AWTY 120 - [UNINTELLIGIBLE SOBBING] (Sweetness and Lightning)

Hello and welcome to our weekday There Yet in Exploration and education and anime. I'm your anime idiot, patrick dugan.

I'm an anime expert, D hollander.

And I'm brenda mccullough, your anime giant black orb that forces dead people to fight aliens, but also a loving father trying his best. It makes sense. I don't understand what's confusing.

Nanny to what?

Explain it to me like I'm a five year old. Please.

Okay, santa's not real shit.

Fuck.

I'm bad with kids.

We have to put a content note.

At the beginning of this.

Don't listen with kids, but not for the reason you're thinking.

Content warning, ruining Christmas magic.

Listen, if that's the line where you draw don't listen to kids, you shouldn't have listened to the last 119 episodes of this podcast. We did one about hentai truthfully.

Hey, that's fair.

Confusing opening because pull the last minute audible because it's my week to pick a show. If you heard last week's episode, I said we were doing gantz Zero just to fuck things up and have a real bad time.

Oh, actually, I cut that out because I edited after we changed it roughly cuts into recommendation. Okay, so in elegant editing. But don't worry, I took that out.

I forgot to say real quick, I watched akira for the first time last week.

Yeah.

And after it was over, Paul said something about gantz. I was like, wait, what is gantz like this? I can't do that. It was really good, though. I had never seen it here. It was really good. Anyway, okay, should we redo the opening then?

I was going to say that's good. That was like the opening.

No, it's fine. We can talk about it. Hey, listener. We thought we could have some wacky bad anime time, but surprise, the world continues to be the worst.

So I thought, fuck that. Even for me, the jaded piece of anime shit, I am fuck that. So instead, put a last minute audible. And today we're watching sweetness and lightning, which sounds great.

I thought you would have said spiciness and thunder for your thingy. I thought that would have been fun. I was like, oh, I got one.

Sizzling and loud spicy thunder.

This is one. It was introduced to me like a day ago, so I was like, oh, okay, time to readjust. So I know nothing about it and didn't do any research.

Good.

Have either of you seen this?

I have not, but I've heard a lot about it and I know what it is about, so I'm just like, yeah, I was kind of keeping this one in my back pocket of like, we need a good one because looking at my list of recommendations, I kind of burnt through all my feel good ones last year. So I'm running a little thin. And I saw laid back camp is actually getting a season two soon. I think it's actually airing now. So I was like, wow, give me like, two more weeks and we'll have three episodes and we can just dive back into laid back round two. So hold off on that. But yeah, I was kind of holding this one in my back pocket. The emergency of like, we need feels. We need good feels. Yeah.

This one was sitting behind glass breaking cases.

I did not think we would ever need to break that glass, but here we are.

Here we are.

The guy at the glass store was like, this is impractical. You shouldn't need this. But we showed him.

Surprise. Guy at glass store.

I already forget the title of it. It's the one you recommended. The father who draws a smudy comics.

A Gushigoto.

It's pretty much the same show as that. Instead of drawing Smudy comics, it's a father learning how to cook with his daughter.

That sounds amazing.

I'm already crying just learning this.

So it's just kind of like, oh, this is going to be just like heartfelt as hell.

Like, all right, I'm in the sweetness part of it. Really? It sounds sweet. So there you go.

Don't know where lighting comes into play, but we'll find out.

We'll find out.

Partially connected to the state of the world. I'm pretty hungover today. I need this.

I'm in a similar boat. I had a peppermint hershey white chocolate candy bar last night, and his body is just ravaged. So you got Roy. He had bad to look forward to. When you're approaching 30, everyone.

I for 01:00 a.m in perfect health. As someone who just turned 24 and I don't race, I'm a mess.

Let's learn the cook.

Yeah, let's go.

This goddamn show is the cutest fucking thing I have ever seen in my cold, dead life.

Again, sweetness is it. This is it. Sweetness embodied.

You don't need the lightning in the title. It's just sweetness.

