Also known as “Noodle Fighter Miki”, which is pretty much what this show is about. Noodles and fighting - all revolving around Miki. Miki Onimaru is a girl who works in a chinese noodle shop and it seems as if she’s having a bit of a hard time…

There’s really no plot to this show; it’s one of those random things happen for no apparent reason and lessons are half learned and really, life goes on regardless. There’s quite a few quirky characters, including a crazy looking dog. A dog that deserves a hat after his face, fo’ sho’…if I ever make it, I’ll post the knitting pattern some day. Toshiyuki is a great dog.

I’ll just digress here to ramble about myself. I’m not usually one for non science fiction, horror, fantasy and/or supernatural type of shows and movies. I like morbid, dreary, weird and non-happy shows. Mecha is somewhere in the middle and CLAMP in its good days is always okay for me. However, it hit me one day that I should watch a show about noodles and fighting. I mean, why the fighting amongst the noodles topic? Not that there should be a reason, but it seemed dimly obscure enough.

One of the major things going for the show is its style and pace. It’s very entertaining and each episode is just somehow different from another one that the show is never quite the same. Part of the humour is the absurd level at which the rivals compete with each other to beat the crap out of each other. Take the angelic looking bakery girl, Megumi (she reminds me of Renge from Ouran for some reason…). She’s weak looking but she throws bamboo skewers to catch Miki unawares. And that’s not all of it…Megumi has various ploys and tactics to overcome Miki who used to torment her when they were young. You can’t really blame her…Miki’s kind of obnoxious, a bit arrogant and is oblivious of many-a-thing but at the core, she’s one of those do-gooder protagonist girls. That’s probably why I dislike her…although Megumi is more obnoxious, a bit vain and snotty I can’t help but root for her. Poor Megumi.

The only flaw Miki has is that she’s obsessed with beating people at various things, especially that of close range combat. Thus, she gets distracted easily trying to deliver noodles fresh, warm and not-spilled. That and because she’s a do-gooder, she must help people at all costs. One of them is the scary looking teacher Tomoya, who kind of…sits in corners, climbs trees and climbs perfectly vertical stone walls with no hand or foot holds. Everyone mistakes her for a vengeful ghost at first but nope, she just looks scary.

Then, there’s Akihito who’s the owner of a grocery store beside Miki’s and who’s obsessed with Star Rangers but he’s a bit of a pansy. And then we have Kankuro, who says a “nya” at the end of every sentence. He is very obsessed with beating Miki due to a…tragic past (actually, it’s hilarious). Lastly, although Miki’s mom seems to be a popular character, she isn’t as funny. She’s the strongest fighter in the land, and her worries are for Miki to grow up and stop picking fights and take life more seriously.

Each episode more or less revolves around these characters and expounds on their bone with Miki. All of them are very childish, impetuous and silly but that’s why I like this show. The animation is decent and the character design is cute and likable. The whole show is very bright though. The OP is by Masami Okui, one of my favourite Jpop/Anime singers with a remix version of “Wild Spice”. All in all, there’s not much to describe in a review - it’s light-hearted, entertaining, mostly funny (not the funniest show I’ve seen by far) and family friendly. After all, the violence is very comical.

Tags: miki onimaru, muteki kanban musume, noodle fighter miki, review

Category: Series Reviews

A. Papillon is not amused.