天下制覇

 

Carrying on the noble spatula fight.

Impressions:

I got tired of waiting again, so it’s another round of "Watch Anime On NicoNico!" And with Omni having dropped the show, I can now do as I please. If only I had any malevolent plans. Well, malevolent plans involving this show. I’m usually plotting something.

Not a terrible episode, but not a particularly good one either. The potential for Tsubaki’s relaxed attitude towards using her assassin training was a lot more interesting than Shu being a whiny little brat about not wanting to kill people. We already have a robot that occasionally wears a tutu filling that role, we don’t also need a Chinese assassin turned chef to double up on that role. I swear, so far Pierre’s the only recurring character in this series that hasn’t had some kind of horrible past, and now she’s (he’s? I’ve already forgotten) queen of the apes.

I did enjoy the random shot of Ginka in a dress that was more or less out of nowhere, but the real prize for me this episode was the closeup shot of the spatula. It brought back fond memories of Kitchen Discotheque and of course, their massive collection of spatulas in anime. I should start a spatula collection… or something. Or maybe just keep working on translating BMW. I made great progress today!

And that little aside shows about how engaging this episode was.

Ginka ED

A girl runs… but is cornered on a cliff. Elsewhere, a boy holds off three humanoid monsters. They jump to attack, but he beats them down. Someone congratulates him. It’s his father, who welcomes his son into the assassin clan and holds out a mask.

The son, Shu, shakes his head and declines. He’ll never kill. Unacceptable! Shu holds out his hand to the girl, his sister Tsubaki, and tells her that it’s time to go, her mother is waiting for her. Shu and Tsubaki walk off hand in hand, his father rushes them from behind. A torn mask flies into the air as he attacks.

A woman screams and a man collapses in a restaurant. Employee Shu can’t believe it.

The man sobs as they take him away in an ambulance. Tsubaki and Shu watch him go. An old man has to talk to them afterwards. It seems like a lot of people have been collapsing after they eat.

Tsubaki nearly kills him with the tea. It’s poisoned with a drug that forces him to obey her. She basically tells him that it’s all nothing and to go away, and he ends up wandering off in a stupor.

After he leaves, Shu tries to tell Tsubaki that what she did was wrong, but she’s not having any of it. Shu slams his hand on the table in anger, and it splits in half from the force of his blow.

A voice from behind surprises him. Shu recognizes it and throws a knife… spearing the creepy statue in the forehead. It’s his father. Shu’s happy to see him and goes to get him something to eat. His father’s not here for food. As the precious son, Shu’s got to live up to his familial obligations and he’s here to make sure Shu does that. The statue’s head splits in half as daddy’s laughter echoes through the store.

Flashback! Shu and Tsubaki found their mother. She’s extremely sick and dying. As she dies, she tells Shu that family is the most important thing in the world.

Back in the present, Shu doesn’t really know what she meant as he mopes in the storage locker. Tsubaki interrupts his thoughts, but Shu says that he’ll stay true to not wanting to ever kill anybody and wanting to see smiles. Tsubaki tells him that she’ll deal with things then and leaves.

At school, Yuuka is putting stuff away. A classmate comes up to her and Yuuka calls him the wrong name, but then turns on the sparkly smile to win him back. ANYWAY, want to walk home together? Yuuka’s fine with that, but Tsubaki, in the creep statue’s head has her own plans. When the boy starts getting uppity about being cockblocked, Tsubaki puts a pair of needles into his hand and calls him a worthless monkey. She then drags Yuuka off.

Actually, Tsubaki knows all about Yuuka’s amusing family and that Yuuka’s not a transforming robot who fights an evil lion. The truth is, she wants them to save her brother.

In the restaurant, Tsubaki adds some horrible insects to a pot while Shu mopes like a doofus.

 "OPEN UP!" screams out some kind of megalomaniacal catgoddess before kicking down the door. Ouka smacks her for the wanton property damage and then noogies her head as further punishment while Kyouka shrieks.