It hits you like a lightning bullet. It's so powerful.

That's it. That's what it is.

That's sweet lightning. Oh, my God.

I own up to crying in most shows I watch. I was on the verge of tears every five goddamn minute.

Yeah.

Anytime. The daughter just looks at the camera, the big guy, she's like, uhoh, do I want kids? No, but I like this one.

This one's good.

Can I have an anime child? No, that just means we'll probably die. You don't want anime kids? Not if you're the parent there.

Even she couldn't escape this one.

Yeah, true.

It's a good thing we got the club jackets and adult and kid size.

Damn it.

Dead parent club so we can get into it. Episode one opens with a man pass out at his desk, and we see the alarm going off, trying to wake him up, but he's just so tired. It's not working to see the daughter roll out from the bed behind him. Even after watching the three episodes, I don't know if they have a separate bed. And I pray to God. He doesn't just sleep at his desk.

Normally I think he fell asleep at his desk, but I think they sleep in the same bed.

That's what I was kind of thinking. But we've never actually seen him in the bed. So I was like, please, please tell me you're not at that desk.

Not to get too technical, but we do see him sleep in the bed once.

Do we?

Yeah.

Oh, yeah, you're right.

Brendan, I need your resignation on my desk.

That's fair. You know what? That's valid.

This is what cinches. It not the fact that he recommended gantt Zero.

Got to live with that.

See, that's fine, but messing up where the dad sweet.

I've just been curled over my desk like a goddamn gremlin. So seeing him sleep at this, it's like, oh, your back is going to be fucked up like mine. Don't do that, man.

I've been down this road. You don't want to follow him.

You don't want to do it. So we see his daughter wakes up with the alarm and then jumps on his back and wakes him up. And it's very cute. And then we get the opening. Pretty standard, a lot of different scenarios. And then doing stuff, we get a little ensemble cast, sneak peek. Very cute.

Adorable.

The precious, of course.

And then we see the dad cooking her lunch, making a little bento lunch for her. And he's kind of lamenting that it's the same thing. He always cooks. It doesn't look bad, but he says it's the same thing every time. So it's like the one meal he knows.

And it's all like instant stuff. I think it's all stuff that he just makes in the microwave pretty much.

Yeah, we see him like that, which is fine.

If that's what he can do. If that's what you can do. You're still eating, and that's fine.

Yeah. The roof over your head, eating clothes on your back, doing good, especially for a single parent.

Yeah.

And we see their whole morning routine. She's watching like a magical girl show, which I'm counting for the bingo card check.

It is prominent enough that that is a very fair check.

Yeah, we see her eating while watching eating breakfast. And he's running around, and she's like, oh, what about my pink magical girl shirt? And he's like, shit, I didn't do laundry. And he's like, oh, god, I forget exactly what he says.

He says they have a yellow one instead.

Yeah. He says, like, I forgot to do it, but maybe if you're strong enough, you can wear the yellow magical girl shirt. And she's like, yeah, yellow strong too. I liked the exchange they had of him not tricking her, but kind of saying, like, here's a different shirt. But he's playing along with her with the magical girl stuff.

Yeah.

So immediately hearing his dad, he's the.

Best anime dad we've ever seen. This guy fucking rules.

Goals to be fair, we've seen like four. It's not a big list, but he's.

Up there and one of them is in erased.

Yeah. So we see them getting ready and it's very cute. We see as they're leaving the apartment, they say goodbye to a picture of their mom. So she's dead. Yes.

Tier number one. I'm not going to categorize all of them, but I was amazed.

I wish you kept a tally.

I couldn't.

I don't have enough room.

Notebook.

Just kept the wet tear drops on your shirt.

My eyes are too blurred by tears to write.

And we see the dad dropping off. I'm just going to refer to dad and daughter whole time.

Yeah, I called him, dad.

