Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles 01

ラーメン大好き小泉さん #1

by Naru Narumi

Hangatnya semangkuk ramen lezat selalu mampu mendatangkan kebahagiaan...
Mari nikmati sedapnya ramen Jepang bersama Koizumi!

Genres: Manga, Food, Comics, Graphic Novels, Young Adult, Slice Of Life, Contemporary

128 pages, Paperback

First published October 7, 2014

Reviews

[Bookishrealm · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this wasn't the most inventive manga that I've ever read, but there was a cuteness about it that I couldn't get over and I'm a newbie when it comes to learning about ramen. I don't think that I've been exposed to as many different types to ramen as I thought. In fact, I probably haven't really been exposed to any outside of the quick/instant stuff you can buy. I was fascinated, for the most part, with Ms. Koizumi's obsession with ramen and the many ways that she attempted to describe it and introduce it to her classmates. The various flavors/types just sounded delectable and reminded me that once this pandemic is over I need to go on the hunt for a ramen shop near me. The artwork was great and I'm hoping that we eventually get to see the development of a possible romance between two of the main characters.

[Violet ♡]

This is perfect if you love ramen, a hot and delicious ramen! 😋



The story follows Koizumi, a high schooler who is very passionate about ramen, and the group of girl friends with whom she ignited their love of eating ramen. It is a simple and light read. And it's amusing to see how stoic Koizumi's expressions change when she's eating ramen noodles. The delight is evident in her eyes. 🍜

This is all about ramen and its unique styles. A pineapple in ramen soup?! By the way, this manga has an anime adaptation on Crunchyroll.

[Margery Bayne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Holy sh*t. This is not the magnanimous book I would've chosen to top off my 100 books goodreads challenge if I had known going in what I was getting into. I am on a book review committee for children and teen material, and everything I've read from the nominations have been at least okay or had some quality with praising. I don't know how this got nominated, but whoever did must have either been a lot more into ramen or a lot more innocent than me.

First of all, there is no plot, there is no themes, there is no characterization. All the characters are just manga girl archetypes with no more depth or detail beyond that. At first I thought this was a thin premise to hold up the manga-ka's ramen obsession, but then it slowly dawned on me how sexually suggestive the scenes of teenage girls eating food every chapter were. In the ecstasy of eating ramen, the girls are drawn with orgasm faces or to look like they are giving blowjobs, and its awful. Seeing as the author note reveals this is initially published in a seinen magazine in Japan (aka, targeted to young adult men), I'm pretty sure it is completely intentional rather than accidental or me just reading into things. So now I believe the thin premise is about holding up something else.

I can't unsee this but you don't have to. Save yourselves.

[Toya (thereadingchemist) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so cute and so gay and now I just want ALL the ramen!

[Jillian -always aspiring- · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

Cute, but I dislike how Japan seems to fetishize how women eat certain things in manga. They shouldn’t look like they’re having orgasmic pleasure; I mean, come on!! Also, I don’t know if I will continue on past this volume. But ramen foodies might enjoy this as well.

[Guguk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terhasut ngambil ini walaupun tadinya ragu karena bukunya tipis (^ ^;)>

Gambar : 4 bintang...moe! XDD Bukan.., yang terpenting adalah gambar makanannya yang terlihat menggiurkan.
Cara makan para gadis itu mirip Happy Cooking Graffiti ^^;; tapi terlihat lahap itu bagus juga~ (ﾉ≧∀≦)ﾉ✧

Cerita : 3.5 bintang...masih belum terlalu menggugah, tapi aku suka dengan cerita persahabatan maupun tunas persahabatan itu sendiri, seperti saat si Koizumi dikira punya masalah dan guru meminta ketua kelas membantu ngorek curhatan XD

Rasanya keadaan 'kaku-serba-salah' dan 'aku-ga-mau-tapi-ini-tugasku' adalah kejadian-kejadian yang bisa terjadi dan mungkin pernah kita alami, baik saat bersekolah maupun saat sudah bekerja (o^-^o)

Koizumi sendiri yang kuudere tadinya [imho] ga cocok dengan suasana makan ramen XD
Tapi lama-lama terlihat praktis ✧(￣﹃￣) Kalau lagi makan, memang enaknya fokus makan (^,,^)

Selain acara makan-makan, dibahas pula berbagai jenis ramen apa berasal dari mana (^o^)/

[Laura (ローラ) · Rating 2 out of 5]

The tag line kind of annoys me: Ramen and manga are two Japanese things that people love everywhere around the world. But no one's ever brought them together before--until now! umm... I own other manga about ramen... better manga.

