Sayonara Lara – 01

Yesterday it was Cinderella, today it’s The Little Mermaid. This was certainly the better, though it’s not as if either tale has been starved of remakes over the years. But this is what Kinema Citrus chose to do for its 15th Anniversary project and they’re a studio that commands attention, so here we are.

This is indeed a reimagining of Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale, and it follows the original pretty closely in fact. Lara is born as a princess of the mermaid royal family, her father warns her from infancy about the dangers of vile humans. In this version the sea witch is actually Lara’s aunt (Grace), and her brother the king (Rowan). Lara is a born rebel, interested in humans and their relics before even knowing what they are. So a chance encounter with a shipwreck victim is more than enough to tip her over the edge.

If you know the original you pretty much know the basics here. The potion, the cost (her voice), the terms. Things end tragically here, with Lara turning back into a mermaid and her human paramour turning on her. And when she wakes up back on the mermaid palace, it’s gone to ruin. But Grace is still around and still being a temptress, and she offers Grace a chance to restore her family (who she says are in a deep sleep). This time around Grace winds up in the present day, in Otsu on the shores of Lake Biwa (a 20-minute train ride from me).

Sayonara Lara is perfectly fine. It’s not gorgeous in the manner of Made in Abyss – I fear Kinema Citrus have set themselves an impossibly high bar there. But it looks pretty and actually kind of Disney-esque. There’s nothing special about it though, so far at least. Given that this was the prologue that could easily change. Next week will tell us a lot about how the story fares in the modern human world.

Tetsunabe no Jan!  – 01

As I said in the preview, I always want to love cooking anime more than I do. I love anime and I love cooking, after all. They tend to get off to strong starts and then lose me along the way, too. That’s a concern here because Tetsunabe no Jan! started off very well, and I’m trying to figure out how much stock (chicken?) I can put in that.

The twist with Iron Wok Jan! is that it’s not a reboot of an old anime chestnut. It’s the first-ever adaptation of an old manga chestnut – one that ended in 2000, to be precise. It was in Weekly Shounen Champion for 27 volumes, which I would assume means it was pretty popular even though I was only tangentially aware of its existence. This adaptation has a very good director in Aoki Ei, who’s pretty much TROYCA’s top dog – he directed the outstanding Overtake! for them in 2023. And the premiere pretty much checks all the boxes for an old-school shounen, with excellent energy and a dash of style.

The setting is Gobanchou, the ‘top Chinese restaurant in Tokyo”. The owner is a legendary chef, he’s the uncle of the head chef, and he’s the uncle of 16 year-old Kiriko. She’s officially a trainee but the heir apparent of the restaurant and already a fine chef – unlike her fellow 16 year-old trainee, Okonogi-kun. Into this flaming battleground steps Akiyama Jan. He’s the grandson of the owner’s greatest frival, who’s just passed away, and who sent the boy to learn at Gobanchou. The dynamic here is that Jan treats everything cooking-related as a competition, and Kirko approached being a chef as “cooking from the heart”.

Admittedly this will probably have more traction of the vagaries of cooking are of interest to you in the first place. But I think it’s all pretty fun anyway. Aoki is a pro’s pro and he knows how to frame every shot for maximum impact, and the cooking stuff is quite realistic. As I said these sorts of shows tend to struggle to hold my interest – perhaps because they lack enough on the story and character side to keep me hooked after the novelty of the cooking stuff wears off. But my modest expectations were certainly more than met here, and I’ll be sticking around for at least another couple of episodes to see how much staying power Tetsunabe no Jan!  has.