Muteki Kanban Musume

"Onimaru Style... Burial Technique!"

The title translates as: Invincible Poster Girl

The Onimaru Chinese Restaurant is located in the small Hanami Town Shopping District. On its side is the Yaoguro produce store, and across the street is the Huet Bakery. Having a day in this little shopping district that could be described as "normal" is unlikely.

Miki Onimaru, the poster girl for the Onimaru Restaurant, is both easily distracted and overly violent. Megumi Kannazuki, the owner of the bakery, puts on a sweet face to the public and hides a cruel personality within. Miki's mother is heavy on the Tough Love, Kankuro Nishiyama is a man constantly looking for a fight, and there's a rough guard dog named Toshiyuki a few blocks down. Akihiko Ohta, the owner of Yaoguro, is the sanest person on the show, and even he has a wild side. These are their stories.

The series, which is known as Ramen Fighter Miki in America, originally aired in the summer of 2006. The original manga, which ran for 17 volumes, got a 5-volume sequel called Muteki Kanban Musume Napalm, in which the cast is extended by the employees of the Tekkotsudo megastore, which threatens the shopping district.

"Akihiko: "Have all the wounds Miki left you with yesterday healed already?" Kankuro: "I only had eight broken ribs, nya.""
 * Adult Child -- Miki and Megumi are both twenty years old, but look like in their mid-teens and act like they're less than half their age... and very violent ones, at that, too.
 * Angry Guard Dog -- Toshiyuki, the Endo family's dog.
 * Bait and Switch Credits -- The opening of the show looks several times more serious than the actual content it precludes.
 * Battle Royale With Cheese -- In one episode, Miki and Megumi are trapped in an empty area surrounded with tall buildings and they cannot get out. Later on... Akihiko, Kankuro and Toshiyuki join the trap. The only way out is a steel ladder, but too high for them and they need to build a base to make themselves higher. How they do they find that? Beating each other is the only way.
 * Bitch in Sheep's Clothing -- Megumi, whose bitchy side Miki frequently tries to expose.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: "It's the first episode and the heroine is puking."
 * Calling Your Attacks -- Spoofed in the first episode. Miki calls the name of the attack she isn't using to defeat a criminal.
 * Chronic Hero Syndrome -- Miki is either easily distracted by wanting to help somebody out or beat somebody up. Sometimes both.
 * Cooking Duel -- Frequently, usually between Miki and Megumi, though sometimes it can escalate to Melee a Trois when Kankuro gets involved, and just as frequently becomes a four way fight with Toshiyuki.
 * Credits Running Sequence
 * Cut Lex Luthor a Check -- This happens on a much smaller scale with Kankuro. After episode upon episode of putting all his energy into beating Miki, the one time he tries an honest day's work, the shop does better than usual.
 * Dark Horse Victory -- Miki and Megumi are having a life-and-death battle over a stuffed pig, and Kayahara-sensei wins it (plus a big screen TV) over both of them. In another instance, Wakana ends up snatching a win from Miki, Megumi and Kayahara.
 * Dating Catwoman -- Kankuro and Miki. Sort of. See One Dialogue, Two Conversations.
 * Debut Queue -- Akihiko, Miki, and her mother are all introduced in the first episode. The cast slowly builds with each of the following shorts until Megumi, Wakana Endou, Toshiyuki, Kankurou, and Kayahara-sensei have all been introduced.
 * Delinquents -- Besides being frequent victims of Miki's, one episode features a student trying to be a delinquent, but Kayahara's face scared him away from attending school. Until he sees her smiling and falls in love. She seems mostly unaware.
 * The Eeyore -- Kayahara-sensei, who exudes a regular aura of depression with very few exceptions.
 * Face Fault
 * Face of a Thug -- Kayahara-sensei is a female version of this. Unless she's eating a good meal, her normal face frightens children, small animals and Megumi. She gets mistaken for a certain ghost when Miki (and later Megumi) first meets her.
 * Gag Series -- It's the closest anime equivalent to Tom and Jerry yet.
 * Genre Savvy -- Akihiko displays some degree of savviness about the series, but it doesn't do much for his survival.
 * Ghost in the Machine -- Akihiko's Evil side and his Good side fight an intense inner battle that only plastic figures of Starranger's two predecessors can snap him out of.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!
 * Miki is Liru
 * Megumi is Kallen
 * Kankurou is Guy Shishio
 * Akihiko would later go on to be Alto Saotome
 * Wakana would later rise to fame as Saki
 * Hot-Blooded -- Kankuro is ridiculously so. Unfortunately for him, it usually involves him wanting to beat up Miki, then getting beaten up. He should use his energy in a more effective manner. Of course, considering his seiyuu...
 * Miki is pretty Hot-Blooded herself.