We found out the sweetness and lightning are their names. So that's where the title comes from. So we see a dad dropping her off at preschool as he goes to work. Turns out he's a teacher. And when he's at work, we just see a gym teacher kicking the door to the teacher's lounge. And he's like, hey buddy, what are you doing? You want to come out to a welcome part of us? We're going to a bar. It's going to go crazy. We're gonna have fun. He's like, no, I got, you know, my daughter. He's like, lame, bring her. And another teacher's like, no, it's a bar. She's a literal child.

She's literally five.

And the gym teacher's like, oh man, are you eating enough? Every time I see you, you look so thin. You got to eat enough. You got to stay healthy. And I'm just like, yes, himbo. Gym teacher's aimbo.

I was about to say, I would argue that this man is a himbo.

Once he once he shouldn't have been submitted. Accept the form. Once he showed concern for him, I was like, ah, he's got a good heart. That's a hymbo. Yeah.

We have yet to see if he's respectful toward women, but I'm hopeful.

I'm hopeful. We were optimistic. It's a good show.

There was another woman teacher in the room and he didn't go like, yeah.

You should go to the bar. To you, maybe he didn't immediately go, oh, woo. Go check out those sweater, kids. His heart didn't just like beat out of his chest.

His eyes turn into daggers.

He wasn't just oppressively horny. So he's probably respectful. The bar in anime is just so.

Yeah. Is this show actually cute by nonamay stage, or are we just so relieved?

I would say it is, but you.

Know, it can be both. So, yeah, he says, like, I got to make sure you're eating enough. And he's like, well, he's like, I've never eaten that much my whole life, so it's normal for me. Oh man, I just want to plump you up at fiji. I was like, oh, I think that's just a weird thing to say. You're not getting a new mom, sweetie. But what about a new dad? Yeah, the other teacher says, like, well, the store bought bentos. Like those lunches, they're really health conscious now. You have a lot more options, so that's helpful. Especially for, you know, a single parent running around, pick up the kid up and stuff. The dad leaves the teacher's lounge, and then the one teacher who's still there is like, yeah, I mean, he's been struggling since his wife died only six months ago. And she's like, fresh foods, I love.

It, but he's being so strong, he's so drunk.

And then we cut to them at home that night, and we see he's cooking dinner and daughters watching TV. She sees cherry blossoms on the TV check. She's like, look, dad, I know what those are. Those are cherry blossoms. He's like, oh, neat.

Yes, they happen.

We are in Japan.

You've just only been conscious for maybe one of them.

Ain't that the truth?

Like, hey, remember me? I met you when you were four. It's like, cool. I wasn't conscious at that point. I don't have any memories.

My brain turned on at twelve.

Yeah. God, it feels like that. So the next day, the dad's like, hey, we're getting up early, taking you on. Surprise. We're going flower viewing. Seeing all the cherry blossoms that you saw on TV that you were excited about. She's like hot daddy.

Yeah.

He's like, but first we got to clean the apartment.

It's like, good, father, so good.

So we see them running around cleaning, and she's helping out. When they get to the flower viewing, they see there's just a ton of people. It just packed. And I've been inside so long, I realized I started developing a gorophobia. And I started getting anxious to see that many people in one spot.

I felt the same thing.

I was like, no, too many.

Why aren't any of them at least wearing masks?

Our world has changed forever. Anyway, anime. While they're walking around, they notice a girl just kind of like in a gym uniform, sitting by herself, eating and crying. Which we've all been there, especially in recent times.

You can eat without crying.

