- So what’s this week’s dose about? Summer break at Shiina’s house-that-looks-like-it-is-in-the-middle-of-Japan-but-is-in-fact-probably-downtown-Tokyo. This was another one of those SHAFT episodes where just normal everyday things end up getting spun around; in this case, it was finally going to Shiina’s home, meeting the maid, and Kirin gets to tick everything she wanted to do over the summer in one whole day. It’s probably just me being completely cynical; after all every summer break episode of a show, eating nice food, doing atypical Japanese things, and doing fireworks seems to all be crammed into one 25-minute part. No doubt in a few episodes time, the obligatory 25-minute Xmas episode will turn up, and no guesses on what Ryo, Kirin and Shiina will give each other for Xmas…
- Yeah, I know that I can be as sarcastic and cynical as Daria. My friends and family tell me that frequently.
- We’re about halfway through the show now, and I’m liking it a lot. The excessive food porn has just become something I’ve gotten used to now in the show, reaching beyond the point where we’re just anticipating what Ryo, Kirin and Shiina will be eating slowly and with great happiness. The three of them have now become incredibly solid, and we don’t have to rely on solely watching the food anymore. But yeah, even while we’re halfway through, there is a lot of things that have been in probably every episode, only I haven’t picked on them. One massive one is Kirin’s insatiable appetite, something that’s definitely shown here. She crams food and rice and noodles in her mouth at an incredibly speed, I worry a lot about her weight.
“And here is how you make sauce…”
- SHAFT have also decided to break the fourth wall now. Is it a smart idea? Personally yes. Why? Because while listening to Ryo as she prepares food and tastes it and sounds (and acts) like she’s in heaven, it’s also refreshing to see both Ryo and Kirin actually look at the camera (and into the viewers’ very soul), and show them what they plan to do and how adding this, that and the other will make the meal even more delicious. I would normally moan and groan, saying that Ryo has suddenly decided to be a TV chef for the Food Network, but this time I’m not.
You’d think Kirin would watch where she’s cutting…
- But as I seem to pounce on fillers when I review shows, I did take time to look back and think. Animation studios do need to make risk-free episodes after all, or ones where the overall plot can be slightly put aside, and yet the episode will still be memorable, and thus make the show more entertaining. SHAFT is not really Ghibli or Pixar, who seem to rely on taking risks when it comes to making their movies; they can get away with making good slice-of-life shows that have the touch. This episode certainly shows it. While last week involved Ryo being stuck home alone and having only a trip to the local library as an activity, this week the yuri couple get to visit Shiina’s massive estate, they get to meet the kawaii mom, they get to meet Homura Akemi in disguise, and more importantly, they get to eat something especially suited to summer and slurp the entire lot slowly and loudly while us viewers are left knowing that while the show is food pornography, it does have a good plot and good solid characters.
- So nothing to worry about whatsoever, and I think the second half will consist of only very enjoyable fillers like this one (as well as last week’s one), but of episodes where we can sit and think about the characters themselves. While we already knew about Kirin’s overbearing mom, who cooks terribly, and now we know about Shiina’s kawaii and overprotective mom, perhaps we’ll hear more about Ryo’s mom. She’s away working, sure (like every anime character’s parent does), so maybe she’ll come home in the end. Or maybe instead Ryo’s aunt will just keep cropping up more and more. She loves eating slowly too.
And drinking water is now a thing.
