***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens. Reader discretion is advised.***
Series Synopsis
Like any big city in the world, there is a criminal underbelly that tries to stay out of the spotlight. To ensure things stay that way, organizations regularly hire hitmen to remove any and all potential threats. And in the bustling metropolis of Fukuoka’s Hakata ward, this is just daily business.
Lin Xianming (voiced by Yuki Kaji) is a highly skilled Chinese hitman. After a short, but nonetheless violent career, Lin has found himself working the streets of Hakata. While on the job, he has had to deal with a large assortment of interesting people. Yet none have been as interesting as the laid-back private detective, Zenji Banda (voiced by Daisuke Ono).
Through the nature of their line of work, Lin and Zenji end up face-to-face. Due to circumstances, they agree to form a temporary alliance to take on a much larger threat. Although this pairing was sudden, the duo soon becomes the most sought after in all of Hakata – both for good and bad reasons.
For the life of a hitman, the person with the biggest wallet tends to call the shots. That is why something like trust is in very short supply.
Series Positives
I knew absolutely nothing about Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens (HRT) when I started it. I didn’t know this show’s story, premise, or even what genre it was going to be. Although I often don’t know much about any anime before I sit down to watch one, I, for some reason, found myself more in-the-dark than usual with this series.
Despite that, this show still managed to not be what I expected.
HRT was indeed something else, and I loved every minute of it.
This show had an atmosphere reminiscent of Durarara, an attitude similar to Cowboy Bebop, and a story that would make a perfect pairing for the Keanu Reeves-led John Wick films.
Regarding the parallels between HRT and Durarara, two things stood out:
One: Had I not known better, I would have mistaken HRT’s Fukuoka city’s Hakata ward with Durarara’s version of Tokyo’s Ikebukuro. In both anime, these two cities exuded a bustling metropolitan vibe. Around every corner, there was something unique going on, and you would be hard-pressed to not find something to do. Hakata, like it was with Ikebukuro, was alive with activity. And underneath that activity was a world the average person had no business entering. Fortunately, neither HRT nor Durarara bothered with average people.
Two: Although this show’s cast was nowhere near as extensive nor as incredible as the one in Durarara, HRT had plenty of exciting individuals to play with.
For my second point, when I say HRT had an attitude like the one found in Cowboy Bebop, I’m not saying this series was on par with a medium-defining classic. This show was good, but it wasn’t Cowboy Bebop good. However, HRT’s Zenji Banba was Bebop’s Spike Spiegel – from personality, fighting prowess, and even appearance.
Some may say “rip-off,” I would say “homage.”
From what I can tell, there is no official connection between HRT and Cowboy Bebop. But to explore my own headcanon for a moment, since Bebop’s story took place in the future, what if we pretend that HRT’s story occurred much earlier in the Bebop universe’s timeline? If that were true, wouldn’t it then be possible, nay, likely that Spike Spiegel is actually a descendant of Zenji Banba?
Think about it.
Fan fiction aside, ordinarily, this would be the point where I would make it clear that Spike was the far superior character between him and Zenji. However, I simply can’t bring myself to say that with as much gusto as I usually would. Yes, Spike is indeed the better character, but Zenji was no slouch either.
Finally, as for the similarities between HRT and the John Wick films: Both are action based stories which focused on the world of hitmen and organized crime. That, and they each ended up being a ton of fun.
Homages, call-backs, inspirations, it doesn’t matter what you call them. The critical thing to remember is, although HRT may remind you of other anime and stories, HRT wasn’t any other anime or story. This series was its own thing with a distinct identity.
If there was one thing HRT loved to play around with, it was its tone. This show was all over the map. At certain points, this series could be funny and silly. Other times, situations turned very dark and very violent. There were as many laughs as there was blood in this story. You have been warned.
However, HRT not only knew when it could tell a joke and when it could cut somebody’s head off, this series knew how to make the transition between the two smooth and seamless. Of the anime from the 2018 Winter season I have had the chance to see, this show was the most brutal. And although that brutality was unexpected, it was never jarring or out of place.
On a regular basis, HRT went from goofing around to murder, and then back to goofing around, often within the span of five minutes. I have seen countless other series attempt and fail at this. HRT didn’t just succeed, it made the whole process look easy.
As a result, when there were action scenes in this show, and there were a lot of action scenes, they were exciting and intense. Then, whenever a particular storyline ended, the resolution to that storyline was always satisfying and complete.For example, there was one point where an uppity little rich kid with a sadistic attitude got precisely what he deserved – it was great, and after what happened to him, there was no chance of him coming back.
This show was able to deliver such satisfaction because it knew what it needed to focus on to make these moments work: the characters.
As to not give too much of HRT’s secrets away, I will only focus on this shows two main characters, Zenji Banba and Lin Xianming. That said, I also want to quickly mention that the hacker Enokida (voiced by Kensho Ono) was another character who was a blast to watch. But I’ll let you see why that was the case for yourself.