And so her daughter runs up and she's like, hey, why are you crying? And she's like, oh, it's I'm not sad. It's just the food is so good. And my mom was supposed to come out with me to the flower viewing, and she had to cancel last minute because of work. And like, I get it, she's busy and she has to work and stuff, so I don't hold it against her, but the food's really good and I just wish we could have shared it together. And she's like, parental figure needed in this girl's life. So she talks about that and the daughter's like, oh, how good was it? Was it this good? And she's like, holding out her arms how good the taste is, is like size relatives. And she's like she's like, yeah, is this good? She said, Was it this good. And she's like, shut her out for brilliant. Yeah, it was that good. She's like, I wish I could have food that good. It was just a very cute exchange. She's like, oh, well, I ate all the food. She's like, you ate all of it? Food enough for two people? She's like, yeah, I didn't expect a random child to run up to me and ask for food. I didn't save anything. She's like, oh, but my mom runs a restaurant. If you want to have someone for a cook, you can come by the restaurant and give them a card, all the information on it. Oh, boy, that'd be great. So we see later that day they're coming home from the flower fueling indoors also leave you ride on their shoulders and they stop by convenience, sort of pick up some more bento lunches. She's like, Are we getting more, like, storeball lunch? He's like, yeah. Is that fine? Yeah, I guess so. But you can tell she's kind of had her heart set on the restaurant. And when they get home, she finishes eating and she's like, all right, I'm all done, and gives them the bento box. But there's still half the food in there. And it's clear that the dad season it's like she's not finishing at all. She's not as excited about these. And I love that she recognized that her dad noticed that and got a little sad from it. So then she I forget it happening back. I think she just, like, pokes him in the cheek with it. And then they start, like, playing around and wrestling and stuff like so she saw that he was sad and sort of cheering him up. The emotional awareness of his child, it's.

A sign of good parenting because he lets her express her emotion and cheers her up and so she can do the same for him.

And then the next day that Dad's coming home late from work because he got stuck in a meeting. And when he gets home, don't worry, they made it clear he had a sitter. So once again. Go, Father. When it gets home, we see the daughter just, like, clue to the TV, watching, like, an infomercial about a pressure cooker. And we all did that. I actually did watch a lot of cooking infomercials.

Me too.

It's just crazy to see all that food get made. And she says, like, dad, we got to write a letter to mommy to ask her if she could make meat like this. It's just like.

My audio file for this episode is just half grunting, just holding the tears.

It's just like the anime foley. No, it's just yeah, it's clear that Dad's kind of like, oh, fuck. She wants real food, not bento garbage. And it just cuts to her running on the street with her on his back as he's calling the restaurant to get a reservation. He's like, hey, I got this card from a girl the other day at a restaurant. Am I done? And he's eating food. Do you still open it's? Just like he's running. He's trying to get there in a hurry. And the girl on the phone just like, yeah, because it totally confused. Sounds like the restaurant was closing. And as they're running, they're singing, like, the magical girl theme song of the daughter's favorite show. That's very sweet. When they get to the restaurant, they see it's the girl that they actually ran into. It the flower viewing. And she opens up the door and says, like, oh, sorry. My mother's out of town again. She's busy, so she can't actually run the restaurant right now, and we're closed. And he goes like, well, we tried. I guess we'll just go somewhere else.

She's like, no, take our business elsewhere.

No, never. They need the bumpy. She's like, wait, I ain't cooked you pot rice. And being in La. That's a different connotation. And he was like, oh, I don't know. We don't want to put you out. And daughter's like the daughter's just losing her mind. Just like, rice. It's like oh, Jesus. Okay. So it convinced him to stay. So the girl goes in the back and starts, like, getting ready and starts cooking it, washing the rice, cleaning it, and starts steaming it. She's like, oh, I got to go get something from the back. One moment. So she goes into the back, and then the dad goes he's like, oh, I got to go to the bathroom. poopy. He's like, no, don't worry about it. So he goes back to the bathroom, but on the way back, he hears the girl talking on the phone, like, outside. So he leans out in eavesdrops, and he hears the girl leaving her mom a voicemail saying, like, I don't know how to cook rice. We got customers. What do I do? Please call me back. I fucked up so bad. How much is the cup? Having real trouble, just like, I need help. Mom might want to figure that out before you invited the stranger restaurant to.

Cook for, especially when they were fine going to a different place. And you're like, wait, I can cook you nothing.

So the dad over here's that just walks right back after he hears that. When he gets back, the daughter he goes back to Dan. Daughter asks like, did you poopy? And he goes, no, it went back up. It went back. And so the girl at the restaurant comes back out, and he asked, like, are you okay with stuff? Do you need help? She's like, no, I'm fine. Why do you ask? It's like, no reason. Wasn't he dropping? And she's like, all right. We still got to soak the rice. So it's still taking a while. I see the daughter. She's like, just doodling on a notepad, I guess. The dad carries around with them. Help her be creative. And we see her like, putting socket to steam the rice. And he's like, you can't do that. It's for a child. I'm not trying to get my toddler drunk off her ass. No, it relaxed. It burns off. It's socky. It burns easily. So she says that it's been forever since they had food. Or the daughter says it's been forever since they had food. Dad's. Like what? We eat all the time. Like, we have food all the time. She's like, no, I feed you. You're not starving. Don't make me look bad. And she's like, no, it's been forever since we've, like, eaten together, like, had food together. And he's like, I've abandoned my child. I've abandoned my carol.

My boy.

He kind of realizes, like, yeah, every time he cooks for her and makes her food, he's, like, working and stuff, and she's eating in front of the TV. So while the girls keep preparing the rice and still finishing it off, he knows her school uniform. He's like, hey, do you go to my school? Like, I'm a teacher. And that uniform looks familiar. She's like, oh, yeah, you don't remember? You're my assistant teacher. And he's like, oh, shit. I'm so fired. Don't even recognize my own destiny. And while the rice is steaming, the daughter's getting a little sleepy, and we get a little flashback. Like, the dad looks at her, and we get a little flashback of the mom cooking for them and saying that she always put her heart and soul into everything she cooked, and she was trying to fatten them up because he's always so thin and just like, what a loving family. I hope nothing bad happens to them. We see the rice finish off. Oh, the girl's name. I should remember it. We actually get an eda in this anime. It's not the eda you think it'd be. It's not the nerdy teacher with classes. It's the girl.

Her name is eda.

Kotori eda. And I'm just like, you know what? Fuck it. I'm changing a square on the bingo card. We got anita Square now checking it off. And we see as she finished at the rice, she gets a little teared up. Like, I did it right. I didn't fucking out. Mom open proud. And they all get very excited, and she starts stitching it out to everyone. She's very happy with work of like, look how puffed up it is. You can see every individual grain is sticky enough to hold together. Very happy with the finished product, and her and the daughter dig in, and they're both really happy and just start going to town on it.

The way the daughter holds her spoon is like, everything to me because it is so the way she holds it like a shovel. That's something you see children learning how to use utensils do. And I was just like, Fuck, yeah.

I love the hard grip because it doesn't have to find motor skills for it yet. And it's just like, yeah. I love it when a show is like, we're going to do something a little odd or a little niche, and we're going to make sure we put enough attention to detail to really bring out why we want to do this niche, genre, topic or something that really put the extra effort into it. And when the dad sees them sees her eating, he gets a little emotionally tears up because he's so happy to see her. So happy because it's his little girl. He loves her, and he says he promises from now on, he'll do his best to make her good food too, that she'll be happy to eat like this. And he'll eat with her. He'll make the extra effort to eat with her more and, like, sit down and really enjoy a meal together. That's when the girl, ida asks, like, was the rice good? Yeah, it was good. And then she asked if he'll eat and cook with her more, and he's like, and that's where we end episode one.

So, yeah, we pick up where we leave off of eda saying, come back, please. And he's like, Why?

Also, you're my student. That's weird to tell.

I'm much more uncomfortable now that I know I'm a teacher.

Yeah. Basically, once he realized that, he was like, oh, no, I'm breaking so many taboos. I'm a full adult with two children.

In here, one of which I'm cooking.

And I'm responsible for in work. So we see. The next morning, dad is making breakfast. He's not very good. He's, like, burning the eggs. He's struggling, but he makes a nice homemade lunch of wieners and rice.

Yeah.

And the daughter's like, oh, did eat a help? No, I did this myself. I can cook. I swear.

If the end of the show has him making little octopus wieners, the growth.

I'm sure it must happen at some point.

