What They Say:
Hakata Mentai! Pirikarako-chan is set in a mysterious shopping center in a town that is like but also not quite like Hakata. In this setting, a walleye pollack roe fairy named Pirikarakochan rushes about every day trying to ease the worries and solve the rumors of the other food fairies.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
I can’t say that Hakata Mentai! Pirikarako-chan won me over with its first episode but it did go for weird silliness in a way that a lot of shorts haven’t recently. So that definitely merits following further to see what it does. With this episode, Piri is on a ramen kick and enjoying a good bit of it and there’s a little ramen education along the way. But a challenge is tossed in a well by Caviar-kun about how badly commoners are with ramen but he gets tempted by some goddesses of ramen that appear in floating bowls attempting to get him to try some real ramen. Of course, there are different kinds of ramen and the goddesses are protective of their type, which is why we get a mini-war that unfolds over whose is more authentic. Which is fine in Piri’s book as it means more to eat, but the whole thing just escalates when it should be friendly.
In Summary:
The show feels a bit more linear and clearer this time around now that the base setup is done and it leans into the weirdness just right. The ramen sharing and war that gets underway isn’t anything too serious and it has a sense of fun about it that works well. It spreads itself across several characters here so nobody really dominates and that helps so that it’s not all about Piri and her personality, or Caviar-kun which is just as problematic. It’s incrementally better than the first but if it keeps on that track I’ll be pleased.
Grade: C+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