[Meli F · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute and fun! So much ramen ☺️ But now I'm hungry 😅

[Mercedez · Rating 4 out of 5]

A playfully delicious read about a girl who loves ramen, a girl who likes the girl who loves ramen, and lots of different noodles. Definitely worth keeping up with, at least for me!

[Sylvia Joyce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crap, now I’m really hungry.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm actually a really big fan of the anime series and wanted to compare it with the manga... and I think perhaps the story works best in the animated medium due to the central focus on the food within the plot. I think the adaptation is very faithful but due to the limited pages within the manga, it does limit aspects of the plot to it's barebones.

From the name, you get an honest description of what this series is about: a girl who really loves ramen. There isn't really much plot or development beyond that except for bits of characterizations mentioned in passing about other characters within the manga but for the most part, Koizumi is an enigma and all you know about her is her deep love and knowledge for ramen. It's not a deep read but as a foodie and lover of ramen as well, I really like the series. As they only made 12 episodes of the anime, I'm switching to the original text to continue with this series.

[FlySirius · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can imagine the tastiness and greatness of every ramen that she eat. It must be so delicious and smells good.

[alix flora 🌙 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was super cute and made me hungry the ramen pictures were beaut!!

[Ashley Sharpe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love mangas and anime about food so when I watched the anime a couple years back I was stoked to find this. The titular koizumi just wants to enjoy ramen in peace and the girl who stalks her (aka just wants to be friends) is very irritating / off putting but she gets her just rewards by seeing everyone else befriend koizumi in a much more natural way. I cannot wait to read the other two in print .

[Alysses · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a cute book. It was actually hilarious at various times. I will continue.

I read it electronically but will collect it for the ramen recipes alone.

[Madelyn (Vaughn) Burke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I definitely want ramen now

[Loz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fun popcorn. If you like ramen, silly girl crushes, or nigh gratuitous sexy ramen reactions, you'll probably enjoy this. More informative and less harmful than one could assume at first blush.

[Bear Mcbearington · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a manga series all about ramen. What more do you need?

[Wordsworn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really like ramen, but this book was utterly pointless. None of the characters are likable, and the way they're drawn eating the ramen is oftentimes more than just a little suggestive. There's zero plot other than "this character is obsessed with/only wants to eat ramen, and this character wants to be her friend (for whatever reason) to the point where her behavior is clearly stalking." No reason to read any more of this series, or if you haven't wasted your time with volume one yet, ANY of it.

Not a fan. 0/5

[Ayah & ibu]

dasarnya suka komik yang membahas makanan, ketemu komik ini, dan mengulas ramen ( makanan kesukaaan ) membuat air liur menetes jika membaca ini...
Ga sabar nungguin jilid kedua.. semoga cepattttt