So we flash back to the restaurant that night before, and eda says that as he's sort of, like, hesitant, being like, oh, well, this isn't really cool, being, like, your authority figure and all. And she has a slight little breakdown moment of like, yeah, my mom, she's like a professional chef, so she's a cooking expert. So she's always going to, like, TV things and stuff. So we have to close the restaurant all the time. And I'm afraid we're going to have to shut down eventually because she's just not around to cook. So he's like, okay, we'll figure something out.

Your wife's dead. My mom's dream job of the restaurant is dead. How we connect.

I think something's happening.

What's going on here?

So, yeah, he's back at school in the teacher's lounge talking with another teacher, saying like, hey, do you know that ida girl? And the other teacher is like, yeah, parents divorced, so it's just her and her mom. And he's like, so hypothetically, if a teacher not me, not the one I just asked about, what are the rules on that? Because it feels very weird.

I like that he actually asks someone else, and he doesn't just get in his own head and spiral into an insane conclusion. We see a lot with anime characters. He actually just talks to someone.

Yeah. He doesn't set up an elaborate plot where he's bouncing between the restaurant and having someone else there and all that stuff.

He's not mrs. Dow firing in. That's not inappropriate. I'm not your teacher. I'm the nanny.

But yeah, that teacher is like, yeah, it's not super common now, but I've connected with students and their families in the past. So as long as you're doing it for normal, not pervy reasons, it should be fine. So he's like, okay, yeah, I'm going to meet the mom, talk it out. I don't want to just, like, go behind a parent's back hanging out with their underage child. We see the daughter drawing in preschool. She takes the picture home, and she drew Eden. Dad cooking some hamburger steak. So just like, hamburgers hamburger patties. She's like, ah, yes, this is this is my dream. This I'm willing it into the world.

I'm manifesting it, putting it up on our spirit board. She's five.

When he sees that she really loves the cooking nights, he's like, okay, well, I have to keep doing this. I'll make it work. So at school, dad sees eda, like, eating by herself outside, just outside a window. He just leans out and is like, hi. I love this. Because he's so uncomfortable and embarrassed. He's having this conversation, facing away from her, just being like, that was fun. I want to do it again, but can I please meet your mom and talk to her? I'm so uncomfortable.

Set up some ground rules.

He's like, don't have to rush. Not urgent whenever she's available. And he just like, no, tonight, definitely come over. Make whatever you want. Tell me what you want. And he's like, how about, I don't know, just pulling this out of thin air. hamburg steak. And she's like, yep, can do.

We'll do that.

And some pork soup. Great. Going to do it. So he picks up his daughter from school, and they go to the restaurant. They walk in the door, and eda is just like, the restaurant set up is, like, very small. It's basically just a counter with, like, five chairs. And she's just, like, throwing herself on the chairs, like, bowing up, apologizing as soon as I walk in the door. And he's like, I'm so sorry. My mom got called into work last minute and can't make it.

It was at this point I was like, is her mom not real?

That's what I was thinking.

I'm worried about this now.

Are you sure your mom isn't in the room right now?

She's been dead the whole time. Child living alone. Question mark on the bingo card, basically.

Yeah, I think we can hit that. But she left. A note. I had her sign it. Her thumbprints on it. She exists. She's real.

She says I should have gotten her to sign it with blood too. It's like, Jesus, lady.

It is just so cute that she's like, oh, no, I'm so embarrassed. I fucked up two meals in a row. But the note is just like, hey, thanks for hanging out with my daughter. Sorry I have to keep working to have fun. So he gets the approval. The mom knows he exists, and but he still feels weird about it. So they start making the soup. eda asks that he takes cutting the veggies. She's going to taste test because she knows how to season things and he doesn't. So he's very not competent with knife skills. He's very slowly cutting up the veggies. And he's like, hey, I suck. If you don't help, it's going to take all night. And she's like, I'm so sorry I didn't tell you this. I'm so afraid of kitchen knives.

I get it, honestly.

Fair. But she's also immediately like, I know it kind of seems like I'm just inviting you over to chop things up for me because I'm afraid, but I swear that's not the case.

