English Dub Review: Sakura Quest “The Lady’s Scales”

That video game disturbs me. It also makes me hungry.

Spoilers Below

Shiori has stepped up to take on the responsibility for the C-Class Cuisine promotion, and find a solution that benefits the board of merchant’s festival. Her concept is a Somen Noodle Recipe Contest, where anyone in the town gathers to make their own somen, and the best becomes the official town recipe. To sweeten the pot, she tacks on a farmer’s market, giving merchants of Manoyama a great place to sell their wares and a ton of free publicity. As somen is a staple around town, the board accepts her proposal. Kumano, aka Mr. Bear, is stoked. When he talks to the girls, he reveals his true reasons for studying in France. He was desperately in love with Sayuri, Shiori’s sister, and wanted to impress her by learning to make French Toast, her favorite dish, straight from France. Of course, if she had just met him at the train station after they graduated like she said she would, he would have stayed. He had waited all night! And now, it’s Sauyri who’s leaving. Kumano throws himself in front of her car and begs her to explain why she never showed up. She explains that she did come to meet him, and also waited all night to see him. But, if there is only one train station, and only one bench to meet at, and they both went and waited all night, how did they not meet up? The next day, Shiori is wracking her brain. Sure, the expo is now much more limited to the local somen, but she still can’t figure out what to do with it. Then, she panics when she looks at the calendar. According to that, the expo is only a day away. Her mother points out that her sister left up the calendar from the previous year, and all the dates were wrong. There’s still plenty of time.

In the meantime, Yoshino is colluding with the town mechanic, trying to build an automated and fun way to eat somen. The first few tries are ho-hum. The final phase, however, seems quite strange, requiring her to strip down to her bikini to test it. What are they planning? Fast forward to the day of the festival, and it is a smashing success. The entire town Shiori’s Happy Somen recipe, which also contains the local favorite seaweed, doesn’t win the contest. It is still extremely popular, with homemakers and restaurants alike asking for the recipe. The crowning point of the festival is the unveiling of Yoshino’s project. It is the Overflowing Somen 5DX, a single seat motion simulator that sprays you with water, and dispenses fresh somen for you to dip in broth and eat. It’s a somen experience for all five senses! It’s also really awkward. But what activity put together by Yoshino isn’t? At the end, the officially name Shiori as Minister of Mediation, because they somehow forgot to give one of the hardest workers there a title. As an epilogue, we see Sayuri and Kumano meet up at the throne room. They realize that their missed meeting wasn’t because they didn’t want to meet each other, but because Sayuri is an airhead who put up the wrong calendar and went on a wrong day. They come together for a good laugh.

This episode breezed right through. To be honest, I didn’t feel like much happened, and I think that’s due to there not being a second “B-plot” for this arc. It’s all just the festival stuff and the stuff with Shiori’s sister. It isn’t a boring episode, but it didn’t have that much memorable stuff in it… except that crazy simulator. How does that thing even work? I’d be afraid of the soup spilling all over the machine and shorting it out. It was also a bit of a shock to see pure little Yoshino walk into the mechanic’s shop and drop her pants. I had to do a double-take until it revealed she was in a bikini. If they had left that shot out, it would have been even more disturbing. Thankfully, this isn’t that kind of anime. The use of CG in this episode is interesting. The little robot somen maker is one instance, and he moves fairly well. This seems to be a conscious choice on the part of the director. If anything moves on its own, without the direction of a person, it is done in CG. Everything else is traditional. That makes it rather odd when I look at those french toast slices. I can’t tell if they’re CG or strangely textured traditional pieces. Their movement is also strange, making it difficult to tell what they really are.

The situation between Sayuri and Kumano was kind of a “DUH” moment. When the two of them explain their stories, the only logical explanation is that they went on different days. Further, why didn’t Kumano call her up to ask why she didn’t show, instead of just running off to France? Silly old bear. Oh, by the way, if you don’t know much Japanese, them calling Kumano “Mr. Bear” is a pun. His name means “Bear Fields”. That also explains all the bear jokes from the previous episode.

I really wish there was more to the voice acting for the other characters. Tia Ballard kinda owned the show as Shiori, bringing forth her best Fluttershy, and portraying a wide array of feelings behind a facade of warmth and patience. I didn’t get the same level of acting from the others this time around, which lends to the episode feeling a bit flat and unmemorable. Though it isn’t a bad episode, it isn’t an impactful one or even one that held my attention properly. That’s why, with a heavy heart, I have to give this episode on six of my reserved ten somen bowls.