How food is used to enhance meaning in Naruto

Well this seemed like a good excuse to talk about one of my recently favorite anime series Naruto and how food is used to reveal things about the characters personalities.

Uzumaki Naruto (the main character) is actually named after food. His full name, Uzumaki Naruto, translates literally to "spiral fish paste."


This 'spiral fish paste' is common in Japan and usually served on top of a piping hot bowl of ramen noodle soup.



Naruto (the character) adores ramen; if he's not eating it he's thinking about it. Ramen can be compared to 'soul food' or 'down home cookin.' It is hearty, basic, and traditional. Naruto's association with ramen emphasizes his heartiness and strength also showing that he's a bit of a redneck.




Naruto's friend and rival, Uchiha Sasuke, does not like much of anything. He especially doesn't like sweets. Sweets in Japan carry a strong association with childishness and girlishness.
Making sweets look cute and attractive is more important than in America.
By emphasizing that Sasuke dislikes sweets we learn that Sasuke is supposed to be more like a grown up, not caring for frivolous or babyish things. He is focused on his goal to avenge his family (not something a child would normally be thinking about.)
By drawing attention to Sauske's distaste for sweets, his insecurities about weakness and being seen as unmanly are inadvertently pointed out as well.


Akimichi Chouji is shown eating constantly. He eats with enthusiasm and joy despite many hurtful condescending comments by others that he should eat less. Somewhere around the 100th episode it is revealed that Chouji's 'family bloodline limit' (his special powers) are connected with his large body size and food consumption. He must eat continuously in order to use his special power. Chouji is friendly, kind, and tender, and thus does conform to some stereotypes about fat and softness of character.



Chouji is always hanging out with his best friend Nara Shikamaru, who is characterized as lazy, apathetic, and possibly stoned. Shikamaru picks up smoking cigarettes later in the series, but does not seem to have strong feelings about food choices or eating. He does however defend Chouji when other people give him a hard time about overeating. The combination of Chouji and Shikamaru make a classic 'buddy couple' and their relationship is enhanced and defined in part by the combination of the substances they consume.



In Naruto there are more instances than the above few when food helps to give meaning and richness to the characters and story. Bringing up food preferences and relationships to food is more common in Japanese media (the only American example that comes to mind is the Ninja Turtles love of pizza.) It adds a bit of depth and texture that helps fans love and relate to the characters even more.