How Many Croquettes Did She Eat? Examining Oguri Cap's “Quantity” in 'Umamusume: Cinderella Gray'

The dining scenes of Oguri Cap (CV: Tomoyo Takayanagi) in the anime 'Umamusume: Cinderella Gray' are awe-inspiring every time. They are even "spectacular."

In the first episode, she exhibits her eating skills in the cafeteria of Kasamatsu Training School. When her classmate, a brown-haired Umamusume named Berno Light (CV: Momoko Seto), asks, "Is this seat taken?" she sees a mountain of croquettes in front of a nodding Oguri Cap.

The crisp "crunch" sound resonating through the air comes from Oguri Cap biting into the croquettes without changing her expression. The head chef, regretting making it "all-you-can-eat," watches as all the surrounding Umamusumes are bewildered, saying, "What's that?"

However, Oguri Cap doesn't care about such "outsiders." With her stomach greatly expanded, she approaches the kitchen and simply says, "More, please." At that moment, the shutters close in the kitchen, and "Closed for Today" appears before her eyes.

Now, the question is, how many croquettes did Oguri Cap eat to single-handedly force the cafeteria to "close down"? We will calculate this while making some bold assumptions.

As a premise, we assume that spherical croquettes are stacked cylindrically on a round plate. The plate's radius is equivalent to 2.5 croquettes, there are 15 layers in the "Croquette Tower," and the croquettes do not collapse under their own weight.

First, consider the number of croquettes per layer. Assuming the most efficient packing of spheres with radius r, we use hexagonal close packing. The number of spheres per unit area is area density ≈ 1/ √3・(2r)^2 = 1/ 4√3r^2
(* The number of spheres per unit area in hexagonal close packing where the radius of the spheres is r is 1/(√3 × r^2).)

The plate's radius R=5r, and the base area is π(5r)^2 = 25πr^2

The number of croquettes that can be arranged on the base ≈ area × area density = 25πr^2 × 1/4√3r^2 ≈ 18.04

Assuming 18 croquettes per layer, multiplying by the number of layers gives 18×15=270 croquettes

Adding the number Oguri Cap was eating while biting into the croquettes, "271" in total seems reasonable. Additionally, a scene where Berno Light asks, "If you want mine, do you want it?" is also noted. Believing that Oguri Cap, impressive as she may be, "restrained herself to just 1" among Berno Light's two croquettes, the estimate would be "272" in total.