English Dub Review: Restaurant to Another World “Curry Rice/Chicken Curry”

Haha! That’s funny. Nekoya has a no-shirt policy. How do Gaganpo and Lionel get away with it, then?

Overview (Spoilers, Don’cha Know)

Admiral Alphonse Flugel was marooned on a deserted island. Fortunately, this island also had a door to the Nekoya, and he had a bag of gold coins. Even after his rescue, Alphonse still returns to the Nekoya for Curry Rice. However, this time is a bit different. Not only has The Master unveiled his new Chicken Curry, but the restaurant gets a new visitor. This is no elf girl, though. She’s really the Black Dragon of Death, Kuro. Oh, and she works here now. The only way she’s gonna pay off eating that much Chicken Curry…

This episode continues the subtle shift in the storytelling format that we saw in the last episode. Rather than showing us the stories of two different patrons, we see the story of one, followed by plot surrounding the Nekoya itself. Technically, we still got two patrons, but Kuro’s back plot was interspersed with Alphonse’s scenes in the modern day. It didn’t feel as formulaic. Instead, it flowed two streams of thought together, then tied it up nicely at the end.

I was delighted by each character’s reaction to Kuro. Since she shows up in the buff, Aletta panics and covers her up with menus. I like how she shouted, “Oh, my devil.” It was a great touch for a character who is a demon. The Master blushes heavily, an expression I never thought I’d see on him. He’s normally so composed. On the other hand, the old sea dog Alphonse responds by buying whatever she wants to eat. The only person in the room to recognize her for the dangerous threat she is? Altorious. Though he seems wary of her, he doesn’t say anything about it.

Honestly, though, I expected things to erupt into a nasty fight when the Red Queen showed up. She considers the Nekoya as a part of her hoard, and Kuro slithering in would constitute a challenge. Instead, Red does her a solid by getting her a job. This could be in part because of her backstory. Red feels sorry for her and honors Kuro’s decision to hide out in a blasted out the moon. There is a good amount of plot behind these dragons, and I REEEEAAALLLY want them to start getting into it. Red and Kuro defending the Nekoya against a Lovecraftian horror? Now, that’s a story.

Our Take

My hopes for this series continue to build after this episode. Not that I actually expect it all to culminate in some epic ending, but that it will go somewhere that binds all these disparate stories together. We get to see more of the characters interacting with each other, mingling their perspectives and plots. It makes the restaurant feel like its coming alive with the community of steady patrons. I hope that this leads the characters into a real story at some point. Saving the Nekoya from bankruptcy or a threat, figuring out why the restaurant connects to another world… anything. For those of you who caught the anime Time of Eve, that is sort of what I’m thinking of. It was a cafe with a bunch of quirky characters to discover, that all came together to solve a crisis at the end. What I’m afraid of is this story might go back to its old format, and never start developing an overarching plot at all.

The artwork of this series has always been good, but it runs into some bumps when it comes to the animation. Little errors in the animation may not be glaring, but they are consistent problems. The most easily seen ones are with Alphonse. When he celebrates over his chicken curry, the shot panning around him had many distortions in his face and body. I think most of these errors happened during the in-between frames, though, so I’m not sure if all the fault lies on the key animators.

I enjoyed the voice acting from Jill Harris (Aletta) and Monica Rial (Kuro). Although Kuro was dead pan the whole episode, there was a gentleness to that monotone telepathy that underlined her character traits. Despite being the Death Dragon, she doesn’t want to kill innocents and has a soft spot for mortals. Aletta was expressive throughout. She’s opening up more and feeling like less of an outsider, now that she’s a valued worker at the Nekoya. She isn’t just one-note cheery anymore. She’s showing a bit more depth in how she expresses herself, especially when talking to the Master. What’s kinda funny is how much Alphonse looks like Jeremy Schwartz, his English voice actor. Jeremy’s naturally gruff, deep voice worked perfectly for this grizzled, old castaway.

So, with the promise of an actual plot coming up, some good voice acting, and gorgeous art, I’m willing to put up with the occasional animation error. I give this episode seven plates of curry rice out often. Now, with all these dragons about, when is Tohru coming into visit?