melody

While she may not be quite so well-known abroad, My Melody, one of cute factory Sanrio’s many mascots, is kind of a big deal here in Japan. Over at the Sanrio Puroland theme park, throngs of kids and women old enough to know better flip out and squeal with delight at the very sight of the hood-wearing bunny, and Sanrio makes a small fortune each year from My Melody-themed merchandise.

But none of that really explains this video recently released by Sanrio Puroland, which plays an endless loop of My Melody aggressively tossing noodles in a sieve. In total silence.

The Puroland website currently features a page of short, looping videos introducing 100 uwasa, or “rumours” about the theme park. “Are these made up? True?” the website asks its visitors, “If you don’t come you’ll never know!”

The rumours range from “you can drink beer at Puroland” to ”there’s a character with a butt-hole” (no, seriously, check out number 41), but perhaps most random of all is the rumour that Puroland is the only theme park in Japan in which you can perform “yukiri“, or draining hot water from freshly cooked noodles.

Anyone who has visited a ramen shop will likely have seen the cooks tossing individual portions of noodles in small sieves in order to drain the excess water off before serving. It makes a satisfying sound, certainly, and is fun to watch, but there’s something about this looping video of My Melody performing the same act that is just so bizarre.

▼ Be sure to toggle the sound on for this one.

https://twitter.com/Himeyurrrrry/statuses/501335007445532672

Maybe it’s the complete lack of any other background noises that makes this video so surreal. Maybe it’s the way My Melody confronts the camera at the end as if playing a particularly vigorous game of janken? Whatever it is, just like the Twitter user who shared it yesterday comments, we can’t stop watching, and we doubt we’ll ever get that rhythmic noodle-sloshing sound out of our heads…

Source: Netorabo
Screenshots/GIF via Twitter