I’ll give credit to Shoushimin Series for this. If you’re going to adopt a highly unconventional narrative structure, it usually only works if you’re fully committed to it. Go big or go home – and in terms of whatever this is, Shoushimin is going big. I hate to dredge up the Seinfeld comparison again, but it fits. That show worked best when it fully embraced its groundbreaking ethos – “The Parking Garage”, et al. When it got more conventional (especially in the last couple of seasons) it really lost something. This isn’t nearly as good, obviously – but it did get the memo.
Now, if I may diverge (because I have to talk about something)… It so happens that the best dessert I’ve ever had (and I’ve had some good ones) was a charlotte. I couldn’t tell you the name of the place but it was at a casual bistro in Paris, which can provide some of the best bang for buck cuisine in the world. When you order the plat de jour you get a choice of usually 2-3 appetizers, mains, and desserts for a very cheap price. Add a carafe of the always-decent house wine for a few Euros and you’re eating well for a pittance. At one of those meals I chose a chocolate charlotte, and it was unbelievably great. I’ve had some amazing desserts in my time but this – this was special.
Of course I was put in mind of this with charlottes being the MacGuffins (MacMuffins?) of this episode. Now, I don’t go for these frou-frou fruity ones – plain chocolate for me. But watching Jougarou enjoy that charlotte, I tell you, I felt it. It can’t have been accidental that the whole thing was played like he was having a truly orgiastic experience, right down to the aftermath. I almost expected him to light a cigarette. I don’t know if this whole “I don’t like sweets” is a cinnamacho thing he’s doing or a front because his family has a sweets shop, or whether it’s really true and this cake was just that good.
The “mystery”, such as it was, was Jougarou trying to fool Yuki into thinking there were only two charlottes to begin with. Yes, it was so good it drove him to crime. It was pretty clever of her to lamp to it just from him switching from his handkerchief to a napkin for wiping sweat (I mean, a stretch if we’re honest but it’s all in fun), but truthfully this was a trifle among trifles. Still, it was a fun episode – these two are cute together in their weird way. And it was certainly hilarious that the shop was called “JEFFBECK“. Either an in-joke I’m not seeing, or Yonezawa-sensei just really likes Jeff Beck. And hey, either way is cool with me.
Nicc
August 20, 2024 at 7:49 amTo follow up on the previous episode, this one also seemed to be about desserts. The “Seinfeld” comparison works well here again. It starts out with the two of them going to a summer festival, but that’s only the prologue. Osanai has got a plan for summer vacation, a summer full of desserts. There are lot of places that she wants to hit up. “Hungry Like the Wolf” has a different meaning here.
Osanai can’t make it for the first spot and so it’s up to Kobato to pick up the stuff on a sweltering summer day. Right, the name is either an in-joke from somewhere or the author is just a big fan. He’s got a song called, “Ice Cream Cakes”, but there wasn’t any of that in Osanai’s order. The bounty in question are three charlottes and two mango puddings. She wanted four charlottes, but only three were left and the pateserrie wasn’t making any more that day. This episode would have ended early if they opened everything and ate the desserts on the spot.
However, Osanai had a phone call to take and he’s left alone with the desserts. He decides to remove them from packaging and help himself to one one of the charlottes. I’ve never had that one before, but Kobato was very clearly enjoying it. Right, he has mentioned that he doesn’t have a sweet tooth and is always eating less then Osanai, but he was really going at it. I really expected him to lick the plastic wrap and tray like Kengo. I really wanted to get some cold brew then, but there was still 11 hours to go with my current batch. Now, he conspires to take the second one and to make it look like he had only two all along instead of three. Osanai does figure it out and Kobato was playing with fire as he knows her penchant for getting revenge. However, she did get leverage on him and now he has to accompany her to ALL the shops. He may look a little pudgy by the time summer vacation is over. That grin at the end when Kobato closed the door, though… I have to wonder if she was the one who set up that scenario.