Sweetness and Lightning – 10
And then Tsumugi was scarred for life.
Something fishy is afoot in Sweetness and Lightning.
Cat Eats Fish
Shh, they’re communicating.
This week features the preparation of fresh fish and the return of best girl Shinobu. The episode starts with Tsumugi in a lethargic state, pretending to be a cat. But as the show progresses, she gradually returns to her usual energetic self. It’s all thanks to the spectacle of watching her father learning how to prepare and fillet fish, with Shinobu lending a helping hand along the way. Not only did the best girl play along with Tsumugi’s cat act to lift the little girl’s spirits, she also enabled Kouhei to learn the art of preparing fish by looking up instructional videos on her tablet even though none of the cooks in the kitchen had any prior experience. It just goes to show how convenient technology has made life today. If you don’t know how to do something, you can almost always find a tutorial online about the subject. Shinobu’s contribution here is her can-do attitude. Even when Kouhei and Kotori had given up on preparing the fish themselves and wanted to wait for Mrs. Iida to do the honors later in the evening, Shinobu pushed them to try it out and turned the situation into a learning experience.
Growing Up
D’aww
The episode also features a brief flashback to Tsumugi’s birth. When Tsumugi comments on how amazing it is to see the fresh fish gradually transform into food, Kouhei relates her sense of fear and wonder to his own experiences when his daughter was just born. It’s a nice connection and also a pretty cute scene, watching the usually composed Kouhei freaking out while holding his newborn daughter in his arms. All the while, the exhausted Mrs. Inuzuka is watching bemused and chuckling. The analogy is further extended when Kouhei notes that it’s the food that Tsumugi eats (like the fish he’s preparing) that gradually transforms her from a little toddler into a “big” girl. Taken as a whole, this segment is wonderful as it highlights how beautiful and awesome life is. After all, there is no greater joy for a parent than watching his child grow up. Yet at the same time, there is a recognition that this can only happen by sacrificing other life that becomes food for the growing child.
Yagi also makes an appearance as a sort of footnote to the episode when he shows up to turn the remaining scraps into fish bone senbei, which Tsumugi apparently loves. Anyway, the poor guy gets teased by Kotori and Shinobu when Kouhei unwittingly reveals that Yagi had been looking out for him since their days in school, which is how the guy learned to cook in the first place. Yagi’s ensuing flustered reaction made for a comedic finish, completing the episode’s transition from an initially subdued tone to a more light-hearted one by the end.
A happy meal.
About Sumairii
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Is it just me, or is it the more they show Mama, the more morose Tsumugi gets, like that is the way they get the audience closer to how the girl feels…it’s bittersweet in many ways.
As far as the food goes, I suddenly want to try chippy fish bones…
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I feel like this show is much more of a ‘cooking’ show than the other show that’s on now that’s ostensibly about cooking. This show just has a relevance and authenticity that is completely missing for me in Shounenkugeki no Souma, where the cooking takes a back seat to the draaaaama and posturing and the food just seems like word salad, but trust us it’s so awesome because these people said it is! Even though I’m certainly a better cook than Kotori or Kouhei, I like seeing that they talk about techniques like preparing a whole fish, and they also talk about much more basic Japanese flavors and combinations. It’s a nice window into culture and family as well, I think.