IT’S HAPPPPPENNNNNNINNNNNGGGGG AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! Oh man I can’t stop smiling, my cheeks hurt and I am feeling so happy right now I’m just akjsdlkajdasldkjasd. Since I had my freak out of excitement last week, I’m a bit calmer this week but I’m still giggling like crazy about it. I can’t help myself, I have been craving for this kind of development for sooooooooooooo long, and after teases after teases, we are finally getting it! [SOBS TEARS OF JOY]
I don’t know about you, but considering how obvious it was that it was Takumi (apart from my anxiety of doubts out of sheer fear of being disappointed), I for one am glad that they didn’t waste any time of just diving straight into the backstory of why Takumi possesses a Delicioustone. Better yet it was pretty well paced. I actually kept checking how far long we were in the episode, and I was rather shocked how much time there was still left of the episode.
As suspected, Takumi’s father Monpei is actually from CooKingdom. Hilariously, he was found by Takumi’s mother the same way Yui had found Mari, collapsed on a bench due to hunger (must be a CooKingdom thing). While he stayed at the guest-house, the two hit it off and the rest was history. Monpei now works as a fishman alongside Yui’s father, so when time allows it, the only time the two are able to talk are during the videocalls. Unfortunately, this makes it difficult for Takumi to ask his father about what’s going on, and he missed his opportunity to do so today because it was already agreed to do a joint-call with Yui’s father at her place.
Takumi first learned about his father’s origins a year ago after his father had accidentally dropped the Delicioustone in front of him. When he picked it up, the Delicioustone responded to him, and initially sent Monpei flying when he had tried to take it out of his hands. Monpei explained that Delicioustones only releases its mysterious powers when the right person holds it, in this case, Takumi had been deemed worth to possess it.
To my surprise, his father claimed that he doesn’t know what that’s supposed to mean, but at the same time, it also feels like he didn’t tell Takumi everything either. After-all, Monpei never mentioned whether he had been able to use it at one point, or how he got the Delicioustone (say, if it’s supposed to be more of a rarity sort of thing) and what he was doing in the Human World in the first place. Instead, he only told Takumi about where he originated and that he needs to be responsible and keep the Delioustone safe.
So in other words, Takumi doesn’t know much of anything at all. This explains why he doesn’t understand why the monsters are showing up and is suspicious of Mari’s connection to them despite recognizing that he has a Delicioustone of his own.
After seeing that Yui is doing this by her own free-will with the desire to protect others, Takumi now has a better understanding of the situation at hand. While he probably still has some semblance of distrust with Mari (which is fair, considering he doesn’t know the guy yet), Takumi is just going to focus on what he can do, which is support Yui by protecting her happiness. I just find that so heartwarming considering that Yui is always looking out for others, so it’s just nice to know she got someone watching her back too. We actually got a little tease of just that this week, with the support shot from afar, giving her cover when her back was exposed to the monster’s attack and the tease of the fluttering cape. (Not gonna lie, I squealed over that.)
That said, I do wonder how Takumi’s outfit is going to work. Considering today was the first time Takumi (presumably) used the Delioustone’s powers, so I can only think he had transformed to some extent, especially since his hair color changed. But at the same time, in the beginning and end of the episode, it looked as though they have indicated he had this very outfit in the closet the entire time. Or is there actually a transformation involved where the outfit gets summoned from his closet? I don’t know, I’m overthinking things as usual because I’m just super hyped about it. We’ll probably get more details on that next week, I just gotta be patient– but surely I wasn’t the only one thinking about this right? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Anyhow, it was great to finally have a Takumi focused episode, especially since the guy hasn’t had a lot of air up until now. It was a lot of fun to watch and there were even times I really felt embarrassed for him with the way both his mom and dad would just constantly tease him about his feelings for Yui when she’s standing right next to him. For better or worse, she is so dense about it that it completely flies over her head, so he definitely has his work cut out for him if he ever decides he wants her to know his feelings.
