- Interesting how the word ‘filler’ is thrown around here and there…says me, who uses it all the time. This week’s dose wasn’t one, since we actually know more about Ryo and her past. You’d think it as a filler, but…I don’t know. Maybe half one. Yeah, half one might be the better term.
- This is another episode that reflects on Ryo’s current state. With Kirin being away with her parents and Shiina out of action with a cold, Ryo’s left to squander and feel depressed at home, even admitting that eating is no fun whatsoever when you’re eating by yourself. Since having the cute little muffin coming over every weekend has turned into the norm now, Ryo can’t really think of anything else. But it was certainly a turn up for the books when we found out that her grandma couldn’t cook from the beginning, and had to turn to the local library to learn, just so she could make her precious granddaughter happy. This week has definitely turned a little more serious: less food erotica and more food for thought.
- However I did find it a little odd Ryo suddenly realized at the end of the episode that cooking is better when it comes from the heart. I thought that that was established from episode 1. I mean, there she was, making food for Kirin when she stopped over — food that somehow influenced the two of them to become very close friends in the space of a weekend.
- I want my corner store like Ryo’s though, as mine’s is tiny and the items are overpriced, while in Koufuku Graffiti, it’s massive, everything’s available, and of course we can’t not talk about the store clerk:
Walmart only hires teenagers unfortunately.
- And what can I see from this shot? Pringles, cup noodles of all sorts of flavors, Minute Maid orange juice, tub ice cream, cream liqueur, expensive wine, and even more expensive champagne. Something like this makes us all want to live in the anime world instead of the real world, which sucks. But don’t forget we can’t call the store Walmart or Lawson or whatever. It’ll turn into something odd-sounding, like…I don’t know…I mean you only have to look at all the anime McDonald’s clones.
- But I do have to tell you something: Kirin has just become cuter and cuter as the show keeps going. She’s the same age as Ryo, but for her it’s some kind of regression: behaving younger and cuter and more adorable. It’s the seiyuu that helps as well: Asuka Oogame. She played the female protagonist of another SHAFT moe show that is actually one of my favorite slice-of-life shows: Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko. In that, she came across as such a shy character at first, but it was her cousin who helped her come out of her shell (in her case, her futon) and scream out to the world in that amicable moe voice we all know.
- As our fine editor can tell you, I can’t stop bringing up SHAFT, but this show genuinely is surprising me. Like I said when I started this, I didn’t choose this purely because of the studio, I chose it because of how interesting and quirky it sounded. Yes it reminds me so much of Hidamari Sketch (quite possibly the best slice-of-life show ever); that’s a good thing of course, but these two shows have so many differences too…the excessive amount of food porn mostly being one of them. Is that a good thing? Well that’s a matter of opinion, I think; maybe it’ll turn into something annoying and dull as each episode passes.