 * Hot for Student -- Averted. One of Kayahara's students falls for her, but she doesn't seem to be aware of this, other than being happy he's going to back to school.
 * Hot Shonen Mom -- Partially averted, in that Miki's mom Makiko was quite beautiful in the flashbacks; the monumental stress of raising a daughter as exasperating as Miki no doubt bloated her into the way she is today.
 * I Have the High Ground -- Miki, in the opening.
 * I Was Quite a Looker: Makiko, Miki's mother.
 * Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy -- Despite all the training she went through, Megumi hardly ever manages to hit Miki with her skewers.
 * Improbable Weapon User -- Megumi uses hot dog skewers, after first learning how to throw blackboard chalk with high precision.
 * In Vino Veritas -- When Miki gets drunk, she does a complete Personality Inversion, turning into a Yamato Nadeshiko who despises violence and can fight only by instinct. Megumi has her violent side shown to the public only when she's drunk.
 * Killer Rabbit -- Toshiyuki, the Endo family's guard dog, looks harmless. But he has a mouth like a shark and the fighting skills to match even Miki.
 * Limited Social Circle -- Once the primary cast is introduced, the only people they seem to encounter besides each other are the customers at their stores.
 * Magic Skirt
 * Mean Character, Nice Actor: In-universe. The actress who plays "Hell's Bunny" in Star Rangers is a nice girl outside the camera, and is even friends with the actress who plays "Star Pink".
 * Noblewoman's Laugh -- Megumi's.
 * Not Distracted by the Sexy -- At least by the people of the district. In one episode, Megumi tries to appeal to male customers to come to her bakery by dressing up in a sexy dress. It ends up failing when Miki dresses up as a clown and ends up attracting a lot of children (and their families by consequence).
 * Not So Above It All -- Akihiko is the voice of reason most of the time, but when it involves Starranger, even he can snap.
 * One Dialogue, Two Conversations -- Wakana interprets Kankuro's constant challenges to Miki as a sign that he loves her, and tries to offer him dating advice. He thinks she's offering him tips on how to uncover Miki's weakness and beat her in a fight. Kankuro still follows Wakana's advice to the (love) letter, and Hilarity Ensues.
 * Princess Curls -- Megumi sports a variation that also falls under Anime Hair. She has a very large curl on the back of her head.
 * Rapunzel Hair -- Megumi.
 * Real Men Wear Pink -- Kankuro has once worn the exact same outfit as Miki -- skirt and all -- and once worn a frilly Victorian dress, both times to match Miki. Neither was very successful.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni -- Red to Miki and blue to Megumi
 * The Rival -- Megumi, also Toshiyuki in Miki's opinion.
 * Sentai -- Akihiko has his crazy moments whenever Starranger is involved. So much as mentioning the show makes him think that he's Red Star.
 * Turns out in the manga sequel that he loves every sentai show. It even notes that his craziness will be at its peak at the last episode, then move on the next series.
 * Searanger from the sequel is strange parody of sentai -- all five members are different tones of blue.
 * Shipper on Deck -- Wakana tries to get Kankuro and Miki together. Hilarity Ensues.
 * Shop Keeper: Miki's mother (ramen restaurant), Megumi (bakery and lunchroom) and Akihiko (greengrocer).
 * Shout-Out -- Every episode begins with a spoof of the MGM Studios lion roar, with Miki in place of the lion.
 * Let's not forget Kayahara-sensei's constant (unintentional) spoofing of Sadako.
 * Slapstick
 * Spelling Song -- Kankuro's Image Song, which consists entirely of him spelling his name in various ways so that Miki can remember who he is.
 * Spoof Aesop -- "Having a pure heart and being able to ride a dog have nothing in common."
 * Squeaky Eyes
 * Sweat Drop
 * Timmy in a Well -- When Wakana ends up flung into a garbage truck, Toshiyuki goes to inform Miki.
 * Token Mini-Moe -- Wakana
 * Trademark Favorite Food -- Kayahara-sensei loves the ramen from Onimaru. It's the only thing that makes her smile in a non-creepy way.
 * Two Shorts -- Though the two shorts always share a similar theme.
 * Unexplained Recovery -- Kankuro, mostly.


 * Unknown Rival -- Kankuro Nishiyama repeatedly challenges Miki to a fight, but never wins. She can never remember his name either.
 * We Want Our Jerk Back -- When Miki's mother starts acting nice to her following the advice of a Coincidental Broadcast, Miki wants her old mother back immediately. The sentiment is equal when the drunken, nicer Miki appears.
 * Yamato Nadeshiko: Miki acts like one when she's drunk
 * Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?? -- Miki's mother fears nothing. Except spiders.
 * Verbal Tic -- Kankuro adds "~nya" to the end of his sentences. Odd in that he's a male character that does this.
 * Waif Fu -- Miki looks like she wouldn't pose a threat, but she's undoubtedly the strongest person in the district... Except for her mother, and (possibly) Toshiyuki.