Anime Summer 2024: RED CAT RAMEN, Order Up! Watch Out for Hair

As long as the ramen's good, I'm there.

Red Cat Ramen
The first two episodes are now streaming on Crunchyroll. Subsequent episodes will debut every Thursday.

This is a show that is so delightfully silly that it deserves special attention, even if you don't love cats.

As it happens, Tamako loves dogs. She's a young job-seeker, so she enters Ramen Akaneko, a restaurant, for an interview, only to be hired on the spot, despite the fact that the boss is a talking cat and all the other employees are talking cats.

The boss, Bunzo, tells her she was hired because she admitted she prefers dogs to cats. Her honesty gets her the job, but her work ethic is what keeps her employed; she is a very hard worker, more than willing to do whatever she is told to do.

In essence, Red Cat Ramen is a workplace comedy. Its sprightly pace is evenly divided across two 12-minute minisodes, and followed by 'cutscenes' that cleverly illuminate the plot and characters further.

As with most good television shows about restaurants -- see The Bear on Hulu, please, and yes, I like the third season -- it's the characters who shine on Red Cat Ramen. Each cat is a little different.

Bunzo, the boss and chef, is straightforward and succinct. Sasaki, who cares for the finances, is another straight shooter who is focused on efficiency. Sabu, the sous-chef, relates well to the other employees and the customers. Hana is the customer service manager, though she's the most suspicious of Tamako's hire. And Krishna is a very shy big cat who prefers staying in the backroom to make the noodles by hand, er, paw.

The characters are fleshed out nicely, and they have good chemistry, in the writing and in the voicing. The series is based on writer/illustrator Angyaman's manga series, and it is very, very funny, and very, very clever. The character designs and background are also of high quality and quite distinctive, helping to make the show a pleasure to watch.

Summary: Highly recommended.