English Dub Review: Restaurant to Another World “Pork Soup/Croquettes”

But… where did the doors come from?

Overview (Spoilers)

In a bit of a history lesson, we learn that Altorius was one of the four great heroes who banished the demon lord seventy years ago. Also among those heroes is Alexander, the man who sold Lionel to the Colosseum. Alex pays Altorius a visit, asking to go to the Nekoya. He had heard of it from someone else, and had a dish he wanted to try there. They don’t arrive until the evening, in order to avoid Alex and Lionel meeting up. Good thing too, as the place is really hopping. It’s Meat Day, and according to tradition, the Master has traded in the day’s miso soup for pork soup. The regulars are gobbling it up faster than he can keep the pot full, and they’re running out of rice! The two sit in the now-empty restaurant and order. While Altorius has his regular pork loin cutlet, Alexander has croquettes. He notes the contrast between these and the ones in the capital. The fried crust is much lighter and crispier, and the filing is a blend of potato and meat. The capitol just has potato, or cobbler’s tuber as they call it. The sauce that comes with it, which I assume is soy sauce, has yet to be replicated in their world, though I doubt Christian is that far behind. As they finish their meal, Altorius reveals that Yomi, one of the four heroes who had been sucked out of the universe when the Demon God was banished, is still alive. She made a life for herself in the Nekoya’s universe. Her grandson just prepared Alexander’s croquettes. They toast her survival, but all this talk of the past gives Alex a serious case of the feels. He goes to a grave and cries, not for Yomi, but for his wife and daughter. His son, however, grew up to found the Eastern Continent Empire. Adelheid arrives at the graves unaware that she is talking to her own great-grandfather. Back at the Nekoya, the staff enjoy a meal together, now including the pork soup. Aletta asks if the restaurant can really afford to be giving away so much meat for free. The Master says that Meat Day only comes once a month. His grandfather’s policy was that any service should be given in food, not money. It’s just how he keeps his grandfather’s spirit alive.

So, a bit of explanation is in order. Meat Day is really a thing in Japan, and it all stems from a pun. You see, every 29th of the month, they eat more meat than usual. This is because 29 (ni-kyuu) sounds the same as the word for meat (niku). So, while Meat Day is once a month, you’re going to find that it is rare and a bit random when it falls on a Saturday. That’s good, because the way Lionel and Gaganpo eat, that pork soup would be a huge mistake if it happened too often. Another note, Meat Day is celebrated on the 9th during February, since February 29th only comes once every four years (and it gets a big celebration as Uruo Niku no Hi, literally “Leap Year Meat Day”). Still, 2/9 could be read as ni-kyuu, so they celebrate it then. This has even gotten so big, the Japanese population of the UK started a London Meat Festival.

This episode tied together with a great number of the loose character plotlines, but as I’ll discuss below, I don’t think it really finished them. It just made it so that they were all connected by more than the restaurant. So, Shareef is in love with Adelheid, who is the great-granddaughter of Alex. Alex not only sold Lionel into slavery, and likely fought with Gaganpo at one point, but is one of the great heroes with Altorius and the Master’s grandmother. She was marooned in our world after fighting the Demon Lord, who had summoned the Demon God. The Demon God had originally been sealed away by the Red Queen and Kuro eons before, along with their fellow dragons, such as Blue. Blue is worshipped by Arte, who guides her friend Roukei to the door at the same island Alphonse Flugel was marooned on, and is now being used as a nest by Arius and Iris. How’s that for a board full of connections?

Our Take

The unfortunate side of all these connections is that the show wasted so much time with unrelated people, that all these connections are between paper-thin characters. Each of the patrons only got about a half of an episode of development, though some lucky ones got two halves. Tatsugoro got completely shafted. He had next to no development, as he only showed up in the restaurant and in Heinrich’s story. Further, this episode is an anticlimactic ending to a series with no real plot. Sure, we find out that the Master has the blood of one of the heroes in him. But, that goes nowhere for providing us with an explanation. Altorius found a door to the Nekoya, but what caused the doors to appear? And why, as the post-credits scene shows, are new doors popping up even now? None of this is explained, and none of the characters seem to reach an “end-point” for their story. Shareef is still too shy to talk to Adelheid. Adelheid is still sick, though slowly recovering. The two beastmen are happy with their brutish lives. Sarah Gold and Heinrich still have a friendly thing while they eat, and it hasn’t developed into anything deeper yet.

Was there any development in this episode? Well, yes. Some are revealed about Adelheid and the Master, sure. Really, it’s Kuro that shows growth. She now only uses telepathy to talk to guests. When she talks to the Master and Aletta, she speaks out loud, even when there are no guests around. In a way, this is showing that she is getting more comfortable around them, as she is starting to consider the way they communicate. When you get down to it, that’s all. Not much changes here. It feels like this is supposed to be the episode before the end, not the finale. Is there going to be another season? I doubt it. As beautiful, peaceful, and creative as this anime was, I don’t see anyone picking up the second season of something with no conflict, no plot, and minimal character development. Twelve episodes, and we still don’t even know the Master’s NAME.

What it does have going for it is its animation and voice acting. For the most part, this is a gorgeous episode, and the characters are expressive in how they are drawn. I say for the most part because there is one portion where the Master is greeting Alex and Altorius. The lineart on his face, as well as the angle of the shot, feels off. The lines are thicker and a bit more fuzzy than normal as if they had to blow up a smaller shot. The angle is strange, and it feels a bit square. I absolutely ADORED Jill Harris in this episode. Every line she said as Aletta was dripping with enthusiasm and joy. While Kuro (Monica Rial) showed subtle emotion in her lines, Aletta wore hers on her sleeves. It made this last episode a pleasure to hear.

So, though the animation and voice acting of this episode were some of the best I’ve seen in a bit, the storyline needs fleshing out, and the characters need to be several magnitudes deeper.