Looks like Kyoko is the focus of this episode. I doubt they will ever answer the question that is most on people’s minds: where does all of that food go?
What They Say:
“Wagnaria’s Big Stomach”
Takanashi does not like the manager. She eats too much, and she never works. But any time he tries to complain, Yachiyo intervenes. And Yamada sees this and decides she doesn’t want to work either.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Today, our focus is on the manager, Kyoko, who once was a gang leader as a student, but now works as the manager for the Wagnaria restaurant. Not that she really manages anything. All she really does is stand around, or sit around, and eat. Eat, eat, eat. Where in the heck do all of those calories go? The wonders of anime physiology no doubt.
Takanashi, of course, is easily annoyed with Kyoko, since he has a poor opinion of all older women to begin with (the legacy of his relationship with his elder sisters). Popura tries to reconcile him, but neither she, nor Soma, nor Yachiyo can succeed in getting across Kyoko’s good points (since, well, she doesn’t really have any). Sato is the only one on staff who has the courage to scold Kyoko, but his criticism simply glides off of Kyoko, as Yachiyo acts as her enabler, and with regard to Sato, her shield (since Sato is in love with Yachiyo and cannot get too harsh about Kyoko in Yachiyo’s presence).
Of course, the spoiled life that Kyoko leads makes Yamada jealous, as she would like to lead the same kind of life. Her efforts to emulate Kyoko, however, are a dead end. The only brief entry into the charmed world of Kyoko is when Yamada decides to attempt to make parfaits. Her efforts are…interesting, to say the least, but Kyoko is there to happily eat the poor examples that Yamada makes (the parfaits themselves are edible, it’s just that their appearance is less than acceptable for a restaurant).
Sato, Soma, and Sota gather to discuss what can be done about Kyoko. It is decided that they have to rein in her eating, so Soma tells her a lie, saying that the food supplies ordered for the restaurant were not sufficient and she will have to restrain her eating, otherwise, the restaurant will be shut down and they will all be fired. Soma, of course, is the perfect man to do this, as he is a sadist and enjoys deceiving others. Kyoko, while she has a bottomless stomach, does worry about her job, so she stops eating.
While it might seem that Sato is the normal one and Kyoko the outlier, the show reminds us of Sato’s problems when he finds a lost little girl outside. He immediately brings her inside and almost orgasms over her cuteness. Fortunately the rest of the staff react normally, and they put up the little girl in the staff room while asking the customers if anyone has been missing a child. Kyoko, who has nothing better to do, is assigned to watching the little girl. And here we learn something interesting: Kyoko may be a glutton, but she’s not a bad person. When the cooks give the little lost girl a dessert to eat, while Kyoko eyes it, that is all she does. At no point does she make a move to take it, and when the little girl herself offers it to Kyoko, Kyoko refuses. Whatever else she may be, she would not take candy from a baby.
In Summary:
We get to spend some quality time with Kyoko, the seemingly useless manager who at times would appear singlehandedly to eat the restaurant into the red, enabled by Yachiyo’s spoiling. But when she is told that her eating imperils her job, she shows remarkable restraint, even when presented with the opportunity of taking food away from someone incapable of stopping her. Kyoko is not such a bad person after all. Just a lazy glutton.
Grade: B+
Readers Rating: [ratings]
Streamed by: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Apple iMac with 4GB RAM, Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard
