Second Bowl

The second episode of the Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san anime aired on January 11th, 2018. It consists of two parts, which are both taken from three chapters of the manga.

## Overview

Misa Nakamura had just been dumped by her very first boyfriend and discovers Koizumi-san nearby. Suspecting that Koizumi-san may have witnessed her embarrassing moment, Misa tries to secure her popular image at school by following Koizumi-san into a ramen shop. With the help of Koizumi-san, she eventually finds herself ordering the spiciest dish there, and being a fan of spicy foods, Misa uses it as stress relief after her breakup. Later on, the class representative, Jun Takahashi was herself swayed into eating ramen by Koizumi-san after noticing her eat pineapple cup ramen on the school rooftop. Jun, having avoided ramen for a long time, goes into a pineapple noodle shop and orders its pineapple ramen.

## Summary

### **Hokkyoku**

*Japanese Title: 北極. Romaji: Hokkyoku*

Misa Nakamura is Yuu's fashion-conscious friend and is tremendously popular with boys at their school. One morning during a school holiday, Misa prepares for her first serious date and is deciding what to wear.

She all of a sudden receives a text from Yuu asking if they should do something together that day. Yuu, who herself is at home with her brother in their apartment, is unaware of Misa's plans. Her brother scolds Yuu for lazily spending her day at home, suggesting that she should have at least gone out on a date with someone on her day off, to which Yuu nervously brushes off the suggestion. While Jun eventually accepts Yuu's invitation, Misa texts back saying that she is going out with someone. This surprises Yuu, who never knew Misa actually had a boyfriend. Yuu then goes on to imagine what Koizumi-san is doing that day, and hopes that eventually she could get her phone address.

Meanwhile at Inokashira Park, Misa's date decides to suddenly call off their relationship, saying that being with her makes him feel uneasy due to her popularity at school. Misa reacts in shock and confusion, having just been broken up with the first person who ever confessed to her, and not knowing the reason why. Misa seems oblivious to the idea that because she's popular, everyone assumes she has a boyfriend, and that no boy would ever risk asking her out. She runs across the park heart-broken, and encounters two men who offer to treat her at a cafe for lunch. Refusing their offer, the men give up, and spot from a distance a more attractive girl. Misa discovers that girl to be Koizumi-san, and she immediately hides from her.

Fearing that Koizumi-san may have witnessed her break-up, Misa decides to follow her in order to prevent Koizumi-san from telling anyone at school, and thus destroying her popularity. She silently sneaks across town behind Koiziumi-san until Misa finds her walking inside a ramen shop alone. Misa then musters up courage and walks in, seating herself next to Koizumi-san and pretending to notice her accidentally. However, Koizumi-san does not recognize her, to which Misa angrily reminds her that she is her classmate. The chef asks for Misa's ramen meal ticket, and not knowing what that is, she heads to the meal ticket vending machine and orders the Hokkyoku (North Pole) ramen. Koizumi-san cautions Misa about what she is getting into, since the Hokkyoku is the spiciest ramen dish at the shop. Koizumi-san herself has spent a year slowly eating their more milder ramen before reaching the extreme spiciness of the Hokkyoku, and insists that Misa slowly start from the bottom before trying it. But Misa does not back down, having revealed that she is a huge fan of spicy food. Before they receive their dish, Koizumi-san tells Misa that she inadvertently saw her getting dumped at the park, to which Misa then fears the worst for popular image at school. However, Koizumi-san says that she will not tell anybody.

They eventually get their ramen, with Misa having ordered the regular Hokkyoku and Koizumi-san getting the Hokkyoku Special. Misa notices Koizumi-san's dish drizzled with white powder, to which Koizumi-san explains that the cheese, as well as the additional egg and the butter, softens the spiciness. But as Koizumi-san takes a bite, she begins to feel the effect of the Hokkyoku, with tears and sweat flowing through her face. She is unable to tolerate extremely spicy foods, despite wanting to try out new ramen. Misa herself takes a bite of her noodles, and reacts in sheer pain as her mouth starts to burn. Despite the initial shock, both slowly begin to enjoy the Hokkyoku, taking larger bites and larger sips until they finish their bowls satisfied. When they finish, Misa begins to cry, still reeling from her very first break-up.

As they walk out, Misa asks Koizumi-san for her phone address in order to learn about other spicy dishes, but not necessarily to make friends with Koizumi-san. Accepting Misa's request, they exchange contact information, only to have Yuu drop her bags nearby in amazement. Yuu, after apparently being told Misa was on a date, becomes unhinged at the thought of somebody else having Koizumi-san's contact information. She confronts Misa about betraying her and getting close to Koizumi-san. Before any fighting escalates, Koizumi-san excuses herself to go home.

