Two more trips to the Japanese food pub whose front door opens to a parallel world. Two more times to savor some tasty dishes.
What They Say:
Episode 11 “A Clash of Masters”
Holger, a blacksmith maestro, and Lorenz, a glass crafting master, have been friends since childhood. One day, they run into each other at Nobu and immediately begin to glare at each other. Competitive as always, the two begin to argue about whose order goes better with whatsontap, whose order tastes better, etc… An uneasy atmosphere begins to settle over Nobu…
Episode 12 “Beauty and the Abura-age”
It’s just another day at Nobu, when the crew spots a woman sitting at the counter before closing time. She’s wearing a suikan, a type of outfit that only Japanese nobles wear, and carries a bizarre aura about her. She orders cold sake with abura-age. Oddly enough, she’s never been to Nobu, and yet Nobuyuki and Shinobu both feel like they’ve seen her gloomy eyes somewhere before…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Coming towards the end of the season (though the show is continuing), I think I can consider winding up my coverage of Isekai Izakaya: Japanese Food From Another World for a few very simple reasons: The show follows a set formula that does not change; what few critical comments I have to make could be applied equally to almost every single episode so far; the show does not require any further analysis or commentary—providing mere plot summaries every two weeks is fairly unhelpful.
In these two episodes, one of them at least finally makes a motion towards telling a story. That would be the second episode, which we can call the “origin story” of Nobu. Shinobu narrates for us her personal story, being the daughter of the owners of a traditional Japanese restaurant who ran away from home when she did not like the man her parents had arranged for her to marry (it might sound odd, but yes, arranged marriages are still a thing in Japan even if less common than they once were). Instead, she ran off with one of the chefs, Nobuyuki, and then set up shop in Kyoto (so finally, we learn were Nobu’s location in Japan is). We don’t get much more depth of detail than that, however. We do not know if there is anything romantic between Shinobu and Nobuyuki (it’s hard to rule it out, but the way we have seen them interact so far does not immediately lead us into thinking they are a couple either). Instead of giving us any further insight into the restaurant pair, we are presented with the explanation of how Nobu the restaurant came to be connected to Aitheria. Right before opening their doors for the first time, Shinobu visited the local Inari shrine and asked for the god’s blessing in operating their business (which is common as Inari is a patron deity for businesses). One of the kitsune, the fox messengers that are common at shrines, took an interest in Shinobu’s prayer and offering (of a ¥10,000 note, which is quite a bit of money).
The result was Nobu’s front door being connected to Aitheria (while the back [see picture] is still in Kyoto). I’ll return to this episode in a moment. First, I might as well just quickly summarize how the first of today’s two installments was the same as just about every other episode to date. In the first one, we are introduced to two more inhabitants of Aitheria, the master blacksmith Holger and the master glassmaker Lorenz (who happens to be the father of Hans, the palace guardsman). But their appearance here is just an excuse to introduce us to more common izakaya dishes. They have a bit of a squabble over what dishes are better, but are upstaged by something much simpler: everyone’s attention is drawn to Eva (the little dishwasher) and her staff meal, which is an omu soba. While most anime fans are probably quite familiar with omurice, an omelet with rice inside, most commonly associated in anime fans’ minds with maid cafes by this point, this variation is an omelet with yakisoba (fried soba noodles) inside. And it looks absolutely delicious. Delicious enough that if you want to do it yourself, there is Ryuuta Kijima showing us how to make one’s own in the Nobu Plus segment. The food is mouthwatering and beautifully rendered (Sunrise’s staff must have expensed a few meals here and there for “research” purposes). But there is nothing in particular about this episode that differentiates it significantly from just about any other episode.
Returning to Episode 12, the one episode that does give us something slightly different at first, its second half returns very much to the usual form. A mysterious woman, wearing Heian-era Japanese clothing, appears after the restaurant was about to close for the evening. She seems particularly keen about fried tofu. And so the Master serves her abura-age, fried tofu. The audience and even Shinobu and Nobuyuki put 2 and 2 together to realize that this woman is no ordinary guest, but may well be the O-Inari enshrined at the shrine that Shinobu visited. That she is exactly whom we might guess she is gets unmistakeable confirmation when she pays for her meal with the ¥10,000 note that Shinobu offered for the restaurant’s success. It’s amusing and interesting, but this second half of the episode just returns to the usual formula. The Nobu Plus segment has Kenichi Nagira going to an izakaya in Takadanobaba to eat abura-age at the one place that specializes in it.
At this point, I’m not entirely certain this show needs a critical eye cast over it every two weeks. The series basically works as a guide for foreign visitors to Japan in 2020 as to what is good to order at an izakaya. All of the onscreen text can even come in handy as foreigners need only copy down the characters for the dishes that interest them most (or even just take screencaps of the text in these episodes) and bring them along in their phone to deal with the language barrier. The food more often than not outshines the cast and the story every week–by intention. The stories, except perhaps for this origin story in Episode 12, serve as nothing more than wrappers in which to present the mountain of information about the food. That food is mouthwatering, but there is little to talk about besides it.
In Summary:
Two master craftsmen argue over which dishes are better, but are shown up by Eva, the small girl from Aitheria who works in the restaurant and the interesting dish she gets for her staff meal. Then we get, at last, the origin story of Nobu, with Shinobu filling us in on her and Nobuyuki’s history briefly before we learn how Nobu came to be connected to Aitheria. A very special customer also comes along to enjoy some fried tofu. The food is great, but the stories feel fairly empty and without substance in comparison. But it’s still enjoyable because of the food.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Apple iMac with 12GB RAM, Mac OS 10.13 High Sierra
