Jitsu wa Watashi wa – 08
It all ends horribly…
Everything’s a cooking show these days, isn’t it?
Curry Worry
So much for the cake…
One thing I like about Jitsu wa Watashi wa is the way that it continues to bring the main characters together in fairly organic ways. And part and parcel to this is that our main characters – Youko, Nagisa, Shiho, Mikan, and Akane – are all not just strange beings, but that they’re misfits. Even if Youko is the most ‘normal’ of the group, she’s just not in tune with what’s going on. If they were to all team up and listen to each other, they could probably operate just fine as a group. Or if they’d all just listen to Asahi (and Akari-sensei), they’d all operate just fine. The problem is that they don’t listen to Asahi and his common sense. Heck, if Nagisa listened to her second thoughts, “the thoughts you think about the way you think”, she’d do fine. But she listens to her first thoughts, which get her in trouble. And Youko’s problem is that she listens to Nagisa’s first thoughts as well. Shiho actually does seem to have the ability to listen to Asahi, but that loses out when she listens to her animal and pervert instincts.
Shiho throws her two… cents… in.
And this misfitness is what lands our group in make up classes for home ec, trying to cook curry. Trying to stave off disaster, Akari makes Asahi join in to try to rein in the worst instincts of the others, and for the most part it works. Unfortunately the results aren’t based on ‘the most part’, and Nagisa’s regrets that they haven’t stretched their limits persuade Youko to let things go all pear-shaped when they’re in sight of their goal. Once again, I really liked the shifting of the groups of opinion throughout the scene, as first Asahi and Youko are in sync, but then Youko shifts to Nagisa’s side, and Shiho and Asahi realize that things are slipping away from them fast. Of course, things get terrible, and the curry gets ruined, but thankfully everyone lives.
So close, and yet so far
Chocolate to Save the World
*splort*
There’s further cooking shenanigans going on, as Akane threatens to destroy the world with a demonically-controlled asteroid unless she gets more of Nagisa’s accidentally-made chocolate cake. But this time, Nagisa’s obstinacy enables Akari to get a little revenge on her great-great-great-…-grandmother. Realizing that Akane’s going to lose control of the asteroid if her concentration wavers, Akari encourages the others to give the worst possible chocolate to Akane. A rotten banana from Shiho, curry flavored chocolate from Youko, and some of Mikan’s infamous choux-creme, along with many unspeakable others which finally finish off Akane and save the earth from her asteroid.
It’s Mikan’s turn now
I like that there are still characters learning about other characters. Like Shiho not knowing about Nagisa being an alien, or Nagisa not knowing about Akane being a demon. It keeps the idea that Asahi is not telling about the other’s secrets in the back of our mind without making it be an obvious thing that they keep coming back to. And that helps make the way they’re bringing the characters together into a group a lot more believable. I am waiting to see Nagisa maybe blow up more at Shiho, although she’s blamed Asahi for Shiho’s antics more than Shiho herself. I don’t know how far the show is getting in the manga, but it’s settled into a nice pattern of gags that builds on the relationships and extends them. And just to mention it: that was a good use of the Shokugeki no Souma-derivative reactions by Akane.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
It’s a very fine art, the use of ellipses (…no, not these ellipses…) and few creators take the time to employ it. But, in this show, does it make the concept they pushed on Asahi in the first episode heavy handed as a result?
As for cooking shows, I think we are just very sensitive to them right now, for some reason or other. Prisma Illya had one last series after all, and that’s just the top of my head…
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I don’t think it was heavy-handed, really. I think that there is truth to it, and that Asahi definitely has trouble resisting pressure by others. But I think that we frequently find that the trait that they try to saddle the main character with in the first episode isn’t necessarily what defines him, and we see that here. And it gives us the happiness that we see our main character not failing.
I was mostly just talking about cooking shows for effect. Although it’s undeniable that this show used the homage to Shokugeki no Souma, not just a generic cooking episode.
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Not pettan enough. /ignore.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Now I want to try a chocolate cake with curry spice in it. I suppose I could always bake one myself.