Takashi Tanaka & Shinichi Hosono -- Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles Soundtrack

 

A little over ten days ago, I was happy to give my thoughts on the return of "Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon S"（小林さんちのメイドラゴン...Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid S） spearheaded with that extremely catchy opening theme song, "Ai no Supreme!"（愛のシュプリーム！）by fhana. Well, along with that second season, I've also started re-watching another slice-of-life anime that came out a year after "Kobayashi-san", and it turns out that it also had a rather reserved K-san in there, too. 

Yes, I'm talking about the 2018 anime "Rāmen Daisuki Koizumi-san"（ラーメン大好き小泉さん...Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles）, so instead of a lady being surrounded by dragons, it's a high school student obsessed with lots and lots of ramen. I first saw the show back in the pre-COVID days when my anime buddy used to have our biweekly anime-and-meals session at his place on Sundays, and true to great scheduling, my friend would always show it just before our dinner run; not that we always went for ramen afterwards.

I recall that within a couple of months of watching the episodes, I quickly put up the also-just-as-catchy opening and ending themes for "Koizumi-san": Minori Suzuki's（鈴木みのり）"FEELING AROUND" and Shiena Nishizawa's（西沢幸奏）"LOVE MEN HOLIC" respectively. However, watching the first two episodes again earlier tonight, I was reminded that there was also something aurally attractive about the soundtrack concocted by rock band Sunny Day Service（サニーデイ・サービス）bassist Takashi Tanaka（田中貴）and composer Shinichi Hosono（細野しんいち）. So, maybe before I retire tonight, I can put up some of the tracks. There are 43 of them so I'm going to be very sparing.

This is the one that has haunted my ramen dreams and it's the track that I've identified the ramen-obsessed Ms. Koizumi with. "Kyou mo Dokoka de (pf version)"（今日もどこかで...Somewhere Again Today） seems to be her theme because it just matches the elegant but glacial beauty that she is (at least, until she downs a bowl of the good stuff) with that haunting piano playing. Another thing is that the track has always stood out to me as being a creation that would belong to an actual live-action J-drama on the order of the "Tokyo Love Story"（東京ラブストーリー）soundtrack. Perhaps it's because it does remind me a lot of enka singer Sayuri Ishikawa's（石川さゆり）jazzy torch song "Whiskey ga O-Suki deshou?" (ウィスキーが、お好きでしょ）.

Not surprisingly, the next track that I remember is the original "Kyou mo Dokoka de" which serves as Track 1. Instead of the lonely piano, it's a group of plucky strings playing the melody that I usually hear in the especially lighter scenes; not that "Ms. Koizumi" ever got all that heavy...any heaviness was in the delectable broth.

The rest of the tracks are ones that I will have to be reminded of once I get through the episodes again. But one that has struck me is "Miwaku no Exotic Ramen"（魅惑のエキゾチックラーメン...Captivating Exotic Ramen） which could have been playing in Episode 2 when Ms. Koizumi and the steady-on Jun were eating the pineapple ramen (no, I don't think I will). It sounds like something from a Tin Pan Alley album in the 1970s and I had all sorts of Tiki bar images as I was listening to it.

On the other hand, "24-Hour Ramen People"（24アワー・ラーメン・ピープル）takes listeners into the current times of Japanese urban contemporary with those synths and that certain mellow guitar. For some reason, I began thinking of Sakanaction, Kirinji and Ryusenkei.

One more track that I'll ladle into your bowl is "On the Road -Itsuka Kimi to Kita Mise-"（いつか君と来た店...The Shop that You and I Went to Someday） that has that sensation of the guitar pop/rock which was on the rise in the early-to-mid 1990s with bands like Spitz and Mr. Children, although it's the electric organ that is the star of the show.

It's been around 18 months since I had a bowl of ramen in Toronto that didn't come in a Styrofoam cup or come from a plastic package but I haven't gone into a fetal position of despair since frankly the first two decades plus of my life were spent not really having the authentic ramen-ya variety, so I'm patient. Still, I am hoping that I will be able to visit a Kinton, Touhenboku or Santouka fairly soon again now that my city is in Stage 3 of the re-opening.

Shiena Nishizawa -- LOVE MEN HOLIC

Not coincidentally, after my anime buddy and I had watched two more episodes from the appetizing series "Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san"（ラーメン大好き小泉さん...Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles）, the two of us took off in the car to the newest ramen restaurant in Toronto in the North York area of town.

