COMIC BOOK REVIEW: Noodle Boy Book 1
Raves
Rants
Paolo Herras and Tepai Pascual manages to make something as trivial as eating noodles into an amusing story about love and romance.
“Have you ever felt like an empty bowl of noodles? Once upon a time you’re filled with something. Then suddenly, you’re just a bowl full of nothing.” Paolo Herras and Tepai Pascual manages to make something as trivial as eating noodles into a story about love and romance.
Noodle Boy is a story of a girl named Ayumi, whose dream is to become a great noodle chef. But it seems that will be a long road to success, as her noodles currently taste terrible up to the point where the consumer pukes it out. There’s also another character named Carlo, a heartbroken cosplayer just going through his mundane everyday life who also happens to love eating noodles. And as fate would have it, the two meet in the most uncomfortable way possible.
A love story can only be so good as its characters, as a big chunk of romance plots relies heavily on the characters who are about to fall in love with each other. Paolo Herras does a great job in developing the two main characters, Carlo and Ayumi. Although some aspects of the characters and the circumstances of their inevitable meeting are very much cliche, Herras gives them enough personality to make them interesting. This is especially noticeable in the development of Ayumi towards the end of the book.
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Probably the biggest negative this book has is its dragging pacing. The whole first half of the book is guilty of this, a lot of unnecessarily long sequences that stretches scenes too much, and not helping advance the plot in any way. One scene that comes to mind is the maids’ fight scene in an anime convention. An action scene was stretched out into several pages, resulting in the suffering of the story. On the flipside, that particular scene showcased Tepai Pascual’s talent in drawing beautiful splash pages and sequential art. However, the comic would be served well by toning down a bit on the inks.
Love stories, when you analyze it to its core, are all pretty much the same. However in this instance, Paolo Herras and Tepai Pascual adds an amusing catalyst to this story in the form of love for noodles.