[Jewels · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good 3.8 ish/5 stars for me.
I'd watched the anime when it first streamed on Crunchyroll, and I didn't think anything strange of it like how other readers had mentioned. In fact, while watching the anime, I was eating ramen myself (looking at all the delicious foods made me feel like my simple Cup Noodles tasted a lot better than it did).
I think this was a good start to a series. We readers are introduced to the main cast and get a good glimpse into their characters. The art itself is great and the food looks realistic. What I really cherish about the series is the amount of information on ramen itself that it teaches us. I had no idea there was that much history and diversity (if I can call it that?) to the way of making ramen. That's really the top reason I'm sticking with this series to the end, even if from the anime's perspective will not be featuring a complex plot of a story.
Although, I will agree with other readers the issue at hand when reading this manga. A lot of the time the eating scenes are.....suggestive to some. Yes, I also agree that high school girls don't usually make those kinds of faces when finishing ramen. That being said, I read the author's postscript, and the translator's note at the bottom. Call me crazy, but I feel bad for the mangaka in that regard. This manga was published in the magazine called Storia (which has more of a male audience that women's, as it was noted), and Narumi is just trying to earn her keep. I mean, I can ignore those kinds of things when it's only mild compared to....Food Wars or such.
Oh! And other readers have had issue with Yu's character. Again, accuse me of sympathizing, but I feel as though, even at times it can feel cringe worthy, Yu doesn't have intentions of a crazed person while following Koizumi around. I think it's simply for humor that the joker of the group insists upon befriending the nonchalant character that it leads to either more ramen history or wacky events. Simply put: it's for the sake of the story that she's characterized like that. And, referencing the anime, it doesn't really lead anywhere, her overbearing behavior. If the manga goes any further, I'd even want to predict that she comes to learn from her behavior and finally become friends with Koizumi after she maturing.
So, all in all, I'm in it for the food, not anything else. Those who want to learn about ramen in a light (sort-of) manga or foodies in general or just anyone curious, come on over and check this manga out. (Parents:....the issues up above are going to have to be left up to you. I want to give it the clear, but if people aren't necessarily in agreement with the situation, I can only leave this up to you to form your own opinions)

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

While technically the subject of this manga is the result OF cooking, there is enough discussion of ingredients and styles of preparation that the reader could use this as a primer to learn more about the preparation of ramen. So, it counts... :-)

The story itself is of a group of teen girls trying to get to know "the new girl," who seems stand-offish, but has an amazing knowledge of ramen noodles and things related to them...from restaurants to home preparation, and everything in between. Yu develops a crush on Koizumi, but I get the impression that Yu gets a crush on every pretty teen girl, at least briefly. In this case, even though the crush isn't even slightly reciprocated, Yu and Koizumi have a few things in common which could lead to an actual friendship, if this were real life. Because it's a manga, the concept may remain a tease forever. The other two girls have their own conflicts with Koizumi, but do like her, when she isn't backing away from them. Whether that's out of shyness, horror or some other emotion is rarely clear, but it's fun so far.
This volume involves nine entirely different styles and types of ramen, and as a longtime eater of ramen as presented here in the United States, I came away from the book wanting to try some of the styles described in the book. Now I'll have to find out whether some of the more interesting versions are available in my area, darn it!

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! While I can definitely say this isn't the greatest manga I've read, it certainly remains cute and interesting in its own way. This is my first manga focused mostly on food and I never knew there was so much to learn about ramen. This is great because recently I've been so fascinated by the different types of ramen and more! This manga does a really good job of explaining it in a way that does not bore me. The characters lack any depth and most characterization can be inferred by dialogue and appearances but this is fine. I feel like this manga is more of an easy read for a relaxing way to pass the time. So the lack of a directive plot and detailed characterization is understandable. Throughly enjoyed it and will continue more volumes. Fair warning however, there is a sort of weird sexual depiction of the girl's faces when they eat ramen. I understand they are expressing satisfaction and immense joy from the flavors of the ramen but it is still silly. I don't particularly care but other readers definitely might. Anyway, enjoy!

[寿理 宮本 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute story about a girl who loves ramen, only eats ramen, constantly eats ramen... and the weird girl who stalks her.

Like, that's what sets me off from this series, that the girl who just wants to eat has this classmate so bizarrely obsessed with her to the point of being LITERALLY stalked.

What bugs me even more about this kind of story is the stalker is rewarded with begrudging friendship (at the least). I mean, if a GUY were doing it instead of a girl, either the police would be called and the guy would get a restraining order, or the police would be called but nothing would happen until the girl is mysteriously never seen again (at least, in America, this would be true, less certain about Japan's stats but possibly also still true).

But the art is amazing! I'm always astounded by the level of detail artists will put into making food look realistic, while caricaturing people. Always hungry for ramen after reading this, even though that's almost the WORST thing I can eat. :(

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This manga is broken down into several chapters, which can be broken down into various base ingredients or tropes. Each chapter is comprised of interactions that lead primary protagonist Yu and her classmates to observe the title character, Ms. Koisumi, in ramen shops where she shares some knowledge about ramen dishes and their consumption.

