Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Deaimon: Recipe for Happiness
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Sakagami Tomoyo
 Posts: 940 Location: Melbourne, VIC, Australia |
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People can be generally pretty observant but have certain blind spots where it concerns themselves. It happens implausibly frequently with anime main characters, but it’s not out of the question. It’s also possible that he is aware of it at some level, but is in denial to avoid having to deal with it. |
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Thesarum
Posts: 423 |
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Ah, the staple "get a fever from absolutely nothing" episode. Slice of Life characters have really weak constitutions. I've been bedridden with a fever maybe three times in my whole life, there's of whole lot more "life" under my belt than I care to admit. (Though apparently it's somewhat rare for Nagomu too, so that's something)
Mitsuru imagining Nagomu as a cooler version of himself as her boyfriend was pretty cute (I particularly liked the image of her classmates being super impressed as a great bit of rose-tinted imagination...). Kanoko is almost there in admitting what she wants to his face. It's still really not clear Nagomu feels the same way though, he's super passive about it. He's open and friendly with her, but he's kinda like that with everyone. The only person who really gets singled out for special attention is Iksuka, but that's clearly coming from a very different place. And of course the whole thing with Itsuka and the snow was great. Nagomu might be an irredeemable airhead, but he's got a heart of solid gold.
You can probably add a few more 9s. The only way it'd be clearer is for all three of them to be in the same room together. And maybe we're going to finally get that next week? I don't know how many episodes we're expecting, but we're clearly moving into wrap-up mode now... but there's a lot to wrap up still. |
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Regalli
Posts: 109 |
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Side note about last week’s: I love how you can tell Koume’s beloved magical girl is inspired by Precure. I will also note that Deaimon’s manga started in 2016 and Kirakira Precure A La Mode started airing in early 2017, with a (western) sweets-inspired theme. Coincidence?… I mean, maybe, I have no idea when individual chapters aired or how much we see of the show in the manga, but I would not be at all shocked to hear that it WAS a deliberate, contemporary reference in the manga and the anime carried it over.
This week’s: Yeah by this point you’ll have to convince me Nagomu’s senpai Apparently-Tomoe ISN’T Itsuka’s dad, in which case there’s extra meaning to his exchange with Nagomu (‘You eat our sweets when you’re thinking over a big decision, don’t you?’ ‘More like I’ve already decided, but I need one last push’) and his decision to take Itsuka there for soup (where he clearly picked Ryokushou deliberately.) Guess we’ll know for sure next episode. Also noting: Itsuka’s ‘you shouldn’t think about what-ifs’ that she can’t follow for herself about her dad leaving. Poor girl. |
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Saeryen
 Posts: 918 |
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I loved that nod too! Viva Pretty Cure! |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11431 |
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What I don't understand is why Nagomu's parents have not told him that Itsuka's father is his senpai. They obviously know. He's been to their shop, with Nagomu, Nagomu regards senpai as family, and the owner of Fuku Fuku Cafe where senpai worked is a friend of Nagomu's father. Have they just assumed that Nagomu is aware of the fact? Don't they know how oblivious their son is? Or does he get that from his parents?
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Thesarum
Posts: 423 |
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They're not the best communicators are they? Dad struggles to have any sort of conversation with his son that isn't berating him for being useless. (When this clearly isn't what he actually thinks). And Mom wrote a whole letter implying her husband was dieing when he was actually basically going to an outpatients appointment. |
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Regalli
Posts: 109 |
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Could also be the parents both think ITSUKA knowing Nagomu knew and looked up to her dad would impact how she treats Nagomu, figure Nagomu’s secret-keeping skills aren’t great (of course, THEY don’t know he overheard a key discussion with grandpa that was a major factor in his leaving to go into music,) and are keeping it secret from both of them to head that issue off.
Especially with how much Itsuka prickles at the idea of Nagomu acting as a surrogate dad, and the parents actively pushing him towards a parental role rather than ‘weird much older brother’ or uncle. Maybe she’d be more receptive to one of those… or she’d see him as a much bigger threat to the successor position and be on guard for even longer. Who knows. |
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wolf10
 Posts: 908 |
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And I'm saddened it took me the entire series to catch that Itsuka's family name is a reference to the snow that was falling when she was abandoned. Oof. (As for her first name, "Itsuka" is also a homophone for "someday.") Such good names in this series. As for the finale... that's it? I suppose "life goes on" is always the stock ending for slice-of-life shows like this, but it feels kind of unsatisfying for a series where there was still just barely enough of an overarching plot to get invested in. Then again, Reiko Yoshida tends to favor these endings for ongoing works. I get flashes to the big pile of nothing that was HaruChika's finale: "Yes, there is still an ongoing mystery" THE END. Overall I enjoyed watching this weekly, since it would have made for a poor binge, but at most what I'll take with me is just enough curiosity to flip through the manga if I ever see it on a shelf somewhere. (I miss living near a Kinokuniya.) |
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Thesarum
Posts: 423 |
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Yep, turns out we wrapped up... pretty much nothing. Even the Dad-bait in the post-credits last week turned out to be a big nothing. I'm not sure how close to Ryokushou that bridge is. Did he even see Itsuka at a distance? Or did he just turn up in the general area then decide against it?
I suppose life is an ongoing project. Little ever really ends. You carry your failures and successes with you, and get up every morning trying be a bit more of a fully functioning human than you were the day before. So while it can't be called satisfying as such, it doesn't feel inappropriate. Everyone has found somewhere to belong, and in the process found a place to try nurture their better selves. And I reckon Itsuka and Nagomu would make a great team running the shop when Dad retires. Nagomu can keep his head in the clouds and be the emotional and creative heart of the business. And Itsuka can make it actually function as a business. Nobody is going to trust Nagomu with the accounts are they? She'd complain endlessly, but secretly derive a great deal of reassurance from having in him around. |
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Regalli
Posts: 109 |
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The perils of a still-ongoing source series, I suppose: Between the slim-but-existent chance of a second season and the fact that anime-original endings tend to be controversial at best, better to just end on a neutral ‘this is where this volume ends’ note than risk weighing in on Who’s The Endgame Love Interest or the like.
(Per my limited Googling, the manga is in fact still running. I would certainly be on board to learn more about wagashi with a side of this heartwarming adopted elementary school confectioner and her dorky washout older brother figure.) |
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Aerdra
Posts: 344 |
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This was a comfortable slice-of-life series, and I hope there'll be another season in the future.
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