The night sky is vibrantly illuminated by the mellow glow of colorful lights, emanating from each building throughout the city. More lively during the night than day, the city of Hakata radiates a deceptively alluring glow covering it entirely; masking the dangers that lurk around every corner.
Hakata is infamously known for 3% of its population being comprised of hitmen, torturers, yakuza, and worse. This percentile is further divided into agencies, gangs, and websites for freelancers; a few of them are hilariously named “Murder Inc”, “Shadeyjobs.com”, and “RedRum Inc”. A sly snap at other action crime anime that strive to be realistic with overwrought edginess. Darkly
...
comedic and self-aware writing like this permeates throughout Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens, immediately defining the tone as pure enjoyment as opposed to the logic-based standard.
With each member of the show’s large cast is in the 3%, it becomes abundantly clear that there’s always at least one criminal exchange occurring in this city. Even the cross-dressing main character Lin is an expert hitman with a comically harsh attitude. Cursing the men who ogling him, simply saying “I’m a man you moron” or “I’ll kick your ass” under his breath. He may say his cross-dressing is just because he likes the fashionable clothing, but he cleverly uses it as a method to be underestimated by his targets. At the beginning Lin’s completing his latest hit on a private investigator, that is until he finds that he’d rather swap sides and defend him to try and earn some extra cash. Hakata is after all as much of a money-driven city as it is crime riddled and our main character is only a cog in the system.
Lin’s lone wolf personality immediately clashes in quite funny ways with the charismatic detective Banba. Make no mistake, him being a detective does not grant him moral high ground over the rest of the felonious 3%. In his introduction, we see him at a political rally casually feigning a gunshot by popping a balloon, all for the sake of weeding out a potential suspect. He often employs these radical but successful methods that no detective in their right mind would resort to. He's just as ready to kill as Lin and does so mercilessly alongside his hitman counterpart, with personalities so opposed it wouldn't be unfair to call them foils of one another. At first, their whole relationship consists of Lin being annoyed by Banba’s listlessness and constant baseball metaphors. Then, to kick the first arc motion, Lin’s sister is unexpectedly murdered, forcing the unlikely pair to work together and seek vengeance against the hitmen agency responsible.
In the first of many arcs, the wide ensemble cast of characters is introduced. Each with a vivid personality, a distinct urban design, and a role they fill in Hakata. As Banba so nonchalantly puts it, they’re all playing a game of baseball. Whether or not you depend on the allies you make will decide how far you make it in the game. An ideology that starkly contrasts that of the lone wolf Lin, but satisfyingly he comes to embrace it as he spends more time with Banba. Them playing baseball on a team of their fellow hitmen served to support the show’s many metaphors, but also provided some of the purest light-hearted comedy in the show. Numerous food scenes also serve to lighten the tone, with delicious looking dishes and of course the titular Hakata tonkotsu ramen.
Aside from those heartwarming moments, a devilishly wry tone drenches Hakata. Delving into the criminal underworld, dark themes are inevitably explored; however, these themes do not overpower the sarcastically comedic tone due to the characters we see them through. Each member of the criminal cast contributes to this tone with cool and collected attitudes; aware that their dangerous careers can lead to their death at any time, they throw themselves into entertaining action. Any need any need for arbitrary anxiety is removed. Even with the uncertainty when the next betrayal, murder, or kidnapping might happen, the headstrong cast remains a joy to watch. Most of them work in or run those previously mentioned agencies and gangs. In one of the more impressively balanced but tonally ludicrous scenes, we see the stereotypical but inoffensively portrayed gay bartender Jirou with the sly middle school girl Misaki design their torturing agency website as casually as if it were a school project.
Only one character, a fresh face in town trying to start his hitman career, gives us a perspective of what an everyman would look like stuck in the middle of the whirlwind of crime. He's way out of his depth and gets into many hilariously troublesome situations. These side characters don’t receive the same level of development as the leads, but through seeing where they fit in the wacky underground of Hakata they become likable people who get further exploration in the background of the central story. After all, the story moves like a bullet, a pace fast enough to engage but it still finds the time to spare on the minor details. Shaping the world and its inhabitants as believable rather than outright outlandish.