### **Ko-K-K-Ko-Koizumi-san!**

*Japanese Title: コココココイズミサン. Romaji: KokokokoKoizumi-san*

Having just ranked second on their midterm exams, Class B representative Jun Takahashi is congratulated with praise from her classmates, who expected nothing less from their "Class Rep". Jun very much dislikes her nickname, considering that she was only accepted the position because nobody else wanted it.

As Jun and her friends look at the exam results, Yuu skims over to the list of students who have to take a remedial exam, and is shocked when she notices Koizumi-san's name listed. When Koizumi-san sees her name she is seemingly unfazed. Misa is somehow delighted at Koizumi-san's misfortune and mocks her, but Koizumi-san simply ignores her and walks away from them. Their teacher eventually comes up to Jun, and requests that as the class representative, she should talk to Koizumi-san about any problems that she might have had that led her to fail the exam.

While Yuu helps in searching for Koizumi-san during lunch, Jun manages to find her on the school rooftop eating ramen. Wanting in part to avoid Yuu, Koizumi-san explains to Jun that she prefers to eat alone. She asks the purpose of Jun's meeting with her, to which Jun discloses that Koizumi-san submitted her test paper with nothing written on it, and was asked by their teacher to help her. Koizumi-san ignores her and continues eating, prompting Jun to give up and head back inside. But before she could do so, Koizumi-san finally responds that the reason she failed the test was because of an impromptu trip to Iwate, where she fervently wanted to try their speciality Natto Kimchi Rare Cheese ramen. Bad weather had delayed her train ride back to Tokyo, but she finally returned on the morning of the test, where she had been running late, and that her tiredness from the trip led her to sleep during the exam. Before she realized it, the test was over.

Jun is dumbfounded by Koizumi-san's decision to prioritize a trip to Iwate over studying for their exam, but even so, she still cannot get over Koizumi-san's fascination with unusual ramen. She looks at Koizumi-san's cup ramen and notices that it is pineapple-flavored, and asks her why she enjoys such peculiar ramen. Koizumi-san explains that despite having many opportunities to try Odo-style shoyu ramen, she instead yearned to try out more innovative creations that year. This included creations such as chocolate-flavored ramen and tsukemen served on Valentine's Day, the ice cream ramen and lemon ramen served during the summer, and various limited-availability ramen that include nuts or strawberries.

Answering her question causes Jun to be even more flabbergasted, having never heard of the seemingly bizarre ramen Koizumi-san had just mentioned. But Koizumi-san asserts that they do taste good, and insists that Jun should try the pineapple cup ramen. Jun feels compelled, but declares that she is not a fan of ramen. After saying this, Koizumi-san immediately distances herself away from Jun, seemingly offended at the idea of someone having an aversion to ramen. Koizumi-san then excuses herself to leave, much to Jun's dismay.

Jun leaves school by train and ponders over what she said to Koizumi-san, having feared she gave her the wrong idea that she hates ramen. She recalls that at one time she actually enjoyed eating it. Remembering the cup noodles that Koizumi-san was eating during lunch, Jun gets her phone out and searches for the nearest pineapple ramen restaurant near her.

Having arrived outside the ramen shop, she chooses the Pineapple & Shrimp Shio ramen from the ticket machine. Nervous, she walks inside and picks out a seat, apparently taken aback at the pineapple-theme furnishings surrounding her. The chef gives the pineapple ramen to Jun, to which she is unsure if she could actually finish it. Jun takes one slurp of her noodles, and is surprised by how delicious it tastes. She begins to savor, bite by bite, the noodles, and the egg and pineapple toppings in her bowl, slowly remembering how good ramen used to taste for her.

Suddenly, Koizumi-san walks inside the shop and seats herself next to Jun, and orders the same dish. She remembers what Jun said about her disliking ramen, to which Jun replies that she still does. She takes off her glasses, and reveals that her glasses often fog up when eating warm ramen. There was a time at her school when she ate ramen during lunch, and was laughed at for having her glasses turn completely white. From then on, she disliked ramen for the embarrassment that it causes her, and not necessarily because of its taste.

After finishing their ramen, Jun thanks Koizumi-san for helping her find ramen.

## Trivia

* The voice of the Nakamoto chef in *Hokkyoku* was provided by the shop's real-life owner, Makoto Shirane. His son also voices one of the ramen shop employees, and both are credited in the anime as Employee A and Employee B, respectively. [1][2]
* The comic that Koizumi-san was reading as she waits for her Hokkyoku ramen was drawn by the same person who created *The Chronicles of Moko Tanmen Nakamoto*, which are actual comics left for people waiting for their ramen at its restaurant. [3]
* *Ko-K-K-Ko-Koizumi-san!* is a reference to *Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Pine*, the name of the Japanese pineapple ramen shop featured in this episode.
* The scene where Misa is choosing an outfit for her date only appears in the anime.