What They Say:
The animals gather at the café for the traditional scattering of the beans. Sasako and Llama share a quiet afternoon together reminiscing about their youth.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Because of the nature of the series, it’s often best to not ask what some of these characters do when they’re not at the cafe. Sometimes the question is answered and we learn things like how Penguin is mistakenly seeing a dozen different female penguins without realizing it. Panda is probably just sleeping somewhere at home and being a bother. And those like Sloth are just trying to get by. And frankly, as much as I like Polar Bear, he continues to be a character that I suspect has some deep, deep evil within him and he gets it out off screen somewhere.
With this episode, we get the traditional gang all together at the cafe with a few extra faces there as the traditional throwing of the beans event is underway. It’s amusing from the start as Panda wants to be the ogre since it sounds fun but doesn’t really realize that everyone will be throwing rice at him. And it hurts, no matter how softly they throw it. Others get in on the role though and it’s pretty fun since Penguin is such a little dictator at times when it comes to how things must be done. Of course, while everyone has some fun with it, it’s the sudden arrival of Grizzly that really goes all out with it and scares the crap out of everyone as he plays a real ogre. Of course, with his having to get up once again, you can understand it.
The second half goes in a different direction as we get time with just Sasako and Llama. While I’m not a huge fan of Llama since he’s not been the easiest character to connect with, I do like Sasako and her slowly percolating relationship with Handa. Here, the two of them spend some quality time together as nobody else is in the cafe and that leads to lots of chit chat. The two talk about their pasts a bit which is pretty nice and mellow, making both of them just a little more accessible. Some of it goes back to a much younger Sasako, which is pretty darn adorable, and we get to see how the two shared some mild connections as well without knowing it, though nothing that’s really all that earth shattering. Getting the two of them to be a bit more connected is really nice and it helps to build a cute little bond between them.
In Summary:
The show works two pretty different stories here but manages to make most fans happy with what it does. In the first half we get a collective of the main characters and some of the supporting ones all having fun with a traditional ceremony. And not with just one person playing the ogre but rather a lot of them and that adds some real diversity right up through the end. We also get a quieter second half which focuses on just Sasako and Llama and shows us that they really do have a past together, one that’s important to each of them in their own way, but isn’t something that’s pivotal to their lives that changes things dramatically. It’s a welcome connection that makes you smile and has the rest of the characters unsure of why the two seem even friendlier going forward, which is always a bit of fun.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
