Summary:
A South Korean pachinko parlor has recently opened in Nerima and is attracting the attention of all the older women in the city. The big draw comes from all of the pretty boys being employed there as hosts. In fact, even Mako is caught up in the excitement and blackmails Hideki into giving her money to play there. Ichiro learns that the boys in that parlor all have undergone plastic surgery to look beautiful and are very good at separating the women from their money. Also, the parlor accepts vegetables (for kimchi) instead of money. In any case, Mako uses all of their money there and Hideki has to drag her out. And after seeing that the pachinko parlor is raking in the cash with even pachinko tours, the three decide to do something about it.
From Nabeshin, they obtain some vegetable costumes, and the commotion they make gets them taken straight upstairs. But Mako betrays them with a sob story to the owner, who ends up sending Hideki and Ichiro to be pickled as kimchi. Of course the owner has his perverted eyes on Mako’s cabbage costume and making her into kimchi. Meanwhile, Hideki and Ichiro are stuck in a pickling jar when Pandaikon comes to break them free. Or rather, panda “stimulated” Ichiro into breaking them out. Apparently the kimchi made the three of them super powerful. And fortunately for Mako, they arrive just in time to save her from the owner. They knock down the pachinko parlor with their new kimchi-granted powers and take all of the money (which was stored in kimchi jars). But while washing and drying the pickled money, the pachinko tour buses arrive and let loose a horde of women who take it all. So in the end, the Nerima Daikon Brothers still have no money.

Another great episode of ND Brothers. I’m slightly disappointed that they reuse several of the songs, but they did give them new lyrics to fit with the episode, so it’s OK. They’re still very funny and enjoyable songs. Well, mostly – I do hope they get some better singers to play the villain parts, whose songs so far I haven’t really liked. The humor is also a bit more hit-and-miss this episode, but I thought the whole kimchi thing was hilarious. Remember kids, eating your kimchi can make you super powerful. Kinda makes me wonder what type of underlying message they’re trying to send here about (South) Korean-Japanese relationships, especially in the wake of fairly recent conflicts.
Actually, while writing this entry I added the word “Pandaikon” into my MS Word dictionary lol. That panda is really developing into my favorite character on this show. Anyway, next week looks to be filled with nurses and needles.

8 Comments

  1. I like this anime a lot, especially their sense of humor. I have heard many pachinko parlors are owned by Koreans living in Japan and that they are notorious for their evading the sales tax. I don’t know how Korean people see this episode but it is kind of fun to me to see some bad people being made fun of like this way. It is almost the same pattern as last one, isn’t it? Is this anime going like this all the way?

    shozo
  2. It is almost the same pattern as last one, isn’t it? Is this anime going like this all the way?

    Yea it kind of is, but I still find it very entertaining. Hopefully future episodes will be a bit more varied in the plot, though I don’t mind too much as long as the music is good and the jokes are funny.

  3. I’m a Korean myself and I’m not really sure about the Korean pachinko thing..I’ve never heard that they are spread over Japan like ‘Indian’ cazinos in the states. And no,I found this episode rather amusing than offensive. (Plus who hates Nabeshin?) Also my Korean accquaintences are rather like ‘geez I’ve never seen thus much Korean stuff in a Japanese animation!’ ..so anyways no Koreans were offended in this episode 🙂

    What I know is that the whole episode is a parody of the Korean subculture(Han-ryu) in Japan. In Japan, there’s this really popular Korean actor calles ‘Bae Yong-Joon’, called ‘Yonsama’ for short, who’s especially popular amongst the obasan community.(he’s a soap opera star) In fact,Yonsama is so popular that he makes other cameo(?) appearances in other animes such as Pokemon and Speed Grapher. He’s reconizable for his glasses,Brown curvy hair,and scarf.As you can see,the pachinko owner is a clear portray of Yonsama. Also,Yonsama’s face is drawn in one of the Pachinko machines as well.
    What this episode also pokes fun at is the plastic-surgery culture in S.Korea.Gotta admit, it’s like NOTHING to have plastic surgery in order to make yourself pretty.Like you can see it in a famous site’s internet AD:’ Chip your nose!It’ll make ya really pretty!’
    Funny thing is, when celebreties have rumors that they had them, Korean people really despise them. Ironic indeed.

    What else…not all Koreans like hot stuff and Kimchi.However my mother eats pizza and spagetti with Kimchi..

    sukreih

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