I see nothing wrong with this bento. Schoolgirls can be too fussy.
- This week I felt like I was in the same shoes as Ryo’s classmates. I wasn’t completely impressed this week, mostly because of the theme. Other fillers have had something substantial at the very least. There was the library/40-year-old convenience store guy ep, there was the bathroom/bringing out Kirin’s other appetite ep, and only last week did we have Kirin and Shiina making saury for Ryo. So having field day and making a ‘special’ bento episode seemed to really pale in comparison. We were provided with many heart-warming flashbacks of Ryo and her grandma, and Kirin pleading to make some food (even though she should learn by now that she can’t cook at all!), but I wasn’t moved in the slightest. It kind of makes me sad too, since Koufuku Graffiti has been consistently good over the space of time. Now, out of nowhere, an incredibly mediocre filler comes and bites us. Then again, I suppose something like this would happen anyway. I mean name one show that doesn’t have any slightly mediocre episodes…
- The focus seemed to be on Ryo: how much she was dreading the school field day, how much she was fretting over her bento, etc, but I actually thought that Kirin played the larger role. She wanted to whip her wife into shape, and make her a better person. I guess you could say this leads on to last week’s episode; Kirin has finally figured out that she’s become a freeloader who makes Ryo make her food. So now she’s on a total guilt trip, and wants to pay her back. Even if her results turn out to be disgusting.
- Kirin sure knows how to manipulate her BFF.
- But one thing that has now got to me is how others around Ryo look at her while she’s ‘expressing her love’ of the food she eats. The average person (here in this episode, pictured as Ryo’s classmates) may well just eat the bento their parents give them for lunch and not think twice. This week may well be the most filler of fillers so far, but here we can see that as someone who is super-passionate about food (complimenting every single aspect and how each tiny little taste blends together so well) appreciates the not-so-great bento Kirin made her. It might not entirely have been the fact that it tasted gross, or that someone special to Ryo made it for her, but perhaps that Ryo’s own taste buds are so attuned to everything and anything, she can’t seem to notice any bad food at all. I mean 8 episodes through: have we ever seen her go ‘yuk!’ at something she eats?
- We’ll certainly miss the food porn once this anime season is over. I think this season has surprised me; I was always so cautious about the beginning of the year, preferring the spring and fall seasons instead. But shows like this, Yuri Kuma Arashi and Saekano have, I think, reaffirmed me. I’ve already decided my spring show to review (it’s not a SHAFT show, by the way!!). Christmas and the new year will most certainly be the topic of choice at the end of the show; I mean come on, I think some of the followers are secretly looking forward to the three girls chewing away at Christmas sweets and eating melted chocolate very very slowly.
They had to say this eventually…
- But I have to say that I was surprised that SHAFT had to turn to old hat food jokes…
