Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens – 02

Honestly I would have been inclined to say Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens was a strong candidate for the drop list after the premiere, but this episode surprised me to some extent.  More so than I was expecting I found myself getting caught up in the story – the pace slowing down enough to give us a chance to figure who was who certainly didn’t hurt the cause, but the narrative was better this week across the board.

I know the author is different (only the publication is the same) but it’s impossible not to see Durarara! in HTR, for better and worse.  The jazzy soundtrack, the whiz-bang pacing, the prominence of foreigners, the utilization of a neighborhood as a character in the story.  I’d grown weary of it all by the time DRRR ended but the scene change makes “Ramens” seem at least a bit fresher.  It’s of course preposterous to think Hakata (or anywhere in Japan, really) is overrun with hired assassins and “vengeance services”, but I don’t think we’re exactly going for realism here, so it’s not a deal-breaker – this is a fantasy world, like Durarara!’s Ikebukuro was.

The story dynamic seems to be revolving around Kaji Yuuki’s crossdressing assassin Ling, who’s takes out the private dick Banba’s place as part of his payback against the Yakuza boss who stiffed him on payment.  An unlikely partnership forms around cup ramen and spicy pollock roe (local specialties, as is the Hakata Niwaka comic theatre referenced later), and seems cemented after Banba (who’s seriously) flush gives Ling enough cash to pay off his debts in exchange for information, and seems likely to come to his aid after Ling’s sister is killed by said Yakuza.  That death seems to happen in a hotel bed also occupied by the hapless Murder Inc. rookie Saitou, who’s largely comic relief so far but I suspect must be a prodigy at some illegal skill or another or else his presence here is kind of a waste.

None of this is life-changing or even especially noteworthy, but for this week at least I found it quite entertaining in a breezy sort of way.  I’m not making any promises but this show is still in the bubble pile, at least for now.

Beatless – 02

Beatless was better this week, too, though I’d still consider it a pretty long shot to stick around.  Less of incredibly grating imouto is good, and Lacia and Arato have a likeable enough bond in a sort of budding Mahoromatic sense.  But this is still a pretty lightweight piece of work, trying way too hard to be stylish and hip when really, it’s just sort of silly.  The whole business with the modeling excursion could have been modestly interesting at about two minutes but as played, it seemed like a way-too-long insert music video.

The whole concept of very human-seeming A.I.’s and society’s hostile love/hate relationship with them has obviously been done to death in anime and outside it, but there’s a reason for that – there’s a lot of traction to it.  It seems to connect with the modern human consciousness in a particularly effective way, and it’s a natural fit for a medium like anime with its focus on adolescent disenfranchisement and embrace of technology.  I wouldn’t say Beatless is executing it in especially notable fashion, but there’s just enough engaging in Arato and Lacia’s bond to make it watchable for now.

I’ll be interested to see if Beatless actually pushes these two into a romantic relationship, which is the direction being hinted at – that would broaden the scope of the premise a bit.  We’re also seemingly going to get some focus on the second-tier characters, starting with Yamashita Daiki’s tech boy Kengo – we’ll see if they have enough going to add something to the series’ overall mix.