This episode is all about the food, with little in the way of comedy or the usual Yuu antics. That’s fine since that’s all there is to this show.
What They Say:
Episode 06: Morning Ramen/Hiyashi/Museum
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the season halfway over, it’s pretty clear what Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles is and what it is not. And what it looks like it will never be.
So, I’ll start with what it is, which we clearly see demonstrated in this episode. It’s all about the noodles. In the first segment, we see Koizumi eating ramen first thing in the morning, when only those coming off the night shift and those who have to make an early start at work are awake. She goes to a place that specializes in dried sardine ramen. We have the usual appearance of upending expectations as well this segment as Yuu’s brother, who works late at a pub and it considering skipping his first period college class, comes across Koizumi on the street outside the ramen shop she had just visited. We have a passing of two ships and the appearance of another kind of ship being launched…except what he really notices (besides her beauty, which actually seems to be openly commented upon in-show constantly…which one can understand for the first couple episodes, but did it need to be continued into episode 6?) is the smell of sardines on her, which inspires him to go and eat ramen for breakfast too.
In the second segment, Yuu, Jun, and Misa are suffering through a summer’s day, lamenting that all they eat is cold foods that are not healthy for them. Of course, along comes Koizumi, which is a drug for Yuu, who goes off to follow her while Jun and Misa go somewhere else. Koizumi, naturally, is in search of ramen, specifically hiyashi ramen, which is a style serving cold noodles in a chilled broth. A summer-only style for ramen. We get a food lecture from Koizumi, but in the end, all four girls (even the donut shop Jun and Misa go off to serves hiyashi ramen) just eat ramen.
In the final segment, we see Koizumi on her own dressed for a festival (in a summer yukata). The only festival, perhaps, she was planning to attend was a festival of ramen. But on her trip to various ramen shops she gets pounced upon by a lost little German girl wearing a yukata who mistakes Koizumi for her mother. As we’ve seen before, Koizumi appears to be a polyglot and, yes, she speaks conversational German, enough to learn that the little girl is named Hannah, and she’s looking for her mother. Koizumi at first wants to get the restaurant staff (of course she goes to a ramen restaurant) to help look for the child’s mother, but instead they think it’s her younger sister or daughter and offer a child’s bowl to share Koizumi’s ramen. Ramen is eaten and then Koizumi goes off to find Hannah’s mother. Koizumi’s reward is a voucher for German-style ramen, which she eats and enjoys.
So, that’s basically what this show is. Koizumi eats ramen. And then she eats ramen. And then…she eats ramen. Yuu occasionally whines. Koizumi remains cold and aloof. Jun and Misa do their own thing.
What this show is not is doing much of anything to provide enough elements that can appeal to someone who is not obsessed with ramen. To make what’s a fairly easy comparison to make, to another food-centric show that features light comedy, Dagashi Kashi may spend quite a lot of time giving us factoids about cheap snacks and candies, but it also has a lot more situational and relationship comedy to provide something other than just eating and talking about what is being eaten. While the characters in both shows do not change greatly, as comedies often rely upon stock characters and stock situations, at least there are hints of development for the characters in the candy show, while our noodle-based friend here has a cast of sock puppets that never even bother to sew on a new button at any point.
If you don’t find the ramen factoids all that interesting, there really is nothing else this show can offer.
Which brings us to what this show seems to be showing no signs of ever becoming: anything beyond a seemingly endless series of variations on a formula centered upon Koizumi eating ramen. In this sense, the ending phase of the opening animation, which shows Koizumi stationary and eating ramen while the background and characters quickly change around her, that quick little slide show is the entire work in miniature. Koizumi eats ramen while the world does its thing. Yuu whining about wanting to be friends with Koizumi but not getting the hint that Koizumi doesn’t want to be friends with anyone (it’s not that she hates people, she simply has no interest in them beyond their ability to make ramen for her eat) is not a firm foundation for providing something beyond the ramen eating.
And so ends my coverage of high school girl eating noodles. The production values are decent enough, if you love ramen then all of this featuring of different kinds of ramen may be enjoyable, it’s not badly put together (except for the boring, one-dimensional characters). But it also has nothing further to offer.
In Summary:
Ms. Koizumi really does love ramen. She eats it all the time and doesn’t seem eat anything else. That may be fine for her, but it gets a bit tiresome for this reviewer to have the same menu every week. When she’s eating alone in the morning, eating with Yuu in the afternoon, or helping a little lost girl towards the evening, all Koizumi does is eat ramen and then look ecstatic afterward. That’s not the face I’m making after watching every episode.
Grade: B-/C+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Apple iMac with 12GB RAM, Mac OS 10.13 High Sierra