@ituki_sayaka
Anime and manga artists in Japan have found an unexpected new canvas, with black-and-white potato chip bags becoming the latest surface for artists to flex their skills.
Back in May, Japanese snack brand Calbee released black-and-white versions of its chip bags due to shortages of materials used in its printing ink.
While they were quite striking in their own right, a new trend has started to emerge after a popular manga artist transformed a plain packet into a full-on manga page, leading other anime artists to do the same.
Chip packet manga art goes viral
On June 21, manga artist Itsuki Sayaka went viral after she posted a drawing of Arcana Shadow, a fan-favorite villain from the latest Pretty Cure anime series. However, instead of using paper or a digital canvas, Sayaka drew the anime girl on a black-and-white bag of Calbee’s shrimp chips.
She then followed this up on June 23 with another chip packet manga drawing, this time of Pretty Cure’s Akechi Anna (Cure Answer) and her fairy companion Pochitan. Since posting, there has been an outpouring of posts from both fans and manga artists flexing their snack artwork.
白黒パッケージのかっぱえびせんを、アルカナシャドウちゃん仕様にしました。空白が何か描けと言ってくる…#たんプリ #名探偵プリキュア #precure pic.twitter.com/WYKIsC77wK
— 一葵さやか【ドラゴンエイジ連載中】 (@ituki_sayaka) June 20, 2026
Even veteran mecha designer Takayuki Yanase, who’s best known for his work on Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, the Mobile Suit Gundam series, and other anime, joined in on the trend.
“My wife handed me a black-and-white bag of Kappa Ebisen and said, ‘It’s shiny, so draw [a mech] on it,’ so I drew it. The surface is soft and puffy, making it really difficult to draw on. It’s not suited for mecha designs lol,” Joked Yanase.
Japan’s first kebab store goes viral thanks to bizarre anime girl collab
Manga fans flock to support struggling artist who could barely afford coffee
妻に白黒パッケージのかっぱえびせんを渡され
ピカピカしているからムラクモ描いてって言われたので描いた。フワフワしてめっちゃ描きづらい…
メカには向かないw
かっぱえびせん旨し。#叢#カルビー pic.twitter.com/r4L23LFzqe— 柳瀬敬之：メカデザイナー (@yanase_t) June 23, 2026
Manga artist Takeshi Wakasa, best known as the creator of the supernatural comedy series Onryo Okusama, also got out his marker pen. However, he joked that he may have approached the project the wrong way.
今日たまたま白黒パッケージのかっぱえびせん見つけたから今流行り(？)のやつ
セーラームーンちゃんを描いてみた#白黒パッケージ #カルビー #ポテトチップス じゃない #かっぱえびせん pic.twitter.com/whH1ELjUzD
— ごまさば (@5038ch) June 24, 2026
“I wonder if I should have taken the chips out first, flattened the bag, drawn on it, and then inflated it with air again afterward,” the artist joked after sharing his drawing.
Fans have also started to upload their own drawings, with everything from Sailor Moon, cute dogs, and everyone’s favorite colossal kaiju, Godzilla.
