Japan Has a Naruto Soda? Yeah, Apparently.

I think I’m turning Japanese, I think I’m turning Japanese…

 

First, I start covering anime, and actively watching anime outside of coverage, now I’m drinking soda straight from anime’s motherland. Well, Ramune’s line of Naruto’s soda hit the shores of America, and I’m not sure what to think. It comes in at 6.76 oz, which is less than even a can of Coke. Now, for the small amount of actual soda, there is a lot of flavor. However, the flavor is weird, and I can’t really put my flavor on it.

Let’s talk about how to open this bottle of soda. Is there a twist cap? Not at all. Is there a pop tab? Of course not. To open a bottle of Ramune, you need the same amount of power in your hand as you would to pull off a Rasengan. Why you ask? Because the bottle opener is under a film, and to open the bottle, you need to take this:

 

and turn it into this:

 

Going back over the instructions, it says to take the center cap thing out of the plastic thing up top, and jam it down onto the top. Yeah, any drink that requires opening instructions is automatically too complicated for the general public. Anyway, you need to push that opening thing down into the top of the bottle so the marble in the top falls into the bottle.

So, I opened this one, and I think I finally pieced together what the soda is. It’s just the sweetner and the carbonated water. It’s different, and doesn’t taste bad.

As for availability, I have a local Asian market by my house, and they had a selection of these Ramune drinks, but the pickings were slim. I wouldn’t go out of my way to get one. The novelty of the Naruto branding caught my eye, and check out the soda. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have looked twice at it. If you’re singing that Vapors song often, then go check out the drink the next time you’re getting your authentic microwavable ramen bowl. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I am going to get this stupid marble out of this bottle.