The past four episodes of Restaurant to Another World has generally followed a pattern of one half-episode featuring a returning character and the other half entirely dedicated to someone new. This is the first episode that breaks this pattern as both halves introduces a new character. I would call this a refreshing change of pace though I haven’t minded the show revisiting some of the old cast. It might as well and it’s certainly picked good characters to go back to. One concern I brought up in Season 2 Episode 2 is that the show might be running out of ideas for the cast and it certainly feels that way in this episode. This show might be running out of ideas with its cast.
Episode 5’s first half features a human boy named Emilio (Kouhei Amasaki) and a powerful lamia priestess named Lucia (Aya Hisakawa). Emilio often gets mistaken as as girl, with some men even hitting on him, so Emilio leaves his home to train and become stronger and more masculine. Maybe because anime often does androgynous character designs and doesn’t necessarily make an arc out of it, I honestly did not realize that Emilio struggles with his appearance until he had to correct Aletta about his gender (the resolution of which is pretty neat). By chance, Lucia rescues a starving Emilio and she takes him to Nekoya and orders scotch eggs for him to enjoy. After the meal, Emilio accepts Lucia’s offer to train him.
This plot reminds me greatly of Roukei and Arte. Like with those two, we have a human boy get rescued by a monster girl and enjoy lunch/dinner with her in Nekoya. I suppose this mini-episode could come across as romantic though that might be more because I’m coming off of Roukei and Arte’s mini-episode than any sort of evidence. If anything, it seems unlikely these two hook up as Lucia apparently has a bunch of granddaughters already, with some great-granddaughters on the way. Her hooking up with Emilio would be complicated at the very least. I can however see him having a relationship with one of the granddaughters. A lot of them do seem awfully interested in him.
The second mini-episode introduces us to Thomas the Searcher (Ryohei Kimura). I was super thrown off by this dude’s name as we already have a character by the name of Thomas, the first one being Thomas Alfade. I don’t know, maybe the original creator slipped up and had to roll with it. This particular Thomas is not a chef but rather a former treasure hunter who comes out of retirement when a noblewoman hires him to find some Mont Blancs. Apparently, the noblewoman frequently received these from her head maid Jazelle, who recently passed away and took the secret of the dessert to the grave. After an investigation, Thomas discovers Jazelle’s door to Nekoya and learns that Jazelle was a regular there whose favorite food was the Mont Blancs.
I like Thomas well enough. In particular, I admire that he chooses not to use Jazelle’s door after his first visit, presumably out of respect for her. I also dig the idea of someone getting hired to investigate the source of their client’s favorite food and discovering that it’s from another world. That said, Thomas’s introduction is a pretty familiar tale. I mean, a treasure hunter discovering Nekoay during an investigation? Technically, we already saw that with Sarah (who, funnily enough, makes a cameo in this segment).
Personally, I think Sarah’s introduction is much better than Thomas’. There’s a more interpersonal angle to Sarah’s introduction as she discovered Nekoya through her grandfather William’s notes and her favorite dish ends up being the same one as her grandfather’s. That element is severely lacking in Thomas’s segment as Jazelle is just the deceased head maid of his employer. There is barely any connection between these two. It especially becomes a problem when Thomas informs the Master of Jazelle’s passing and the Master barely has time to process the news as Thomas immediately moves on to praise the Master about the Mont Blanc. I understand some retreading may occur but this does make new characters subject to comparison and it doesn’t bode well for a new character it feels like their story has been told before and done better there than here.
Putting Thomas’s bad timing aside, it is very funny how he praises the Mont Blanc and the show reveals that this dish is actually one of the few that the Master doesn’t cook himself. Rather, it’s provided by the owner of Flying Puppy (Kenichi Suzumura), a bakery located above Nekoya. Technically, Thomas accomplished his mission and he’s found the Mont Blanc but when you think about it, he actually hasn’t figured out where it comes from and that’s amusing in and of itself. I do wonder if the owner of Flying Puppy is aware of Nekoya’s magical nature. Like, the Master does tell the guy about Jazelle’s passing and Thomas becoming the new Mont Blanc customer but it’s hard to tell if the Master actually divulges details regarding the other world. It would be cool if an associate of the Master’s is aware of the other world though if that is the case, it’d be better accompanied by a flashback scene because that ought to be a very interesting bit of backstory.
Watch Restaurant to Another World 2 on Crunchyroll
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