But there was one thing though that bothered me a bit, and that was how they went about following up last week’s episode. The conversation Takumi had with Yui took place off screen, and if that wasn’t bad enough, not only did Yui say she glossed over the details, but when we see her talking to Ran and Kokone about it, the three of them are all confused about it. And I’m here thinking, why wouldn’t he?????
Not only was that a very a bizarre response, but it’s also frustrating considering they all saw him there when the whole thing transpired. I suppose they did this instead to cut back on time and just focus on Takumi’s secret, but honestly I feel like there were other ways to set that up. Nonetheless, it’s just one thing, so it’s something I can shrug off and not get hung up on. At the end of the day, the end goal is the same– setting the stage for Takumi to finally join the team.
Last but not least, with Gentlu out of the scene (and Amane now benched at home for who knows how long), Narcistoru has taken over and boy, things are already esclating quickly. The timing for Takumi to get involved in all of this aligns very well with the new threat that they now face. We finally learned that the device Narcistoru had been working on is a Recipippi tracker. This enables him to easily target their hotspots. The only reason why they used Amane in the first place was because she was familiar with the area. But now that the device is all set, there is no need for someone to serve that purpose anymore.
On top of that, we quickly learned that Narcistoru is a different beast altogether. When he captures the Recipippi, he also robs the memories associated with the Recipipi/targeted dish. Both Yui and Takumi witnessed that firsthand when Takumi’s mother suddenly said she couldn’t remember why she was eating the Whitebait Rice, which she had momentarily earlier been gushing about how it holds precious memories for her. What’s even more alarming is that this effect is not limited to just the location he’s at, but even affects everyone who eats the dish, no matter where they are at. I suppose this would also mean that the flavor and memories associated to it would also be lost to anyone who decides to eat the dish had the recipippi failed to be rescued.
Another reason this timing is important is because this is exactly the kind of threat that Yui feels very strongly about. It’s not just the recipipis who are heavilty tied to her memories of her grandmother, but also the taste. We saw how Takumi learned what Yui meant by ‘Deliousmile’, and how closely she holds her grandmother’s words of ‘Food brings smiles’. For that reason, I do feel like Takumi’s role of protecting Yui’s happiness will be pretty important. She’s fighting against a dangerous individual like Narcistoru who gets a kick off people’s misery, so it’s invaluable to have someone like Takumi who is thinking about both her well-being and happiness as well.
Lastly, it was pretty funny to see how everyone reacted to Narcistoru. They were all so unimpressed, dropping kickers with ‘what a waste of looks’ (because of his bad personality) and Ran even mused if he’s another one who has been brainwashed hahaha! A fair question considering they did see that was Gentlu’s case, but it’ll probably be a while before we find out more about more about him.
Next week, Takumi is getting a confession from somebody and it looks like we’ll be seeing him potentially confronting the others. Will he keep his identity a secret though? I wouldn’t put it past him to keep it secret for a bit in order to observe Mari further, and try to investigate what’s going on with the Bundoru Gang and such, but anyhow he’ll get his chance because they still need to pull him aside for that hangout with Mari that Ran had suggested today. Either way, I cannot wait for the next episode! Once again, next Saturday can’t come soon enough!
Well it was a good set up episode for Takumiband his father was indeed from Cookingdom , we don’t know if he is a soldier but that’s an interesting development.
As for Narcistoru I didn’t like his reasoning for brainwashing Amane , it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that recipipis would be around popular dinner places in a busy famous for its food city, at the very least he should have figured it out after Gentle ‘s initial success with the Latin destreet restaurants , but I suppose by then he and Secretoru decided to let Gentle do their work because they are too self-absorbed , that’s the real ugly dimension of laziness compared to last year gang where the Witch ‘s underlyings cared about each other.
Anyway in general good episode from my understanding they take their time with the story and each character so although Amane is benched for she will likely have her fair share if focus before debuting as their last ally.
So far I like the plot despite some minor nitpicking I have with the sloppy storytelling
Pretty sure it was Takumi’s father who was Cinnamon the Cook Fighter and person with long hair from Rosemary’s memories, because his name is SHINAda MONpei