First Impression: Ramen Daisuke Koizumi-san

Synopsis

Koizumi is a high school girl who is admired by many for her mysterious air and attractive looks. Behind this silent beauty however lies a ramen master who is ready to scour all kinds of ramen restaurants at any time. Everyday she goes on a hunt for real-life places which serve the best ramen dishes. Not only is her knowledge of the noodle soup dish rather impressive but the way that she is able to gulp down a giant bowl of ramen will have you craving for the dish yourself.

The Good

If there was any anime that seriously took on a love for ramen concept, this is the one. There are all kinds of anime that focus on cooking, food or certain kinds of food, but to the knowledge of this writer, there has been no anime that took an indepth look in to ramen. And from what the episode has presented, there is a lot of potential to be found given the amount of trivia and genuine appreciation for the food.

This is even made more clear with how the animation is presented when the characters are eating and how detailed it is along with the presentation of the ramen. On the note of art and animation, it does well in terms of certain details but for the most part it’s pretty alright. Still,  given how well detailed the eating portions are, you might end up craving ramen by the end of the episode.

In terms of plot and characters, as stated, there is a lot of potential in terms of ramen appreciation and exploration on the different concepts of the food. For how it is tackled, it is rather simple and manages to slip in some rather enjoyable comedy inbetween. As for the characters, their designs are rather nice, though nothing really new. At least they hold a variation in their personality.

The Bad

Outside of the whole ramen appreciation concept, the plot and characters can be considered somewhat hit or miss. Comedy wise, they do great but general wise, well, given that it’s the first episode, it’s a so-so impression for this writer. While I don’t mind the whole Yuu liking cute girls and admiring Koizumi thing, the way it’s presented with her being rather overzealous in wanting to become friends with Koizumi… well, personally it’s one of the main reasons that this writer is on the fence with the characters. It’s not that I dislike them but rather there wasn’t really much fleshed out on them given how the episode was more focused on dishing out the concept.

Basically, since this is a new take in food anime, it’s no surprise that not much is dished out for the characters on the first episode. For the most part everything is rather simple in terms of plot and characters. As for the art and animation, there’s not much to say about the general, it’s mostly standard outside the eating moments. If there was anything to really nitpick for the episode, it would be the ending theme, while cute in art, the song is rather “eh” personally.

Conclusion

This is a series that holds a lot of potential for those who are interested in or have a love for ramen. There have been all kinds of food and cooking anime so this is something rather new and refreshing for the genre. The episode does well in introducing the concept and giving proper detail to the ramen and eating scenes. But outside of the interesting concept and details on certain scenes, the anime has a rather standard look to it, and wit the characters, they’re not bad but again, this writer is on the fence.

Rating: 7.5/10