Don't worry, there's not spoilers here.

Year: 2018 - Genre: Action (Seinen), investigation, drama, comedy - Lenght: 12 episodes.

Synopsis

Name: Anime opinion: Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens
Item: Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens
Author: @huesos

The story take us to Fukuoka, district of Hakata-Japan, where it tells us a world of organized crime that works at uncontrolled levels, in such an excessive way that the hit mans works through companies whose biggest threat is certainly other killers companies. In this context, the plot introduces us to the company of Zenji Bamba, a hit man who counteracts the dishonor and crime of these criminal companies from his own society, called the Bamba Detective Agency, and after a meeting with a hit man named Lin Xianming It involves multiple conspiracies with his society, all this to prevent Hakata from continuing to become a crime land, and in addition, they enjoy a bit of Ramen and baseball every so often.

The characters in this series are really funny

Personal Opinion

Finally I found an anime series that doesn't fall into any stereotype to make comedy, and is that this series stands out for its originality in each of the aspects that compose it. Personally, watch this type of work always fills me with satisfaction, but there are certain elements that may damage the quality unnecessarily, it feels that there was a great effort behind this production, but still comes to have a bitter taste at times, given that the experience ceases to be so compelling.

A mysterious Character, Samurai Niwaka.

• History: The story is undoubtedly very good, as I mentioned it has an element that is important and necessary in any story, as is innovation. This series, at least in what the anime has been used to, is not completely in the traditional, of course many anime series have broken stereotypes very recently, and we can even make a long list, but the most behind this, at least in what the story tells, is in the characters that star in it, which are not close to the idea of the traditional characters of both, the West and Japan side. One of the clear examples of this creativity is Lin, a hit man who enjoys cross-dressing and uses it as a tool, being heterosexual, we can say that it is more likely to be found in Japan than in the West, but then we go to the other extreme and we find José Martinez, who if he does not say much with the name, is a native of the Dominican Republic, something extremely rare in Japanese animation.

From these very interesting characters, the story revolves around short but well-argued arcs that mainly portray the life of Lin, the main character, as well as giving way to explore a bit the past of Enokida, the team's hacker, who proves to be an excellent strategist an important point throughout history , who reveals a past with certain traumatic events. But the elements of weight are developed during the first and last 3 episodes, more focused on the story of Lin.

Enokida, one of the most important characters

• Plot: There is very little that I can complain about in this series, that is why it causes me anger that among so many outstanding elements it has failed in something as important, as giving a reasonable argument to the development of it. The main argument has no flaws, no, in fact it is so interesting and well thought out that it was what brought me closer to this series in the first place, the problem is the reasoning behind many events in the plot that simply do not convince, arriving to be too predictable at times, which would not be bad if we talked about shonen, in fact it would have been almost irrelevant, but the case here is that this series is Seinen, and being aimed at an adult audience I feel that the plot underestimates the audience that is directed, came a point where I could almost know how the episode was going to end, I was very close to predict it, and that is uncomfortable because it detracts too much from the good things that this series offers.

• Narrative: The narrative is a point of weight behind this series, in that aspect it reminds much more to films like "The Ocean's Eleven" than to other anime series, giving jumps from an advance point of the plot, to a bit back in time every so often to answer the question of what had just happened, and the answers were always interesting and with a certain level of elaboration. The humorous aspect is not touching the ridiculous, something that is much appreciated in the Seinen, but perhaps not everything is good, at a certain point you feel that the series is too short, you only get enough details of two of the main characters, leaving many unknowns about a character as important as Banba, who keeps a secret that is revealed half of the series but without giving greater aspects of his personal life, which obviously leaves a feeling of dissatisfaction at the end of the series.

Baseball, an important part in the series

• Art and animation: I've already talked a lot about the negative points, now let's talk about one that without a doubt is totally positive and I personally loved it, because this series has a slightly realistic style in locations with a very warm touch on the palette of colors that highlights the coast environment of Fukuoka and creates a pleasant sensation in sight, although perhaps it exceeds in brightness effect, often revealing the reflection of the sun's rays, but in some way that effect is pleasant, The battles are very fluid, the drawing has no noticeable defects and the frequency of drawings remains very stable.

• Sound and music: We have reached my favorite point. The music that decorates this series is magnificent, for giving it the minimum qualification, the soundtrack is a mix of Jazz style full of trumpets that adds a plus to the comedy scenes and accompanies in a very good way the action scenes, the main themes has a lot of this same style, especially the Ending: DIRTY BULLET, TRI4TH, a fast, fast-paced jazz work with the battery battling the limelight with a very well built trumpet. This is one of the endings that I liked the most in a very long time, for being so original and for the musical quality that it has. For its part, the opening of the series: Stray by Kishida Kyoudan & The Akeboshi uses a Jrock formula mixed with jazz and some punk touch to start each episode with great strength, being satisfactory on each occasion, so several times I got carried away for its rhythm and I shook my head as much as I could. Fortunately I finished it, my neck hurts ...

The relationship between Banba and Lin is hilarious

Conclusion:

A series that had the potential to occupy a space in my Olympus, but that loses too many points by becoming very repetitive and predictable in moments of tension, which should have been the strong point. However, the good black humor, the interesting characters and the background of the story are enough hook to make you see it until the end without suffering for it, and if we add the artistic section, this series is a masterpiece that could be ... but never was.