The ultimate hangout place for anime lovers
Four best friends in their late 20s, all huge fans of Japanese film and television animation, more popularly known as anime, had a brainwave sometime in 2018. With so many followers of anime in Nepal, they thought, why don’t they come together to open the country’s first anime-themed restaurant? Thus did Kyubi’s Kitchen came into being in Jhamsikhel on 31 Dec 2018. The quartet of Pawan Gurung, Bibhusan Basnet, Sujana Limbu and Bhisma Rai had named the restaurant after a popular character in the anime Naruto. The restaurant is especially designed for the Otakus (a Japanese term for people with obsessive interest in anime). Growing up watching various anime series, the four best friends used to often think about the characters on display: their attires, their language, and especially about their food. The delicacies they were having looked simply delicious.
Says Pawan Gurung, “Earlier, we used to have conversations on the foods shown in anime. We wanted to taste them. We also had many queries: did the foods really exist? And if they did, were they only available in Japan?” And what if potentially thousands of anime lovers in Nepal were asking exactly the same questions? “If they were, why not give them a place where they could find some answers?”
On the ground floor of the restaurant is a cafe themed after a Japanese dark fantasy anime “Tokyo Ghoul” while occupying the upper two floors is a restaurant themed after “Naruto”. The café is a cozy, air-conditioned room with shelves filled with books related to its theme. It serves a wide variety of bespoke cakes and pastries as well as some refreshing varieties of tea and coffee.
Tucked by the side of the café is the main entryway to the restaurant upstairs. The anime vibe is everywhere: the small lay tables, the cushions, the paintings, they are all designed with Naruto themes. And the menu is presented in a scroll.
The third floor has an open terrace sitting arrangement. (A fourth floor is planned for private celebrations.)
On to food then, which at Kyubi’s Kitchen is a fusion of Japanese and Nepali platters. The goal is to serve the foods shown in anime. Most of the ingredients are Japanese, but with an added Nepali touch. The main dish is ramen and the restaurant allows you to design your own. You can choose between different types of noodles, broths, toppings, seasonings, and chili levels. A few new dishes are added to the menu every month not to let repeat-customers get bored.
If you go there, don’t miss Kyubi’s Surprise, a combination of the restaurant’s main dishes, which is delectable. Flying Raijin level 2 (Corndogs), Odama Rasengan, (Giant momos), Katon:Ryuka No Jutsu (Honey glazed spicy chicken wings) are some other tempting dishes on offer.
The owners say they plan to expand the franchise to other places in Kathmandu soon.
The café at Jhamsikhel opens at 8:30 am while the restaurant opens at 12 noon (except on Tuesdays)
Misery-filled retelling of an epic
The first thematic production of Karman, “Klesha: Ananta Pida Ko Jal”, tries to unearth the reasons for our misery and tribulations. The play, based on rural Nepal, has chapters of the epic creation of sage Valmiki, “The Ramayana”, but without its religious aspects.
Writer Pratikshya Kattel tries to explore the multiple ways Ramayana fascinated her. She says she used to ask herself: What caused the bloodshed? Why did Lord Ram and Ravan play the game of life and death? Kattel arrives at the conclusion that the only reason for this hostility, and in fact all hostilities in the world, is misery.
The set features a typical Nepali terrain and the characters dress in daura suruwal and guniyo cholo. The play starts as a group of characters descend on the stage with flaming torches in their hands, accompanied by the sound of live music.
The villagers are livid with their Mahanta Devdatta (Pratik Maratha) for his unjust decision against their common daughter Kaanchi (Ruju Sharma). Kaanchi is a young Nepali girl who falls in love with Devdatta’s brother Anuj. A section of the play displays their love story; their story ends on a sad note as Anuj deceives her when she gets pregnant.
In fact, Anuj beats Kaanchi so badly that she miscarries. The pivotal character of Kaanchi does not have many dialogues and is yet able to amply express her agony through her phenomenal acting skills and expressions. Plotting on a revenge against Devdatta and his family, the villagers kidnap Bhumi (Surakshya Panta), Devdatta’s wife, who is completely unaware of what is happening around her.
The play also comprises of humorous characters like Balram (Swapnil Ghimire), who becomes the veritable Hanuman from the epic as he acts as a messenger for Devdatta and Bhumi. Vidhan (Toofan Thapa) and Jitbahadur ( Jivannath Paudel) time and again light up the mood of the auditorium.
Klesha is all about the agony of Kaanchi, the selfishness of Anuj, the ignorance of Devdatta, the innocence of Bhumi, the fury of Rudra, and the joyfulness of Balram. In the process of taking revenge, the villagers get trapped into a vicious circle. The 1h 45mins play at Mandala Theatre runs till June 23, at 5:30 pm, every day except Mondays.