Most importantly out of the whole cast, the lead characters Lin and Banba are unphased by Hakata’s crime-infested underground and are ready to give it all they’ve got in combat to secure the outcome most in their favor. Sharing a few snide comments to maintain an air of entertainment rather than fear, they slice, shoot, mask their identities, and use every trick they’ve got up their sleeve to create action set pieces worth watching for alone. In spite of the show’s relatively low budget, it thrills with swift and comprehensive shot composition, thoughtfully composed writing, and enough blood to earn an R rating.
Bolstered by a volley of trumpets rising during action scenes and mellowing into jazz during quieter ones, even the soundtrack contributes to the rich style. Both opening and ending sequences have fast pace jazzy tracks as well, showcasing major characters in rapid-fire succession with enough style and symbolism to make them as substantial of the show. Practically every facet of this anime carries the city’s dense style; the glow of colorful lights reflecting off the river during the night, as well as sunshafts sneaking around buildings during the day. Hakata is the kind of setting that serves as a character itself, with a distinct visual style underscored by jazzy music, alluring but also undeniably dangerous. Stylish, darkly comedic, and slyly self-aware. Even without a complex plot or top-tier production values, Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens is a good neo-noir action anime worth watching.
Alternative Titles
Japanese: 博多豚骨ラーメンズ
More titlesInformation
Type:
TV
Episodes:
12
Status:
Finished Airing
Aired:
Jan 12, 2018 to Mar 30, 2018
Premiered:
Winter 2018
Broadcast:
Fridays at 22:30 (JST)
Licensors:
Funimation
Studios:
Satelight
Source:
Novel
Duration:
23 min. per ep.
Rating:
R - 17+ (violence & profanity)
Statistics
Ranked:
#25352
2
based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.
Popularity:
#1558
Members:
160,103
Favorites:
673
Available AtResourcesStreaming Platforms | Reviews
Filtered Results: 4 / 37
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Your Feelings Categories Dec 22, 2022
The night sky is vibrantly illuminated by the mellow glow of colorful lights, emanating from each building throughout the city. More lively during the night than day, the city of Hakata radiates a deceptively alluring glow covering it entirely; masking the dangers that lurk around every corner.
Hakata is infamously known for 3% of its population being comprised of hitmen, torturers, yakuza, and worse. This percentile is further divided into agencies, gangs, and websites for freelancers; a few of them are hilariously named “Murder Inc”, “Shadeyjobs.com”, and “RedRum Inc”. A sly snap at other action crime anime that strive to be realistic with overwrought edginess. Darkly ... Jul 9, 2019
very bland, no memorable characters but a very cool concept
it could've gone places but it lacked in a lot of areas making me feel like I wasted a few hours There was a lot of potentials but the characters just had nothing to them, no personality or story and failed to carry the plot, every time you thought you were going to learn something about the character they ignored it a lot of characters are shown to be important but you have no idea who or what they're like the whole thing felt like a first episode The whole thing felt aimless I can't even ... Mar 31, 2018
As a underworld/mafia drama lover, I write this review mainly for fellow audience considering this anime due to its mafia setting or existence of multiple characters, who may come across Ramens due to its connections/ collaborations with other works such as Durarara. No non-biases guaranteed.
In short, I find Ramens a relatively "idealistic" and "light-hearted" potrayal of the underworld (as opposed to others like Black Lagoon). This is a good show for pass-time, fun, light-hearted, (BL,) and perhaps, knowing slightly more about baseball and Hakata. However, it lacks depth for character and plot development, which is prevelant in underworld dramas involving multiple parties, reasons explained below. Story: ... Mar 9, 2019
Characters
The three main characters of Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens all have excellent design and shining personalities, however, only Xianming Ling got a legitimate backstory. The main protagonist and his rival were by far the most interesting of the bunch and even after the final episode we still don’t know much about them or how they came to be. Even with excellent pacing it’s hard to properly develop characters in a show that is only twelve episodes in length. Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens did nothing to help itself by wasting two of the last four episodes with side action that added absolutely nothing to the story. Had the ... |