First off, if you think this is a show about ramen noodles then nope, best looking elsewhere. It's a trap.

The Hakata prefecture in Fukuoka was famous for its Tonkotsu ramen and looks like your regular city but it had its own underworld where 3% of its population were killers for hire. Some called themselves "avengers", people who can be hired to get revenge for their clients. Baseball loving Zenji Banba is a private detective out investigating a murder of a fellow detective who was murdered by a local hitman. As such, he also ends up being targeted for nosying around. Rash Lin Xianming on the other hand, is a highly skilled hitman who had sold himself off as a kid so that his family could live a better life. Now he was trying to buy his freedom back from a Taiwanese gang so that he can return home to his sister and ends up being assigned to the job. However, he refuses and decides to protect Zenji instead - at least, until he gets paid properly. Laid back Zenji goes with the flow and it just so happens Lin was part of the organisation he was investigating. When Lin's sister ends up abused and killed by the very same gang, they end up working together and Lin ends up seeing a different side of the underworld including a close encounter with the Niwaka Samurai, a hitman that kills hitmen.

Background art's quite good at times while others they over diffuse the lighting so much they look overly blurred. Otherwise the overall quality of the show stays consistent even though it's not great. As far as presentation goes, I think the instrumental pieces of the OST is the best part of this show including the upbeat ending theme, "Dirty Bullet".

I assume the show got it's silly name from Zenji's favourite food, instant Hakata Tonkotsu ramen which is about the only thing linked to ramen. As if the title itself wasn't enough to hint at it being a bit of a silly show about the life of underworld criminals, they throw in a cross-dressing hitman and a kind of superhero who goes around slaying hitmen just to be sure so don't expect a Black Lagoon. In a way it kind of reminded me of Samurai Flamenco because the characters all have the same silly, easy going personality as they fight crime dressed up except here, they're not playing superheroes or fighting the supernatural. Instead, it's mostly a group of criminals who end up being the good guys. This show can be a lot more violent too where people are mercilessly tortured or killed with lots of blood and some gore. Even then they can still laugh and joke as they are surrounded by corpses. Of course, you also end up with brief scenes involving the abuse and exploitation of ladies. It's not a show for the young audience that's for sure.

Instead of going for your usual cast of cliche Anime personalities it feels like the show just tries to make all the main characters look cool with the only exception of Lin. It's a character driven show since it's fairly much lacking a main plot and for the most part you're watching how Lin finds a place in his new circle of friends. When the show's not busy slaughtering people it does have it's fun moments as the gang spends time playing baseball matches together or, when you watch the odd relationship between Zenji and Lin playout. Even though everyone's buddy, buddies some don't hesitate to sell each other out when their professional career in the underworld calls for it. Eventually you get some more insight into the character's pasts too. Well... One or two of them anyway.

I think the show does a fair job of bringing characters together through coincidence with only 12 episodes to do it in although I don't know how faithful it is to the 8 volume light novel series. In that regard I think a show like Durarara or Baccano pulls it off much better with its alternating POVs and equally silly characters. Funnily enough the original author Chikai Kisaki did do a collaboration with Ryougo Narita, the author of those two titles at one point, "Durarara x Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens".

If you like action character driven shows with a laid back cast and don't mind the underworld violence you might like this. There's the odd episode with extra scenes after the credits so don't miss out.