Jul 24, 2021
Kenka Ramen is about Yoshistune. He seeks to improve his ramen making skill by traveling Japan and find the original taste of Tonkotsu ramen. On his path, he always finds Ramen chefs in needs, and on the verge of closing their store. With the two of them together, they will find a way to make a new and improve ramen that will beat the competition and become renowned in the city that the MC is temporary in. The way to prove so is by a DUEL against the villain’s ramen in order to know whose ramen is the best in the city.
OVERALL
I enjoyed
...
my read. The art was very beautiful. City panoramas were clean and detailed. And the ramens made me hungry. The main character (MC) improved his ramen skill, but his personality did not develop much. At the end, he was a bit more humble but still hot tempered. Overall, I may be rash but it’s a good read.
**BELOW MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS**
DISCUSSION
The MC, who at first never cooked ramens in its life but because he is the son of a ramen chef, he’s able to understand ramen making, and overcome every battle/duel, even against ramens chef with 20 more years of experience. Everytime, he will find a new recipe mere hours before the battle. I found this a bit annoying. I would have wanted a bit more of struggle. How will he have dealt with loss and overcome it and be better.
I also found the plot repetitive. Every solution to an arc is finished with a ramen battle. The novelty wears off rapidly. At some point, the MC starts a new shop with another person and I would have liked a bit more in depth about how to manage a ramen shop and its struggle, and its relation with the village.
About romance, the MC starts with a girl friend with benefits, but not much is explored on, only casual sex in five or six scenes at most. The girl, Remi, acts as a support for the MC, while he is in its hometown (in the beginning), but as the daughter of a Yakuza, and bike gang leader, her motivation is not deepen on in the story. She’s only there. Before leaving for his journey, she said to the MC that he is a two pump champ, and he might as well train to last longer in his journey. It might have been unimportant, but the MC encounters a female ramen chef his age. Since it’s a Seinen, I would have liked that something in between them started, a spark of romance, or a casual sex goodbye. But with every other characters the MC encounter, he parts way without saying too much goodbye.
As for secondary characters, the MC becomes allied with a ramen chef in each city he visits and helps them. We learn about their background and their struggles. Most of the times, these chiefs are against greed, jealousy, corruption, depression, lack of creativity, grievance of a lost husband, etc. The background of these chiefs is the most detailed. It is really interesting and refreshing.
However, two of them are recurring throughout the manga. The main antagonist who the MC seeks to beat his ramen, and the Ramen critic. We learn a bit about the antagonist such as where he learned his noodle technic. But overall, they are not enough developed in my sense.
The story ended abruptly, for me. It was closed in half of the last book. While it gave a “Clin d’oeil” to all of the characters the MC met in its path, the final is a bit open. It’s not telling you directly how its end but let you know that maybe..
CONCLUSION
In the end, it’s a good manga about ramens and the story of its chiefs, but not enough is developed with the main MC character wise.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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