Review - Ramen Fighter Miki

This is an older review I wrote April 26th, 2009.

Title: Ramen Fighter Miki - Collection
Volume: DVD 1-3
Running time: 300
Distributor: Media Blasters

I watched this series on the recommendation from Ray, my fellow Anime Club host and friend. He summed up the action by saying "its a ramen delivery girl who has fights on the way to her stops." And, of course, he is right. But there is more to the 13 episodes than only the fights. There are only a half dozen characters each with their back stories on how they want to fight Miki, and each episode is broken into two mini vignettes. It's not very deep and there really is no point to the show, but it made me laugh out loud several times.

Miki works in a ramen shop with her mother, and is sent out to deliver food. Miki's mother is the only person stronger than Miki, but there are many other people in the neighborhood who want to beat Miki because she has bullied them. Included in this group is Megumi, who works at the bakery across from the ramen shop and Kankuro, who was beat up in elementary school by Miki. And then there is her most vicious foe, Toshiyuki, who is the freakiest looking dog ever animated. But he can fight.

One of the better episodes is when a young girl has the mistaken idea that Kankuro is actually in love with Miki and works with him to woo Miki. Of course, he thinks the girl is actually putting him through training to beat up Miki. And like all the other episodes, it never really works out like he planned. So after a romantic movie, dinner, and a trip to the amusement park, the inevitable conclusion comes as no surprise to anyone. Like Ah! My Buddha and Girl's High, Media Blasters did not dub Ramen Fighter Miki. But with the hyper-action comedy of the show, I'm not sure it would be as funny in English as it is in Japanese. The animation is not super detailed, but kinetic enough in the fights to make me laugh, and the character design is good.

I would not hesitate to buy this for the library. There is no fan service of gratuitous jiggleing to warrant any red flags for parents. The violence level is pretty high, but it is all cartoony with no blood at all. And the final episodes shows what happens when the 20 year old Miki gets drunk (so there is underage animated drinking). But with the single joke of Miki beating everyone up, I thought this was a fun series and definitely worth my time.