Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san has a very loose plot, that of Koizumi-san voiced by Ayana Taketatsu eating ramen and giving the flavors of that ramen in question with Yuu Oosawa voiced by Ayane Sakura along with her friends Jun Takahashi voiced by Yumi Hara and Misa Nakamura voiced by Akari Kito following Koizumi's trips of ramen. Plot-wise, the structure of most episodes follows the setup LA just talked about repeated twice or thrice depending on the episode. The plot doesn't have any overarching elements to it besides Yuu trying to constantly befriend Koizumi but we get to know the characters and especially the mysterious Koizumi in the process.
On speaking of which, character-wise, the characters have some of the typical archetypes of the typical "cute girls doing cute things", from the tsundere Misa to the shy Jun to the genki Yuu and the eponymous Koizumi-san taking the "deadpan serious" archetype. Out of the "main cast", LA's favourite character would had to be Jun, mainly because most of her interactions to the cast and especially Koizumi was LA's favourite and gave out some fair few laughs, probably being the best audience surrogate in the anime. Yuu...well she's a bit difficult to say to say the least and we're talking about one of the more narratively focused characters in the anime (the other obviously being Koizumi). Well time to get the elephant of the room and that's she's EXTREMELY clingy to Koizumi even defying common sense some times and to some extent LA can see Yuu's plight in just wanting to be friends with Koizumi but where it's difficult to like Yuu is her extremely stalkerish behavior she displays especially in the latter episodes and sure...bring in the yuri undertones...but tone it down is all LA is saying, even with that LA doesn't mind Yuu as a character as MANY detractors seems to find her as, there is at least some plot thread making the episodes flow together, no matter how annoying. Koizumi being the central character in all this, she does for the most part move the "plot" forward considering her ONLY interest is towards ramen and she's just a database of ramen trivia, some LA didn't even knew existed, but towards her interactions with other characters she's mostly deadpan and carefree and subtlety helps characters in need...before or after eating ramen of course but Yuu is the exception to all this. Koizumi is the "mysterious" character and by the end of it, that's what ends up as, knowing VERY little of her besides her love for ramen, but LA thinks it's fine, we "don't" need as she's essentially the "guide" for ramen for the uninitiated. Keep the "mystery" alive ya'know?
But to the detractors of this anime, LA DOES get that there is barely any substance in this anime besides ramen. It's ALL about the ramen and because of that it substitutes ramen with character development and that's very much at the expense of it's characters and by an extent, it's loose plot. BUT LA will give that the interactions towards the main cast is enough for this kind of anime to see some sense of characters "wanting" to come through as well as accentuating it's more comedic moments.
But on the other hand, Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san did it's job in making LA crave for ramen whenever LA watched it, by showing amazingly detailed and beautifully made ramen, it's essentially felt like Shokugeki no Souma: RAMEN EDITION (but obviously without the Shokugeki's) by the level of detail of animation it had and yes quickly transitioning into that would be that the animation done by Studio Gokumi and AXsiZ did amazingly in the food porn, while the character designs were no slouch either giving us very distinct and instantly noticeable character designs while still having it's super chibi moments for one-shot comedic moments. Cute girls doing cute things was in Studio Gokumi's ball park so LA was expecting the animation to be moe and it's easily succeeded with the deliciously tasty looking ramen food porn to go with it.
Voice acting was again expectedly moe and seems like Ayana Taketatsu moved on from dagashi to ramen eh?. The thing LA was really unexpected was Ayana Taketatsu's role as Koizumi being soo deadpan serious, LA was thinking she gonna be more of a Hotaru Shidare (thus the comparison) but LA kinda understood Ayana's and by extent Koizumi's deadpan cadence through this anime. Ayane Sakura was great to be honest, with her genkiness shown to a rather absorbent amount in this anime with her enthusiasm with ramen and Koizumi and fine LA will say she DOES get annoying BUT, praise is praise and Ayane Sakura nonetheless did decently as Yuu. LA found Akari Kito and Yumi Hara as Misa and Jun respectively to be great all round even if this isn't exactly their "best" LA saw from them but nonetheless but if LA had to pick an MVP in this anime then it'll be........a tie between Ayana and Yumi Hara.
Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san has it's faults and it's strengths in being a "cute girls doing cute things" anime centred on ramen, but this is easily a case where the anime likes to focus more on ramen than it's characters or it's barely there plot, but if you like ramen be it the instant or the real Japanese deal then Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san will slurp your way into your psyche.
For LA, LA will get LA's fill and be.......just satisfied with it, nothing more, nothing else.
Thank you for the anime...
