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The story
A photo posted on X (formerly Twitter) showing just how many mala tang (spicy Sichuan hot-pot soup) shops have sprung up recently set off a flurry of reactions in a thread on 5ch’s “Anything Goes Live” board (なんでも実況G).
Posters argued over whether the trend really started in Korea, how good a deal the pay-by-weight pricing actually is, and how tastes for the dish seem to split sharply between men and women.
See the source for the image
Source: x.com / original post here
What people said
Kind of feel bad for whatever ad agency has to stealth-market something like this
Went into a Chinese-run shop once and they were selling every single one of these ingredients
Is this the shop in Sendai that former PM Hatoyama sent a flower stand to?
Nah, it's really not a good deal at all
Smells fishy
You're the one who smells fishy, glued to the board all day on a weekday
Calling something 'pushed hype' just because it's popular sounds like old-man grumbling
This trend came in from Korea via Instagram influencers, Dentsu's [the big ad agency] got nothing to do with it
Women are suckers for manufactured trends
It's basically the same as the bubble tea craze
Nobody told you to eat it
It's been trending since 2024, so acting like you just found out and shouting 'Dentsu!' reeks of old-man energy lol
I've personally been going to Shippou Mala Tang for over 10 years now
Kind of moving to think Ishigami, who worked on the original story, was the one who kicked off the whole mala tang craze
Plenty of mala tang shops actually do all-you-can-eat white rice
C'mon guys, stop trashing mala tang!!
Not that, I like this kind
Wait, do women actually consider this tasty?
Guess it's fine if you're watching your diet though
Hey now
Quit being jealous of the mara-katsu craze, okay 😅
How many more times do we have to see this before it's finally over
It's a boom that's been going strong since winter 2024
Once you get a taste for mala tang, mapo tofu apparently just looks like garbage by comparison
I love authentic Sichuan-style mapo tofu too
Hot pot too, honestly I love anything sitting in red oil
Hey now
Quit being jealous of the mara-katsu craze, okay 😅
Background and Key Points
Mala tang’s spread through Japan follows a route it took through much of East Asia first: the dish is a Sichuan street food built around a self-serve or counter-service model where customers pick raw ingredients (vegetables, mushrooms, tofu, thin-cut meats, noodles) from an open case, hand the basket to staff, and get everything simmered in a numbing, chili-and-Sichuan-pepper broth, priced by weight (per 100g) rather than as a fixed set meal. That pricing model is the mechanism behind the “boom” — it’s cheap to open (no need for elaborate menu development), easy to scale, and visually strong for social media, which is why posters trace its momentum to Instagram influencers via Korea rather than to any one restaurant chain. It’s been visible in Japanese city centers, especially areas with Chinese and Korean student populations, since roughly winter 2024, per the thread.
Where the thread actually splits is on causation and value: some posters insist the sudden visible density of shops is organic, influencer-driven demand spreading from Korea; others suspect manufactured hype or ad-agency “stealth marketing” (with Dentsu named specifically, Japan’s dominant ad agency and a recurring target of conspiracy-style suspicion in these threads); and separately, posters disagree on whether pay-by-weight is actually a good deal or a subtle rip-off, with no consensus reached. A gender divide is also asserted (women drawn to it over mapo tofu or ramen, men indifferent), but this is only anecdotal griping, not backed by any cited data in the thread.
What’s likely to be missed by non-Japanese readers: mala tang is not a Japanese invention or fusion food — it’s an imported Chinese format experiencing a retail-model boom the way bubble tea or Korean corn dogs did, and the “Dentsu” accusation is a stock cynical reflex on Japanese boards toward any sudden trend, not a claim backed by evidence in this thread.
*This article was compiled and summarized from the 5ch “Anything Goes Live” board thread “[MEGA IMAGES] Mala Tang Shops Have Multiplied to a Ridiculous Degree wwwwwwww“.
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