especially the "friendship bowl" story.