Zenji, ignoring the Spike Spiegel similarities, was my favorite character of HRT. His entire attitude – laid back and collected – made him a consistently reliable protagonist. There was never a point when Zenji was at a disadvantage or without some semblance of a plan.
I will admit, having a character who can do anything without much of a challenge can get boring. Zenji avoided this, in large part, thanks to his cunning. To get the upper hand, he had to put in a ton of prep work. Plus, when push came to shove, he was more than capable in a fight.
Lin was an outstanding character for the opposite reasons why Zenji was an outstanding character. Unlike Zenji, Lin was hot-headed and quick to anger. He didn’t use elaborate plans or strategies. Too bad, this hit-first-hit-fast mindset often left Lin vulnerable.
Lin was another reason why Zenji could be as unstoppable as he was. Lin served as the perfect anchor to keep Zenji in check.
Of all the characters in HRT, it was Lin who had the most fleshed out backstory. Although he was explosively reckless, there was an explanation for why that was. None of Lin’s actions were without understanding.
The duo of Zenji and Lin was a huge reason why HRT was able to fluctuate with its tone so drastically. Whenever these two were on screen, they allowed this show to be what it needed to be in the heat of the moment.
It’s fair to say HRT would have been a vastly different, and in my opinion, an immensely weaker series had Zenji and Lin been any less than what they were.
Series Negatives
HRT was one of those stories where it wasn’t until after it was all over that the dents, not cracks, begin to appear in this show’s armor. While everything was happening, this series managed to keep these issues away from the more essential focuses: the characters and the situations.
All things considered, I would say that means HRT did its job. However, I have no intention of ending this review without addressing these problems.
The first problems was another thing this show shared with Durarara. Granted, this issue plagued Durarara more because it had a much larger cast than HRT. That said, since HRT did have fewer people to keep track of, this series, perhaps, should have mitigated this better.
There were too many characters in HRT who felt pointless.
For instance, in episode one, Play Ball, we met Kazuki Saito (voiced by Yusuke Kobayashi). From his introduction, it seemed like this story was setting Kazuki up to be this show’s unexpected badass. He was just a humble rookie salaryman who just so happened to work for the largest hitman company in Japan.
Sure, show, I totally buy that. Who are we kidding? What cool stuff was Kazuki going to do?
It turned out, Kazuki would go on to do: nothing. He was HRT’s resident punching bag. While this was funny, Kazuki served no actual purpose. If he were to be removed from this show, nothing would change.
To mention Durarara one more time, in that show, there were wasted characters. But unlike in HRT, there were no pointless characters.
I’ll let you decide which is worse.
Also, as a personal nitpick and not something this show necessarily did wrong, I would say HRT underutilized the voice talents of Ms. Aoi Yuki. I can’t claim this was a mistake on the part of this series since the character Ms. Yuki played, Misaki, wasn’t a huge character. Therefore, it makes sense why she wouldn’t have a lot of screentime.
This was something I wasn’t personally happy with. But then again, this show, and any show for that matter, has no responsibility in trying to please only me.
I’m sorry to bring up this non-problem. This Aoi Yuki thing was something I couldn’t stop myself from saying. That and I needed a way to transition into a much bigger problem.
HRT was always trying to be tricky and clever. Many of this show’s storylines relied on misdirection. There were a number of times when this series would do a full breakdown of what it had really been doing when some other thing was going on.
If HRT was trying to go for a mindblowing-moment, it never succeeded.
To be fair, the steps HRT took to weave its web of deceit made logical sense. It was all very easy to follow. However, it was all easy to follow because this show was very blatant in what it was doing. That whole “misdirection” thing? That never happened.
HRT was like a magic show with poorly hidden strings. This did take away from some of the fun. Luckily, this series made up for this because while the tricks in our HRT magic show may not have been well-executed, the magician doing the tricks was incredibly charismatic.
Who knows? Maybe our magician will get it right the next time around. Here’s hoping HRT gets that chance.
Final Thoughts
Sometimes, you just don’t know what you’re going to get. This can lead to the occasional headache-inducing anime. Every now and then, though, you might run across something special.
This series, I’m happy to say, was the latter.
This show felt extremely familiar as well as incredibly unique. This story ran the gauntlet of emotions with complete confidence and mastery. This series knew what it was doing when it was balancing comedy and drama. Not only that, there was a great collection of characters to keep everything feeling alive.
A few hiccups aside – hiccups that only became apparent after the fact – I don’t think I could have asked for anything better out of a show I knew so little about. Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens is definitely worth checking out.
But these are just my thoughts. What are yours? Have you seen this show? What would be your advice concerning Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens? Leave a comment down below because I would love to hear what you have to say.
And if you liked what you read, be sure to follow me on my social media sites so that you never miss a post or update. Also, please share this review across the internet to help add to the discussion.
I’m LofZOdyssey, and I’ll see you next time.
I’m LofZOdyssey, and I’ll see you next time.
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