First Bowl

The first episode of the Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san anime aired on January 4th, 2018. It consists of three parts, which are each taken from individual chapters from the manga.

## Overview

Koizumi-san transferred into Class B shrouded in mystery - nobody even knows her first name. Her classmate, Yuu Osawa, is smitten by her beauty, but her friends are more reluctant about becoming close to someone who seems very unsociable. Yuu, however, makes an attempt to befriend her through a chance meeting at a ramen shop. It was there that she finds out that Koizumi-san enjoys ramen, and Yuu begins to use this discovery in order to get close to her. After attempting to strike up a conversation at the cafeteria using the ramen special, and after secretly following Koizumi-san by train to eat at a ramen shop with her uninvited, Yuu fails to make friends with Koizumi-san. However, Yuu is still determined to win her over.

## Summary

### **Add a Heap of Vegetables, Garlic, and Spiciness**

*Japanese Title: ヤサイマシニンニクカラメ. Romaji: Yasai Mashi Ninniku Karame*

Yuu Osawa is a high school student with a penchant for cute girls. One day after class, her friends Nakamura Misa and Takahashi Jun come up to Yuu and ask why she was distracted during reading. Eventually they find out it was because of Koizumi-san, a recent transfer student in their class who they know very little about. Misa and Jun both find Koizumi-san to be cold and distant among people, but Yuu somehow feels drawn to her.

As they walk home together, Misa invites Yuu to go out shopping with her, but Yuu turns her down because she is supposed to make dinner for her mother and brother. However, both of them contact Yuu and suddenly relieve her of cooking duty, leaving Yuu to buy something to eat for herself.

Yuu eventually spots a ramen shop with a number of men standing in line. Since eating at a ramen shop alone is considered rare for a girl in Japan, she hesitates at first. However, when she suddenly sees Koizumi-san waiting among them, Yuu eventually finds herself right behind Koizumi-san in line. Happy with the circumstances, she introduces herself to Koizumi-san, but is met with cold, seemingly uninterested responses.

Not wanting to give up easily, Yuu follows Koizumi-san inside the ramen shop and takes a seat. Fascinated with her first time there, Yuu orders the same dish Koizumi-san orders, not realizing it was a massive double pork ramen. Koizumi-san eats her own bowl with quick speed and little effort, a sight that would stun a novice eater like Yuu. When she finishes, Koizumi-san flashes a rare smile of satisfaction, one that Yuu relished seeing before it quickly disappeared.

Eventually, Yuu finishes her bowl and is outside kneeling on the pavement, having forced herself to eat more than she should have. She brings herself to ask Koizumi-san if they could continue to talk about ramen, seeing as they are classmates. Koizumi-san bluntly refuses, although Yuu happily sees it as an opportunity to try and talk to her again someday.

### **Mayu**

*Japanese Title: まーゆ. Romaji: Māyu*

At school, Yuu and her friends spot Koizumi-san staring at a poster in the hallway. When Yuu asks what she is looking at, Koizumi-san leaves abruptly without a word. Yuu then inspects the poster and learns that there is a lunch special on Kumamoto ramen, and that it is specially made with "Uma Abura" (horse oil). Seeing this as an opportunity to get closer to Koizumi-san, Yuu invites Misa and Jun to join Koizumi-san during lunch. Both of them decline, however, since Jun is wary of eating ramen and Misa dislikes the idea of being anywhere with Koizumi-san.

Yuu decides to take matters into her own hands by buying a bowl of Kumamoto at the cafeteria, and using her ramen as the means of striking up a conversation with Koizumi-san. She finds Koizumi-san eating at an empty table, and eventually picks up a seat next to hers. Yuu notices Koizumi-san eating with less energy and speed than their last encounter, which Koizumi-san attributes to the much larger portions of the double pork she ate last time. As Yuu continues to eat her ramen, she comments that the soup has a flavor similar to tonkotsu ramen, but that it also has a unique smell and dark appearance. But when she mistakenly refers to the soup as horse oil, Koizumi-san gets annoyed and interrupts her with the correct Japanese reading of "Mayu," which is essentially oil made from burnt garlic.

Having delved deeper into the subject of ramen, Koizumi-san suddenly begins to lecture Yuu on the roots and history of Kumamoto ramen in great detail. Yuu listens with feigned interest, however, and delights in simply hearing Koizumi-san talk about her favorite thing. Koizumi-san eventually mentions about a nearby ramen shop that just opened, and as Yuu presses on to know more about it, Koizumi-san suddenly gets up to leave. Finding yet another chance to make friends with Koizumi-san, Yuu suddenly asks if they could eat there together, but is swiftly turned down again. Despite being rejected, Yuu sees their interaction during lunch as a victory.

