Welcome to the Outcast’s Restaurant! Ep. 7
Dennis gets sick from overworking himself, which is surprisingly childish of him. Basically, Atelier’s newly inherited tomes of knowledge are attracting scholars left and right. Rather than doing the sensible thing of turning people away when your restaurant is at max capacity, Dennis insists on feeding everyone. Cue Atelier (still a stupid name) worrying herself to death. Cue everyone else trying to whip up okayu, aka rice porridge, because that’s what you do when someone gets sick. I’m not even trying to hate, because that’s literally what you do as an Asian person. Someone you love gets sick? RICE PORRIDGE. Unfortunately, Dennis has gathered a bunch of boy and girlfailures under his wing, so they can’t even make something so simple.
While Dennis is bedridden, we glimpses into his past. He started out as a street urchin, but because he did a good deed for a chef who just happened to be walking by, she proceeded to take him under her wing. Fast forward to adulthood, and now we see him paying it forward. Still, as a child, Dennis was rather rambunctious. He was making trouble for the kitchen, trying to whip up fried rice with magic he didn’t fully comprehend, etc — a far cry from the measured guy we see now.
Speaking of fried rice, Youtube has been recommending Uncle Roger’s fried rice videos to me constantly. I’m actually in the minority when it comes to fried rice; I’m one of the few Asians who doesn’t particularly care for the dish. Look, as a side item, I’d rather have white rice. And as a main item, well, fried rice just isn’t substantial enough. Yeah, it can have proteins like BBQ pork in it, but usually chopped up into teensy tiny pieces. If I eat meat, I want meat.
Anyway, this was a pretty lowkey episode overall. When we’re not delving into Dennis’s childhood, it’s just antics in the kitchen. Finally, Polvo shows up to get the plot moving by extolling the virtues of the humble rice cooker. Wow, did Uncle Roger write this episode?
You know what I hate though? Lemme get on my soapbox for a minute. I hate it when folks are anal about what ingredients to use in a dish. For example, pissing and moaning whenever someone uses ginger instead of galangal for a Thai dish. Sure, it’s not traditional. Sure, the flavor is slightly different. But so what? It’s not that deep, man. Like where do you draw the line? Your grandma’s traditional family recipe is probably a derived from something else — something that was traditional in her youth. I mean, do we really need to explain something as obvious as the fact that customs can change? Traditions can change? And as such, food can also change? The old ways aren’t going anywhere, so if someone wants to put chili jam in their fried rice, whatever. I mean, I’m not gonna eat it, but at the same time, it’s not a threat to the fried rice you eat whatsoever. It’s one man cooking fried rice; one man cooking it badly, but still just one man. It means nothing in the grand scheme of things. Trust me, your ancestors have better things to do than cry about Jaime Oliver.
In the end, Dennis gets better and that’s that.
Apocalypse Bringer Mynoghra Ep. 7
I honestly question why I still click on this show every time a new episode comes out. Nothing interesting ever happens. This week, our oh-so-evil dark lord plays games with a child in order to foster diplomatic relations with a nearby country…? City? Ah, who cares. This is apparently how you conquer the world, I suppose. Ideally, you want to have a show with interesting characters, fascinating world-building, humor that makes you laugh until you cry, gripping drama (political or otherwise), heart-fluttering romance, and thrilling battles if necessary. You rarely get that, but that’s the ideal. Most of the time, however, modern anime protagonists spend maybe two episodes struggling at the start of the series, then proceed to aura farm for the remainder of the season. I swear to god, Jinwoo broke a sweat maybe once in the entirety of the second season of Solo Leveling. Nevertheless, the only reaction I saw across the internet was “OMG, PEAK!” and “THIS IS CINEMA.” So pleasing people isn’t difficult. Randomly make the guy taller every few episodes and they’re like putty in your hands. And then there’s Takuto, who just kinda sits there, and… yeah…
My other problem with this anime is its conception of evil. Over and over again, Atou has to explain to outsiders that while yes, they are evil beings, they actually want peace! What the fuck do you think evil means? Do you even know what evil is? Do you think you can be evil without actually doing evil deeds? Conversely, do you think people can be good without actually doing good deeds?
Scooped Up by an S-Rank Adventurer! Ep. 7
This episode epitomizes why I dislike characters like Lloyd. When Lina, the tank from his former party, insists over and over that he was the reason behind their success, he whines on and on about how weak he is. “Nuh uh, I was kicked out ’cause I wasn’t good enough.” This is after weeks and weeks of his current party try to tell him how useful he’s been to them, so there has been no growth whatsoever. Then when the people of Ishtar try to praise him for saving the city, he books it. He literally runs away in fear. Afterwards, he has the gall to cry, “All I did was cast support magic!”
It’s not endearing nor is it funny. It’s just annoying. This is way more infuriating than all those aura farming, invincible jackasses in other shows. Either get help for your lack of self-worth, or just fuck off to whatever dark corner you wanna hide in.
If for some reason you care about the plot, Claire is actually a princess and our merry band of adventures need to escort her back to safety. And apparently, the demon lord might return, but meh, who cares? Lloyd will probably defeat him with just a sneeze, then proceed to cry himself to sleep over how weak he is.
Kaiju No. 8 Ep. 17
So this is pretty bog standard plotting for a shounen anime. They spent a couple episodes glazing Narumi’s squad. They were supposed to be this elite fighting team operating in near perfect synchronization, commanded by an even greater badass, a couple promising recruits had just joined, blah blah blah. All they needed was for Kafka to lock in. But then No. 9 swooped in and started wrecking shit left and right. To raise the stakes, we even sacrificed Isao at the altar of dead parents so Kikoru could be more than just your token tsundere female character. Gotta hammer home the idea that this isn’t all fun and games! This is some real shit, dawg! So on paper, everything should work. It’s not original, but it doesn’t need to be. And yet my reaction is still tepid.
At one point in the episode, a defeated Kafka is in tears as he does the classic move of staring up into the sky while stewing in a mixture of despair and self-loathing. He then sputters to a long gone No. 9, “Don’t you dare say that! Not while you’re wearing his face!” Again, on paper, that reads like an emotional line. But it sounds hollow coming out of his mouth, because I don’t feel any strong connection between him and Isao. Like c’mon, you haven’t adequately established that in just a handful of episodes. As a result, Kafka’s words fall flat. That’s the whole problem with this anime. If you step back and squint, and everything should work; the construction of this anime is theoretically sound. But the show is actually lesser than the sum of its parts. There’s no heart. Flat characters, unimaginative monster designs, slipshod pacing, so on and so forth.
Afterwards, we mourn for like a second, then get right back to training. “I GOTTA GET STRONGER,” screams the shounen character. And thus the shounen world turns.
