Posted by  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
「視線の先、重なる足跡」 (Shisen no Saki, Kasanaru Ashiato)
“Overlapping Footprints in the Distance”
Let’s be honest, ACCA is no role model for lifestyle habits. It’s not just Jean smoking his way around the country to keep the nation’s oncologists employed. It’s also the parade of beautiful food that march in every other scene—food that’s, invariably, rich in empty calories. Don’t get me wrong, bread’s great. I love baked grains of all sorts, and that’s the problem. I can feel the breadlust coming on every week I watch this show, and it’s going to wreak havoc on my diet.
Outside of the decadent food porn, ACCA‘s been progressing a lot faster than I expected. We actually got through the audit of two districts this episode (which as much as twice the usual! Really!) and the pace really seems to have kicked up a gear. Where ACCA was still in ‘survey the districts and get a feel of the regional problems’ mode, with the plot waiting patiently outside for Jean to become ready to engage with it, this week the plot comes barreling in through a window someone accidentally left open. Jean finally realises that he’s being monitored, and not through shadowy detective work to crack a mystery, but because his self-appointed allies basically reveal his opponent’s hand to him. Obviously, the ACCA is not so much concerned with sleuthing as the human drama. After all, we knew the identity of ‘Crow’ from the very beginning; the interesting part is how Jean will react when he discovers that the spy is his closest friend.
At first, I thought there would have been a great gnashing of teeth over this apparent betrayal. I interpreted Jean finally noticing that he was being watched as him finally finding discomfort with Nino’s continuous presence—trust had been eroded. And when they confronted, I expected maybe tears and high emotions. I should have known better. ACCA has always been very understated, even emotionally, and also strangely positive. And here, between Jean and Nino, it’s not that the apparent betrayal breaks their close bond, but their close bond that gets them over the apparent betrayal. Yeah, sure, a good part of it may just have been Jean’s general apathy, but I like to think that it’s old friendship prevailing, even if Jean is still wily enough to stick Lotta onto Nino to keep him occupied.. I’m going to allow myself to feel happy about this one.
With ACCA resolving all of its plot hooks all of a sudden, where do we go from here? Jean is poised to confront Grosullar as well, and maybe this whole coup thing is going to get sorted out. Nino has confirmed that he’s serving two masters. Jean’s probably stood up his conspiracy date a few too many times. We’re not even half way through the series yet. What else could be in store?
“decadent food porn”? Aren’t you being a bit too hard with Bread-tan?
My bet now is that Jean isn’t part of any conspiracy, but now he can choose to be part of one. In his work she saw too much, but he cares too little to really see something wrong. Now that he is being forced to think and rethink everything, he may be able to find what and who is doing wrong.
Nino’s boss seems to want to use him to do something, and in the end he can actually does it.
Stalker and Maggie(?) can be useful to protect Lotte if Jean choose to take part in the plot(s).
When Jean asked Nino to take Lotta out to dinner every day while he’s gone, I was laughing so hard. It’s subtle but smart and just so… Jean! I love this show to bits and can’t decide between it and Youjo Senki about best in season.
It’s Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu.
I don’t know if it’s this show or me starting work that is making me eat more these days. Weird…
We’re probably not going to see dramatic reactions from Jean, but that Grosullar guy I don’t know. His emotions boiled deep into those dead eyes tells me he’s going to break soon,and I like.
Oh yes I can gain weight just on wonderful bread, even plain with nothing on it. This is a evil show, luckily the good bakeries are not close.
Interesting additional plot points. Be no surprise that Jean became target loyal, that a very common spy problem the longer the contact the better a chance of a bond developing. But I had though Jean must be onto Jean before, maybe not, maybe Jean knows to act betrayed when he needs to.
How do those three girls in the office stay slim with all the Jean food bribery?
Prince’s man might be falling for Lotta too.
Still interesting that the extinct ACCA bird flys all over in the opening even interacts with Director General.
Interesting that they have been that effective on tobacco reduction. Almost always complete drug bans fail, hundreds of years of history on this, the laws against only increase the number of people killed and break down society while feeding organized crime. So here maybe the fact that smokes are legal but just made supper expensive has done the job.
Oh forgot to mention the possible new ship sailing this episode.
Do Natsume Ono’s other mangas feature food as heavily as ACCA? I’m not sure if this is a characteristic writing style of hers.
Ono Natsume also did House of Five Leaves. Not quite as much cuisine in that one.
Well, she did Ristorante Paradiso…
I feel bad for Grossular.
I am still a bit confused between Jean and Nino.. Like are they against each other or are they best friends and will be against each other? =/
Overall, another interesting episode. I’m still not fully on board with the degree of food pr0n and how that factors into the plot. I know it’s for silly-fun comedy, but meh. Some of that’s fine, but with all the dinners, bread-shopping, etc. it’s a bit much. Worse IMO is dereliction of duty by bread.
But there’s quite a bit that I do like with this show/series. If the anime’s job is to interest me in the LN (that’s source material – right?), then mission accomplished. Plan to go back a read them to fill in some gaps, get a better understanding of things (e.g some of the political structure question I have).
Personally, I didn’t consider this any hard core “detective” type drama, but rather one of political maneuvering, potential revolt, etc. So it didn’t bother me when Jean was tipped off about Crow. I was a little surprised, and wondered why now and perhaps even why be so vague about it rather than just say “Dude, your friend Nino has been spying on you”.
I wasn’t sure how Jean would react when he confronted Nino (how DID Jean know Nino would be in the woods?). I think it played out fine though, and does fit with Jean’s character. He’s not the most expressive type and obviously calm under pressure as we’ve seen before. Loved Jean sticking Nino with his sister to ensure Nino didn’t follow Jean. Clever move. Nino’s reaction was pretty funny as well.
All in all, same as before. The series does a good job with keeping up some suspense, some “what’s going to happen next”, etc.