Sweetness and Lightning – 05
Kotori’s gonna take you home!
Donuts and Kidnapping is the new name of this show.
Stranger Danger
A loved girl.
This week in Sweetness and Lightning, we are introduced to Yagi, Kouhei’s friend from high school. He’s the blond gentlemen that we’ve always seen in the opening, and it turns out Kouhei calls upon him every once in a while to look after Tsumugi. The first half of the episode involves a humorous misunderstanding, in which Kotori happens upon Tsumugi and her caretaker, and mistakes Yagi for a kidnapper. The standard hijinks ensue, with Kotori spying on the duo and eventually blowing her cover when she thinks Yagi is offering Tsumugi a cigarette. It turns out to be just a choco-cigarette, though the propriety of the snack is still questionable as it can instill an acceptance of cigarettes in children at a young age. In any case, I am glad to see that Kouhei has someone else he can count on to help take care of his daughter. And I hope that Yagi will have more screen time in the future, as it was a breath of fresh air to see Tsumugi simultaneously spoiled and teased by the family friend.
Mr. Donuts
Shinobu would be jealous.
The food topic of this week turns out to be donuts, which Tsumugi had on her mind as she was pondering whether they are considered a snack or a meal. I think this also marks the first time that Kouhei and Kotori have messed up in preparing a dish together, as they end up accidentally burning the first batch of donuts when they forget to check the temperature of the oil before frying the dough. Despite their mistake, the novice chefs are able to pull through on the second batch of donuts, with finger-licking success. And of course, no episode of Sweetness and Lightning is complete without a few touching moments. So to round things off, Tsumugi finally comes to the realization that donuts are just something happy that she eats on days off with her father, her declaration of which brings the fellow in question to tears for just a brief moment.
There were a few other touching moments in this episode, such as Yagi’s proclamation that kids grow up so quickly and Kouhei’s time with Tsumugi in the photo-booth, all in all giving the episode the warm and fuzzy feeling that I’ve come to associate with the show. So I’m happy to say that Sweetness and Lightning continues to march on steadily we approach the half-way point of the season.
They grow up so fast.
About Sumairii
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
..most children dismiss smoking cause it smells awful, not cause they want chocolate fake-cigarette-looking cylinders…or something like that…
I really like Yagi as well. Some deft scripting and direction for him as he was able to show concern above and beyond his support without monologuing about it.
POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
I remember there was some controversy over a possible link between chocolate cigarettes and smoking. Here’s a related story from a quick search. Take it how you will…
http://www.livescience.com/1635-study-links-candy-cigarettes-smoking.html
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
I remember that as a child we had candy cigarettes and licorice pipes. I never took up smoking although I’m sure most of my contemporaries did, but I think that had a lot more to do with seeing adults smoking and wanting to be seen as adult than it did with candy cigarettes and licorice pipes.
Maybe in Japan they see nothing wrong with chocolate cigarettes. I believe smoking there isn’t frowned upon the way it generally is here nowadays.
Yagi looks to be a great character and I hope we see more of him. Both the OP and ED feature him so I think we will.