In this episode, the Food Culture Research Club decides to spend their next weekend to go on a trip. The destination is later revealed to be Mt. Takao. To ensure everyone can tag along, Shinon tells everyone to have at least 3,000 yen in reserve. Ironically, Shinon is the one where money poses a problem. Despite stowing away 5,000 yen for the trip, she forgets where she left the money. Because Shinon really doesn’t want to get left behind, the others agree to come to her place to help her find the missing the bill.
Once there, Shinon admits that she intentionally made it more difficult for her to get the 5,000 yen, to prevent herself from using it on impulse before the trip. As a result, she left the money where she would be least likely to remember leaving. To ensure that she can still get the money, she’s posted around the apartment a couple cryptic messages that would eventually lead her to the cash. A pretty ridiculous plan but Shinon did forget where she left her money so I guess this is ingenious on her part. If nothing else, it’s fun seeing the club put their heads together in solving the riddles and retracing Shinon’s steps. What really makes this segment worthwhile is the punchline. When the girls reach the end of the messages and discover that the money is still missing, Mako wonders if Shinon might’ve actually forgotten to put the money away like she’s supposed to. Sure enough, and much to her embarrassment, Shinon discovers that the 5,000 yen is still in her money. In other words, all the extra steps Shinon created for herself and dragging her friends along to help her is entirely pointless. I’m amazed the others still want to go on the trip with her.
The actual trip to Mt. Takao is actually lighter on plot than the girls trying to find Shinon’s money. There’s a couple of neat scenes where Mako gets to bond with Tsutsuji and Shinon. The latter is more interesting as we get to learn about how Mako was like as a child. Other than that though, it really is just the girls having a fun trip. There are some fun moments here and there, however. I particularly enjoy the part where Tsutsuji puts on her sheep-themed hood and Mako stares at her as if she’s wondering if the jacket counts as fur suit. Also funny is Shinon trying not to waste her remaining money, only for the post credit scene to reveal that she burned it all for a walking stick, leaving her without money to spare for two days. In her defense, I’d also impulse buy a walking stick.
You may be wondering how food is involved in this episode, what with this show being food-themed. There’s a brief bit where Mako is raring to eat some food while hiking up the mountain. Unfortunately, her dream gets dashed because Kurea doesn’t want the club to wander off to buy food and merch. On the flipside, one of the pit stops is a restaurant featured in a Mokotaro video. This is really the only times food actually factors into this episode and even then, it kind of lacks the tidbits and buildup last episode’s cooking scene had. On one hand, CGDCT anime neglecting its own theme is kind of par for the course. Conversely, the Food Culture Research Club is inherently a sham so I don’t know. Maybe it’s a little unfair to harp on this when the show has an excuse built-in.
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