English Dub Review: Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens “Play Ball”

It’s not a food anime, I promise.

Overview(Spoilers below)

Our story begins with one “Zenji Banba”, a smooth-talking, stylish detective, cornered by a mysterious assassin with a penchant for cross-dressing. Flashback to 18 hours earlier and the assassin demonstrates his chops by viciously killing a couple in cold blood; well, he is a professional after all. He’s got a mysterious past, and owes a dangerous person some money, but who remains a question to be answered.

We cut to an office, where the hapless “Saitou” is speaking to his boss. Turns out, this is an office of professional hitmen, and Saitou’s boss remarks that with his good nature, Saitou isn’t really cut out for this kind of work. The cross-dressing assassin, meanwhile, is after a new target: a detective. But when he arrives at the scene, the detective is already dead, his death ruled a suicide. News of the detective’s suicide reaches Banba, who isn’t exactly convinced of the suicide but lets it go. He receives a new assignment to investigate the mayor of Hakata, the town they live in. He cleverly deduces that one the mayor’s bodyguards is actually an assassin, and tells his client that he’s happy to investigate. We see the assassin get into a car with other respective killing professionals, and confirms what was already suspected, the detective’s death wasn’t a suicide, but a murder.

Banba is hot on the trail of this assassin, and with the help of his hacker friend, finds out her name, Hasakura Reiko, and that she works for “Redrum Inc.”, an assassin firm colloquially known as “Murder Inc.” We see Hasakura with some fellow assassins disposing of a body from another killing, brutally killed by a fair-haired bratty assassin with no respect for the rules. Unlike Reiko, this guy is sadistic, and his friends have been beating up foreigners to meet the challenge of their “King’s Game.”

Later, we find one of the victims at a mysterious bar, telling the bartender that he wants revenge and showing him the ID of one of his attackers, one “Murase Jun.” The bartender smiles and tells the man that his “Revenger” will be dispatched shortly. Back to Saitou, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, receiving his assignment to kill Murase Jun. His boss warns Saitou to be wary of the “Hitman Killer”, a hitman who only kills hitmen, who call himself the “Opportunistic Samurai.”

Meanwhile, Banba meets an old friend at a ramen shop, who has information about the murder of waiter. He, too, was killed by hitmen, and we see from his insufficient pay stub that Its the assassin from earlier who killed him. Banba’s detective friend runs into the hitman angrily talking to his boss on the phone and gets his ass beat when he tries to pick the assassin’s pocket. Saitou’s camped out in Jin’s apartment, getting ready to murder him, when the arrival of a man and a young girl at the door brings him out of hiding. All is well until the man sucker punches Saitou and ties him up with duct tape over his mouth. These two think Saitou is Murase Jin as well, and are here to enact revenge.

Our cross-dressing assassin goes to his client demanding full payment for his job. The man refuses but offers the assassin another job to get paid: kill Zenji Banba. And here we are back at the beginning. Banba comes across the assassin watching romance movies in his apartment and lunges at the assassin with a pre-emptive blow. But with coy smile and a swift block, the assassin tells Banba he’s decided to protect him instead.

Our Take:

This is a strange first episode of a show, and its left me with a lot of mixed feelings. The setup is interesting, and I like the idea of a city where assassination is a normal, everyday thing, but the execution of the premise is lacking. The show keeps cutting between different characters without revealing their names or enough information about them to make me care who they are. It’s often confusing, and unlike a show like Baccano or Durarara, the visual style and directing isn’t deliberate enough to make an ensemble cast work. Hopefully, things will get worked out over the next few episodes, but I’m not impressed so far.