I’ll state right off the bat that, if you were to skip this episode of Blue Exorcist, your overall understanding of the series would in no way be compromised. It’s filler in the true sense of the word – anime-original, and seemingly quite irrelevant to the overall story. But for what it was, it was entertaining enough.

A straight-up comedy episode, we were treated to some laughs with Yuuki’s harem. We got to see Rin’s cooking skills, apparently a mechanism of a youthful desire to win his father’s praise. Unfortunately, his invasion of the dorm kitchen – remember, only he and Yuuki are staying in the old dorm – pisses off the familiar, Ukobach, that Mephisto has summoned to cook for the boys? Why did he do that, given that there are only two of them? You should know better than to ask that kind of question.

In any case, this leads to a kind if Iron Chef battle with Rin and Ukobach, and eventually to Yuuki’s harem in a stew pot. We also got Rin calling Yuuki a “spotty four-eyes”. Eventually Rin and Ukobach come to a kind of understanding, which is a good thing since he gets only 2000 yen a month from Mephisto for living expenses. Yuuki gets his comeuppance for once, forced to eat all the lunches the harem made for him and driven to his sickbed in the process.

If you’re getting the idea that all this is pretty much vestigial, you’re on the right track. I’m not sure if there was any larger purpose to any of it and by no means did all of the humor work, but it was certainly an enjoyable enough ep for the most part.