The rest of the family comes in. Kyouka introduces them… broadly speaking. They all order food, but it’s somewhat strange. Shu offers to bring them a menu. Kyouka demands he obey, but Ouka interrupts and lets him know that his sister invited them.

Shu follows Tsubaki into the storage area, but she’s not sharing what’s up. He just prepares the food and the Midarezaki fight over the dinner begins. Well, not really…

Everybody waits for someone else to try it first, except for Iron-Stomach Yuuka, who is struggling to pull her chopsticks apart.

Kyouka and Ouka argue abot which one of them is supposed to test the food first. Hyouka ends up taking the first bite and confirms that it’s not poisonous in any way. She starts scarfing it down until Kyouka snatches a piece away. She eats it, but then passes out. It’s too hot. A cat’s tongue is sensitive to hot things after all. Actually, it was really good aside from that.

Shu is thrilled! See, he can get by without being a killer.

There’s a crash. Chika has passed out. Her spirit leaves her body. Kyouka immediately assumes foul play and orders the family to attack. She tries to kick Shu, but he easily blocks it. "Just as expected from a trained killer."

Tsubaki rushes in and claims that Shu isn’t a killer. Sure, they were trained to kill, but he wants to see smiles, not kill anybody.

Chika gets up and tells the rest to wait. She’s not hurt at all. She splashes some tabasco on the fish and takes another bite. This time it’s a little spicy, but she understands now. This isn’t food a human should eat.

FLASHBACK. Tsubaki and Shu’s mother cooks for them. She always did the cooking and made sure it was reaaaaaally tasty.

Shu wakes up and flips through the recipes.

Tsubaki jolts him out of his morning crap to… uh… pull him into some kind of strange Chinese acting theater to explain things about how they’re going to help. Shu is just too well trained in killing and it’s ‘leaking’ into the rest of his life.

Plan #1! Kyouka outfits Shu with massive weights on his arms and legs to ease his killer abilities. They pull in the old man from the start of the episode as the experiment. Kyouka crams the food down his throat. He turns crazy with how delicious it is and blasts energy all over the place before exploding.

JUST AS KYOUKA THOUGHT WOULD HAPPEN. There’s nothing to do by keep increasing the weights! More people explode.

Time for something else. This time, magnetic weights that constrict him.

Pierre’s the next experiment, along with all her apes. There’s even uh… some kind of crazy other animal family there too.

At some point, Ginka changed into a chinese dress. This isn’t really important, I just felt it worth mentioning.

Shu and Tsubaki serve everybody. Shu’s smiling and happy about everything. Even if they’re not humans, it’s alright because they’re all having fun. Shu thinks that he finally understands his mother’s words.

As Shu closes the restaurant, his father is waiting outisde to confront him. His father comes in for some ramen. Shu asks him about their mother’s cooking. As it turns out, she was a super genius with food.

There was a problem though. Apparently she was true to her assassin roots. Shu and Tsubaki deny it vehemently and pelt their dad with various implements.

Kyouka busts in to break up the family argument. She’s been rooting around in the private things and has found the mother’s recipe book. It contains a simple message about love and food. JUST AS EXPECTED.

The father can’t believe it, which means that we get the obligatory FAMILY IS GREAT speech from her for the episode. Shu has one more thing for his father. A soup taught to him by his mother, one of his father’s favorites.

He hands it to his father. Kyouka provides more random exposition explaining why everybody was exploding and passing out… Shu’s cooking and senses were just so sharp and accurate that his food was JUST THAT DAMN GOOD.

Shu’s father leaves, thanking them for everything and saying that they’re part of the family again.

Some days later, the restaurant is busy. Everybody’s visiting. Hyouka and Gekka steal Kyouka’s food. Shu’s found happiness with his family and his life.

Preview:

The love of Ouka’s life… a death god?