Sanyo Pokemon Cup Noodle 2021 Celebration Tonkotsu and Shoyu Flavours Review

Pokemon!  This anime and gaming franchise has now been around for 25 years.  It has spawned a massive merchandise industry around it and even Pokemon noodle cups!  I've reviewed Pokemon noodle cups before, but these 2021 cups also tie in to both Year of the Ox and the 25 anniversary of the franchise.  It's kind of hard to believe I've played Pokemon for about 25 years too as I started with the Pokemon Blue game on the original Gameboy with its pretty bad monochrome screen.  Still, it was amazing, as you could play video games on the go, even if it drained four AA batteries pretty quickly.  There must have been billions of Pokemon captured since, especially in the Pokemon Go game which is one that I have now been playing for 5 years!  I'll be reviewing both the shoyu and tonkotsu flavours of the Pokemon noodle cups in this article.

Gengar toque and stuffy animal backpack souvenirs.  I got these from the official Pokemon Store online and they match my items for my Pokemon Go in-game avatar below.  The backpack is perfect for kids, but is fairly small and would hold a small bottle of water, some snacks, and a few personal items only.

My Pokemon Go in-game avatar (level 44 as of writing).  Gengar is a really scary ghost Pokemon, but one of my favourite Pokemon after Snorlax and Lapras.

Pokemon Shoyu Noodle Cup

Soy sauce flavoured noodles is one of the most basic and tasty flavours of ramen.  These Pokemon noodle cups are aimed at kids, but that doesn't mean adults can't enjoy them!  The 2021 noodle cups are pretty much regular sized noodle cups, rather than the slightly smaller ones that are also available.

The shoyu flavour comes in a brilliant red cup with big pictures of some pokemon with fairly complimentary colour schemes - even the bright yellow Pikachu who has red cheeks!  2021 is boldy labelled in white on the side.  I think the bouffalant and tauros are both tributes to Year of the Ox.

The lid of the cup showing Pikachu, magikarp, darumaka, and darmantian.  You can tell a celebration is going on from the fireworks bursting in the background and all of the confetti shown on the lid and the sides of the cup.  The colour red is often used for either spicy or shoyu flavours.

The back of the cup showing nutritional information and a rendition of what the cup of noodles looks like.  You can tell there is going to be corn and lots of Pikachu naruto (fish cake).

Ingredients and manufacturers information.

Preparation directions and labelling.  Do not microwave!

Opening the cup reveals lots of toppings in the form of freeze dried corn and naruto.

I added boiling water up to the fill line, closed the lid, and let it sit for 3 minutes.  The underside of the lid has a nice graphic of bouffalant on it along with some information about it.  The little Pokemon noodle cups (different brand) have stickers.

You can see that you get lots of corn and that they rehydrated nicely in the given time!

When I lifted the lid of the rehydrated noodles, there was a nice soy sauce kind of smell and it was very appetizing.  It was a nice tan/brown broth and it was covered in corn. You had better like corn!  The broth was a nice mild shoyu flavour and the sweet corn was actually a pretty good accompaniment to it.  The naruto is always cute with the little pikachu faces and they tasted like a mild fish cake.  These noodles are very much aimed at kids in the flavouring, but they are pretty tasty for anyone.  The noodles were pretty much regular instant ramen noodles with a nice chew.

The finished noodles after mixing to make sure all of the soup powder was mixed in.

Closeup of the corn, noodles, and naruto.

Pokemon Tonkotsu Noodle Cup

Pork bone flavoured noodles is one of the tastiest flavours of ramen.  These Pokemon noodle cups are aimed at kids, but that doesn't mean adults can't enjoy them!  The 2021 noodle cups are pretty much regular sized noodle cups, rather than the slightly smaller ones that are also available. 

The Pokemon Tonkotsu cup features Pikachu again with some nice pink Pokemon in the form of miltank, magikarp and blissey.  I've always liked miltank with its moo moo milk in the game!  The cup is coloured in a lively lime green and it seems to go well with the flavour being tonkotsu.

The lid of the noodle cup shows more confetti and fireworks along with featuring the same pokemon from the side.  Pretty hard to miss it is Pokemon themed and it is even labelled Pokemon Noodle!

Closeup of happy Pikachu and the 2021 celebration.

Back of the noodle cup showing nutritional information and what the soup will look like.  It is a little unsual to show the soup on the back.  Usually it is on the front or the lid, but Pokemon are occupying these spaces!

Manufacturing information and ingredients.

Opening the lid shows lots of toppings along with a blissey on the underside of the lid.

Closeup of the toppings.  You can see corn, cabbage, and pikachu faced naruto.

The rehydrated noodles and a better view of the blissey with some information about this pokemon on the underside of the lid.

The toppings rehydrated very nicely in the 3 minutes after adding boiling water.

The tonkotsu broth in this instant noodle was mildly flavoured again without any strong aromas, but you could tell it was supposed to be tonkotsu.  It was savoury and a little creamy in mouth feel, and tasted pretty good.  Again, kids would love this, and adults will like it too.  The noodles rehydrated nicely with a good chew and it was nice to have the little bits of corn and cabbage in the soup to go with it. Like the shoyu flavour, these noodles are lots of fun with the pikachu naruto and the Pokemon packaging.  Gotta eat them all!

Closeup of the noodles and toppings.

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