Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hourou Meshi – 03 & 04

Episode 03

Episode 04

「過ぎた力は料理の為に」 (Sugita Chikara wa Ryōri no Tame ni)
“My Super Power Is All About Cooking”

&

「地図が無くては始まらない」 (Chizu ga Nakute wa Hajimaranai)
“Cannot Start the Journey Without a Map”

Okay so apologies are in order first for missing last week, the thing is I did actually watch the episode; just my ADHD ass decided to blank out on actually doing the review.

Would you be so kind to give me a break since my bday is coming up? ( 〃．．)

But worry not! I remember everything about the plot, as episode 03 is sort of the end of this daily life kind of thing Mukohda and Fel have going on. And instead, episode 04 decides to switch focus and start moving things along for the better, since Fel sort of pushes Mukohda into a scary situation with a bunch of goblins who currently reside in a camp. Fel does mention that Goblin meat is not actually edible. But Orc meat seems to be a-okay since they are some kind of humanoid-looking pork.

Let’s not think about the schematics about what is edible and what is not palatable on the show, however, that’s one of the greatness of Tondemo and why I’m probably enjoying it so much. On that note when Mukohda finally wakes up he comes and finds out that Fel hunted a goblin king, which they can use for the crystal inside of the creature that can be sold for a good amount of money.

I think Mukohda still holds on to the ideas that surround the everyday middle class, you can see it reflected as well in the sentiment when he gets scammed for the map.

But before I go deeper into that – Ninrir makes a short appearance, I sort of chuckled and almost spit my water at the way they introduced her, as she touches the pond, the camera pans up towards her and she’s surrounded in mystery. Boy, are anime-only watchers going to have a surprise next episode. Also, my favorite part of Tondemo Sui-chan, the slime in the omake, made an appearance, and oh so soon in the season. Oh, joy!

Anyway, about that scam Mukohda fell into this episode – those guys took advantage of his goodwill. Does Japan favor the scammer or the scamee? It certainly seems like the former since you would think someone who has the wits and the charms to scam an individual into buying a map that is a common resource for 2x its price, is more intelligent than someone who got scammed in the first place. The land of the extroverted; Anyone who fell for the scam didn’t do enough research and wasn’t smart enough to go and ask the right people. But how was Mukohda supposed to know to go to the merchant’s guild or the adventure’s one and ask if they had a map? It’s not exactly common sense or logical.

So do the bar attendees only lack empathy for him, or was there something bigger at play?

In Mexico for example, there are a lot of telephone scams or fishing links where scammers will try and get you to input your bank information into their identical-looking website except for the URL or something like that. You’ll try and within seconds they will take all of your money or at least a large sum of it. But when it happens, banks usually don’t really know what to do – because the money technically was moved by you, just another you. That is not you. Anyway when something like that happens – and I’ve had it happen to a close friend. We usually take empathy for the person. And try to console them and even offer some advice. If something like that would happen in Japan, would people act the same? This episode has me thinking not so.

And that’s another point to Tondemo and its excellent writing, the way it portrays money and cash usage is very strictly Japanese. Maybe because money is such a touchy topic, the LN writer took this approach. Or maybe simply- it’s cultural. There’s certainly a deeper exploration to be had here, and something I would find very interesting. This show has sparked my curiosity in that aspect, and it might be a topic to further pursue as we go along watching this fabulous fantasy cooking show.

I’ve also been thinking to try and cook some of the recipes – would you be interested in a detailed report on that, vlog style?

Oh, who would have thought a cooking show about a giant dog and his human familiar would spark curiosity about the cultural significance and spending habits of people around the world? Might it also speak to Mukohda’s character? I’m being 100% serious here. I know I tend to meme a lot in my reviews, but this is something I would very much like to know more about. After all – Mukohda still holds a very humble approach to money itself, and you could tell he lived day by day in his previous life. So – even though he already made a bunch of money and even was desperate enough to spend one gold coin on a map. He still hasn’t fully set into the idea that with Fel, he might actually never have to worry about money ever again. But would that mean an instant type of egocentricity that would alienate Mukohda as likable for Japanese audiences? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Thanks for reading, I’ll be back for episode 05, promise!

Full-length images: 39.

ED Sequence

ED: 「」 (Happy-go-Journey) by (Yuuma Uchida)

Omake 03

Omake 04

Preview