Each story or chapter is created by how the character is combined with Ms. Koisumi. Each chapter relies on several tropes and stereotype characters in manga, but it would be simplistic to describe the volume's chapters as all having the same flavor, as there is the difference is made by each chapter's setting and the type of ramen establishment involved. The texture is achieved by slowly developing a dish's story or aspects which make it unique. Although the plot of other manga series with similar characters might be thicker, the resulting combination here is unexpectedly good when compared to the base ingredients.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is probably not an all ages book. There is a certain suggestiveness in the illustrations of eating and enjoyment of ramen. But, there’s great ramen background and a great comic character in the over eager Yu, as she futilely pursues a friendship with transfer student Koizumi who absolutely loves ramen! If you love food shows, watching mukbang (eating show) videos on YouTube, or just love learning about ramen, this series is probably right up your alley. I loved the breakup chapter. There’s nothing like spicy food to pick you up when you’re feeling down. Apparently, the anime adaptation is available on Crunchyroll now too. Maybe when I’m done binging all the new shows on Netflix and Hulu during our season of pandemic isolation, I’ll serve myself up a bowl full of episodes. I wonder where one can get a good bowl of ramen in Western Florida...

[Faisal Chairul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Baca komik lagi setelah sekian lama. Memilih komik tentang makanan dengan pembahasan yang ringan. It turns out sangat menarik, dari sisi makanannya. Baca informasi tentang berbagai jenis paduan ramen yang disampaikan karakter utama, Koizumi, jadi bikin gw pengen mengeksplorasi cara-cara pembuatan kaldu yang berbeda-beda, perpaduan bahan tambahan (bawang putih, minyak wijen, sayur-sayuran) yang berbeda-beda pula.

Selain itu, pemilihan sifat karakter utama, Koizumi, juga menarik. Dingin, tetapi kalau udah ketemu ramen, berubah 180 derajat. Ramen pula yang membuat karakter ini mengenal lebih dekat teman-teman sekelasnya. Sungguh penikmat ramen si Koizumi ini, sampai-sampai walaupun udah H-1 ujian ia tetap pergi ke Tohoku hanya untuk mencicipi salah satu ramen khas disana. Akibatnya, ia pun tertidur pulas saat mengerjakan ujian dan harus mengambil ujian perbaikan nilai.

[Faith Tydings · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is now the very first manga that I have ever read...yay, me! I expected that my brain would have a hard time reading backwards but it caught up pretty quickly. I had to keep reminding myself, in the beginning, that I was reading it wrong. Luckily, this story wasn't too detailed that, when I was reading it wrong, I was still able to understand.

As far as the actual story - it was okay! Ms. Koizumi was kind of rude and standoffish to her classmates, who clearly were in love with her and wanted to be her friends. All Ms. Koizumi loved and wanted was ramen and she showed that in chapter after chapter. Her classmates had more interesting lives than she did and, honestly, let's read more to learn about them instead of Ms. Koizumi!? I will likely not read any more in the series but I did enjoy this first experience with manga and I will continue to try other series'.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were two things I liked about this book:
the information about ramen (I was surprised by the details - I actually felt like I learned something, and wanted to try some new types!) and the artwork (not a particularly original style, but done well imho, and the bonus notes at the end were fun).

Other than that, the book pretty much fell flat for me. The characters were pretty one-note and not very likeable. The plot wasn't compelling (really, there was barely a plot at all). As others have noted, the way teenage girls are depicted and the audience this is aimed at either edges towards problematic or is fully over that line, depending on your perspective and point of reference.

It's a quick read so I didn't mind the time I spent on it, but won't be continuing with the series.

[Lora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ms. Koizumi is the new girl in high school who loves ramen - to the point that she fainted in despair at finding the ramen shop closed one day.

Ms. Yu has a crush on Koizumi and learns to share her ramen obsession ("Why do I want that double pork bowl ramen. Is this some sort of curse?"). She lives to see Koizumi's look of contentment after eagerly slurping a bowl of ramen.

All in all, I like the anime better. It makes the story come to life with its catchy jingle, excellent voice actors and cute animation.

But the manga can be fun for anime fans to revisit the story in its original manga form. It includes has a bonus look at how Koizumi's hairstyle was designed. The manga is divided into bowls rather than chapters, which is a nice touch.