Supposedly, Konjiki was brought to life in Tokyo where it won a number of accolades in 2016, and so the Toronto branch was quickly constructed. Despite it getting its big attention right now, turnover was pretty brisk when we got there on Sunday evening so we only had to wait 15 minutes before getting our places at the table. We had the Konjiki signature Clam Broth Ramen which you see at the top there. Not too bad but my buddy wasn't too impressed with it; he said he would definitely stick with regular tonkotsu. I was fine with it. I just saw it as noodles placed in clear soup stock.

The karaage and gyoza were fine side dishes.

As I've mentioned in the article for the opening theme for "Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san", "FEELING AROUND" by Minori Suzuki（鈴木みのり）, the show has been quite the tour of these genuine ramen outlets in Tokyo. Unfortunately, I can't make annual trips to the old country but my anime buddy and at least one more friend of mine can afford the trips at that rate so perhaps they can scour the city for these restaurants. Seeing Episode 8 a couple of days ago, I would really like to find that shop which sells those special packets of instant ramen from all over Japan.

Doing another referral here but I may have also stated that there haven't been any runaway earworm hits among the anison so far into this year. Still, a lot of them have become quite comfortable to my own ears over the past several weeks. That has been the case with the ending theme for "Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san", "LOVE MEN HOLIC" by pop-rock singer Shiena Nishizawa（西沢幸奏）. And for that matter, I've found the ending credits to the show very clever as the characters are placed in famous scenes from ramen commercials over the decades.

Her 5th single since debuting in 2015, Nishizawa gives her own tribute to ramen in blistering fashion. Just makes viewers want to rush off to the nearest ramen-ya even faster. The singer wrote the lyrics while WEST GROUND took care of the music. "LOVE MEN HOLIC" was released in February and peaked at No. 48.

Minori Suzuki -- FEELING AROUND

It's a cold and damp Monday here in Toronto although a lot of the snow has gone and the absolute zero-type of temperatures are not with us for now. Watching NHK's "News at Nine" this morning, Tokyo underwent its first horrifying snowstorm in about 4 years...something that we go through here perhaps around 4 times a year. In either Toronto or Tokyo, perhaps a good chunk of the population wouldn't mind having a steaming bowl of ramen in a warm restaurant. Incidentally, the ramen above is the Tonkotsu Black at the branch of Sansotei up in the northeast suburbs. My favourite soup when it comes to ramen is indeed the pork bone variety. Mind you, though, my heart and circulatory system may get their revenge on me someday if I went for the stuff weekly but once in a while is always welcome.

Now the reason that I'm enticing you with ramen today is because yesterday was the first anime-and-food session of the New Year that is 2018. To let you in on an opinion, I wasn't all that happy with the Fall 2017 season of anime aside from the reboot of "Mahoujin Guru Guru"（魔法陣グルグル）and the gradually heartwarming "Konohana Kitan"（このはな綺譚）. "Two-Car"...? Aaugh. However, it seems like the Winter 2018 season is pretty hopeful; in fact my anime buddy mentioned that for the first time in a long while, we may have to look through about 20 prospective shows since he posits that they all look rather interesting.

One of those shows that my friend showcased yesterday was "Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san"（ラーメン大好き小泉さん）which, as you can guess, is about somebody with the name of Koizumi who greatly loves ramen. She pretty much breathes it, actually. It's almost cruel for us ramen lovers as to how lovingly the animators have shown Koizumi's ardor for her dish of choice and of course the different kinds of ramen.

It was about a year ago that the first 2017-based article for "Kayo Kyoku Plus" dealt with the catchy anison theme for a show titled around another Ms. K. Well, I'm doing the same here with "Koizumi-san" although Minori Suzuki's（鈴木みのり）"FEELING AROUND" isn't quite the classic earworm that fhana's "Aozora no Rhapsody"（青空のラプソディ）has been. I would put that song as my favourite anime theme for 2017, by the way.

Still "FEELING AROUND" has got a nice bounce to it with a bit of an Asian beat as the opening credits provide everything and everyone we need to know about the premise for "Koizumi-san". Suzuki, who was known up to now as a budding seiyuu, has made her debut as a solo singer with this one and it's due to be released in a couple of days. The song was written and composed by Koji Mihara（三原康司）, the bassist for the band Frederic（フレデリック）who came up with the catchy "oddloop" a few years back. (By the way, here is the article on the ending theme)

To be honest, considering the theme of the show, I was wondering whether Akiko Yano's（矢野顕子）ode to plain simple ramen would have been used.

Finally, to completely torture you into racing to the nearest noodle shop or, at least, the nearest supermarket which sells Sapporo Ichiban, you can take a look at this video for the Yokohama Ramen Museum.