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「ヨル’s キッチン」 (Yoruzu Kitchin)
“Yor’s Kitchen”
「情報屋の恋愛大作戦」 (Jōhō-ya no Ren’ai Dai Sakusen)
“The Informant’s Great Romance Plan”
They really leaned into Spy x Family’s favorite technique, dramatic irony. From the zoomed out and up close camera shots, the squeaky suspense music, and incomplete knowledge of the situation, we feel the same suspicion and anxiety that Anya and Loid feel when Yor repeatedly arrives home late, emotionally and physically cut up.
When I saw Queen Bitch Camilla huddling with her besties, I was afraid it was going to be soul-crushing time for Yor. Instead, she is enlisted by her boyfriend to help Yor learn how to cook to please her hubby. I feel for Yor, having to live with the anxiety that her newfound family will reject her, all because she doesn’t live up to society’s cruddy expectations that a woman worth her salt will know how to cook. It doesn’t help that Camilla gets her digs in, exasperated that a girl with poor cooking skills could get married at all.
How Camilla takes society’s and her own misconceptions to heart reveals a lot about her. Her boyfriend mentions Camilla is a great cook-her skills perhaps driven by her desire to be of use to him, and her criticism of Yor, a projection of her own insecurities about the image she needs to maintain. How much of her “teaching” Yor stems from a kindness in her heart, wanting to help, and how much from wanting to look good for her man. I say “teaching” because it looked like Camilla wasn’t doing anything other than spectating the disaster area. The least she could do is teach Yor how to chop, peel, and season. In the end, the key is to start with what you know, Yor finding success in recreating her favorite childhood dish of Southern stew.
I strongly disagree that the burden of cooking should fall to the woman alone, however I am baffled at how any person could whip something up like that. Seriously, who peels potatoes to shreds and cooks something like toxic waste-that is outside the bounds of plausibility. While I’ve had my fair share of horrendous cooking mishaps, I have never created something like that. I think the whole death-inducing dish thing is a horse anime has beaten to death so much, they’re just beating the air around it now, the horse itself having disintegrated long ago.
I wish Yor could break free from her misconceptions and take a step back to see that Loid doesn’t really care that she can’t cook. Loid appears perfectly fine with doing the cooking and Anya is happy just to have a caring mother. They both need her as much as she needs them. Unfortunately, when something has been drilled in your head through propaganda and personal opinions, it can be hard to break out of it, especially when you’re so close to it, it becomes hard to see.
Yor is not the only one with domestic troubles-poor Franky is in the dumps for not being able to get his own family life started. While willing to help a friend out, the smooth-talking Twilight has no clue of what Franky is going through. Twilight’s conversation map was like giving a kitchen knife to a 5-year-old- it-in the hands of someone who doesn’t know how to use it, it becomes a weapon of self-destruction. Twilight has the social skills to read people, making the conversations work. Franky in his social clumsiness, does not and no amount of pre-fabricated lines will help him in that-it takes experience.
It was sweet to see Twilight try to help, going the extra mile in disguising himself for Franky’s practice run and sharing drinks with him in the aftermath. In the end, though, Twilight got the better end in the deal in the trade off of his date advice for Franky’s new device.
Preview
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From Manga to Anime, I feel like Loid plays a better parent figure than Yor does. Loid is fully immersed in his facade, oftentimes I forget he’s single and not a family man.
But Yor’s parental responses are not second nature; she seems like she’s straight up acting as a mother figure. Like she is trying to be a guardian for another Yuri with Anya and Loid. This learning to cook is proof. Usually when a parent knows their culinary skills are lacking, they just roll with it and have their spouse and children endure it. (That’s why meat loaf in American sitcoms are always shit.) so seeing Yor learn to cook doesn’t improve her character it’s just extra fluff.
My God, I thought seeing Frankie’s hopeless attempt to woo a girl was bad in Manga it is worse in Anime. I felt sorry for Franky, even Anya felt bad. And to add alcohol to the fire Loud bought Franky a Macallen and not a LAGAVULIN 16 OR A LAPHROAIG 10!…(∏.∏ )
What exactly do you fucking want from her? S
She wants to be a good mum and make her family happy. She will get an arc focus on her soon and it explored her very well, so instead of complaining why not enjoy the “fluff” or are you one of the sheep omwho prefer jjk girls because you foolishly think shonen kacks great females?!
Everyone has different likes and dislikes when it comes to characters and that’s ok. Variety is the spice of life. A difference in opinion is not intended as a slight to those on the other side, so let’s all please be respectful of each other instead of attacking differences in taste.
I take offense to the F bomb, it makes your response abrasive and difficult to respond to properly.
But yes, I am being pansy when describing Yor’s acting like a Mum. Yor’s mission has always been direct hit jobs, in/out. While Loid’s missions have a lot of delicacies to it. This will dictate how they each play their respective role. I’m just saying Yor acts more like head maid of a house or older sister to Anya.
Loid definitely is more natural in his role-he has to be a good actor to be a good spy. Yor has a lot of pressure to keep things together so she can keep being an assassin and doesn’t know how to play it cool. You can see her thought process tail-diving into anxiety in her self-talk about properly fulfilling her duty or else…
Yeah Yor’s bad cooking skills is a known trope, but the story nicely ties it back to her cooking probably, from her point of view, causing Loid to have that day-long bathroom break. So to her it’s not only the perception of a good wife she’s trying to correct.
From here on out, Loid really should come up with a cover for his absence that doesn’t involve a ridiculously long bathroom break.
My hot g/f
https://randomc.net/image/Spy%20x%20Family/Spy%20x%20Family%20-%2016%20-%20Large%2007.jpg
Maybe, but you gotta admit they keep it fresh here by adding Yuri to the mix whose feelings are so complex about Yor’s cooking that his mind and body don’t seem to agree on them.
Yuri’s probably not the best person to be taste-testing for Yor-anything she makes he’ll compliment, no matter how undeserved. On the other hand, her cooking could be Loid’s secret weapon against the SS.
I do agree that part of the pressure that she has to cook is indeed cultural and possibly pragmatic considering the setting. At the start of the series, her being still unmarried at nearly the age of 30 is seen as suspicious. Also, she has to worry about others gossiping about her and about her lack of cooking ability. We’ve seen the Forgers have to maintain the facade of a happy family or the neighbors may gossip about it and get the attention of the state police.
On the other hand, we get to see the Lethal Chef trope at work again and little brother Yuri has developed a high poison resistance, which is useful for this line of work. Oddly enough, that doesn’t seem to work against alcohol and he’s as much as a lightweight as his sister.