### **Kotteri**

*Japanese Title: こってり. Romaji: Kotteri*

Koizumi-san visits a ramen shop in Koenji and orders a ramen dish with a richly-flavored soup, and a side-order of rice and karaage. Yuu provides commentary as Koizumi-san savors her bowl, but not before Koizumi-san asks to stop staring at her. At that point, Koizumi-san questions Yuu about the reason she's even there to begin with, having not been invited. After school Yuu had called for Koizumi-san to walk home together, but after receiving no response, she secretly followed Koizumi-san by train to the ramen shop. Even when Koizumi-san suggests her behavior is stalker-like, this does not deter Yuu from being there and ordering the same ramen dish.

As they eat, Yuu notices the soup to be particularly thick and light in color, reminding her of tonkotsu ramen. In an attempt to clarify a misconception, Koizumi-san explains that soup in ramen is made out of a combination of seasonings and broths. It is commonly believed that there are four kinds of seasonings in ramen, which are shoyu, shio, miso, and tonkotsu. However, tonkotsu is more accurately defined as a broth, along with chicken broth and vegetable broth. Different styles of ramen can be classified among various broth and seasoning combinations, and the bowl they are eating is a mixture of chicken and vegetable broths.

Yuu feels overwhelmed with Koizumi-san's explanation, but after learning that the chicken broth in their ramen is probably filled with collagen, she jumps into excitement at the prospect of having shiny and healthy skin. However, as she prepares to eat, Yuu finds her soup to have evaporated, as is Koizumi-san's. But Koizumi-san remains confident, and takes advantage of the now soggy noodles by slurping them in one fell swoop, commenting on how that is the best way to eat noodles.

The next day, Yuu meets with Misa and Jun, and eventually spots Koizumi-san in the hallway. She goes up to Koizumi-san and shows her how shiny her face looks after eating yesterday's ramen. While Jun and Misa are puzzled that Yuu and Koizumi-san actually ate together, Yuu tries one more time to invite her to eat together again after school. Despite being rejected once more, Yuu continues to find that simply talking to Koizumi-san is enough to claim victory.

## Trivia

* The singing eye-catches between sub-episodes - "Ra-ra-ra-ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san!" - were sung by Taketatsu Ayana, the voice of Koizumi-san. [1]
* Yamada-sensei, the teacher in this episode, is a new character introduced in the anime. According to creator Narumi Naru, she considers drawing her as a regular character from now on. In addition, some of her dialogue in the anime were ad-libbed. [2]
* In the manga, Jun and Misa are introduced later in the second chapter, *Mayu*.
* The scene at the end of *Kotteri*, where Yuu, Jun and Misa meet Koizumi-san at school, is missing from the manga. Instead, there is one panel where after Yuu comments on how her skin looks shiny after eating Kotteri ramen, Koizumi-san has a thought bubble that simply reads, "Placebo."
* The title *Add a Heap of Vegetables, Garlic, and Spiciness* is a reference to Ramen Jiro's "call words" used when requesting ramen toppings. Saying *Yasai*, *Ninniku*, and *Karame* in sequence would mean that you are requesting normal portions of vegetables (cabbage and bean sprouts), garlic, and flavoring (soy sauce tinged with spices). Adding *Mashi* in front of any topping means you want an extra portion of it (such as in *Yasai Mashi*, "extra vegetables"), while *Mashimashi* means you want an extra-extra portion of that topping. [3]
* Yuu's reluctance to visit a ramen shop by herself prior to meeting Koizumi-san in *Add a Heap of Vegetables, Garlic, and Spiciness* relates to the culture of ramen restaurants in Japan. Eating at ramen shops is stereotyped as a male past-time in Japan. Being visited primarily by male customers, women usually find it difficult or embarrassing to go inside a ramen shop without someone accompanying them. Specific reasons for not wanting to visit ramen shops alone can include the lack of cleanliness at restaurants, not wanting to be glanced at by other men, pressure to eat quickly at the table with others in line, and the overall "scariness" of being alone in a male crowd. This is similar to where men in Japan rarely visit cafes and cake shops alone, since they are mainly populated by women. [4] [5]