They're using each other. She needs stuff cut. He needs food.

It works. symbiotic relationship.

Yeah.

They're looking at the recipe. It's super complicated. And they're like, yeah, we can sort of wing it a little bit. It's more of a guideline. The dad confesses in this chopping. He's like, yeah, I'm worried. I'm a bad cook, and I feel like I can't provide for my child. He opens up and he's like, I'm glad this restaurant is here and we can help each other. I'm glad we can do this. So as they're tearing stuff up, the daughter's like, she's like, ripping things up too. And she's like, this piece is a kitty. This piece is a duck. So eda is like, okay, I know what to give a five year old in the kitchen. Here are some cookie cutters. Cut all the veggies into cute shapes.

Yeah.

So precious.

They're cooking. The daughter happens to look under the counter and sees that at some point, baby ida wrote her name under there also.

So cute. I know it's this girl. I know her name is eda. But right now when he said Baby eda, I'm imagining my hero. I did just like tiny and square and just like super straight legs.

The ultimate crossover.

She's her cousin. It works.

They're going through it seasoning. It getting it up to taste. And the daughter's like, yeah, we're a great team. You do the cutting, dad, you do the seasoning. And I make the menus. And she holds up a picture. It's just them as squids. They're like, no, there's no squid in this, right? It's not a menu. And she's like, it's fine. Tape it up on the wall. I made a precious art.

Good enough.

They finished the soup. And they're like, we are so bad at this. It took so long. We don't have time for the steak. We'll have to do it at a different time. But they serve it up and it's delicious. Dad gets all teary because he's like, I'm connecting with my daughter.

I learned how to cook, and my daughter likes it.

Finally, I'm good for something, even though I'm raising a child by myself and educating a bunch of other children. The daughter is so excited for next time. And eda is kind of worried. Like, I kind of scammed him this time too. Both times I scammed him so he's not going to want to come back. But he is enthusiastic as well. Finally, he's super on board. He's like, yes, we're coming back. We will figure out some ground rules later because this has been weird, but it's all been fun. So we'll figure it out. And that's where we end episode two.

Yeah. So in the beginning of episode three, we're with eda in the morning. She gets out of bed and goes down to the restaurant, presumably to see her mom, but no one is there. Her mom left her a yummy meal and also a note saying that she'll be on TV at 715. She also loves rice.

Yeah, we always eat just a mountain of rice anytime she eats.

Yeah, this girl, she puts it in her mouth and she's just like, this is the greatest food ever.

Not bland at all.

So she, like, turns on the show on her phone. And when her mom comes out, she's like, wearing a school uniform. And she says hello to her on the TV. And eda just looks mortified. And I was like, is it because of what she's wearing or because she said hello to her on live television?

Yeah, I wasn't sure which one.

Yeah, it's both. And then we see the dad made breakfast. He burnt some of it. So he's eating that and we see it on the plate. And his stuff is like they're divided by a line of ketchup. His food. Her name is Sumgee. I actually wrote the little girl's name.

Yeah.

I couldn't remember if we've actually said.

It, so I was like, yeah, Sumoogi. Yeah. So he's eating the burnt stuff. He also made me so soup. And Sumoge like, pulls a piece of tofu out, and she's like, this is so big. And he's like, it means you won. And she's like, wow, what did I win? And he's like, you won. But she says it's yummy. yay. She has this little clothing motif of little piggies, and she's pulling on little piggy socks. I think it has something to do with the show that she watches.

Yeah, I think it's like the animal sidekick in the show because when they go to the flower viewing, she's like, oh, make sure you take Mr. Gallagowy. And it's like a pink sheep, but it's got like, a pig's face. And he hasn't like stuffed in his shirt because she asked him to.

Yeah. So she's like pulling on her little piggy socks and he's like gathering his stuff to leave. And she notices that the dishes are still on the table. So she takes them to the sink, but she can't quite reach. So he picks her up and they put them in the sink. Later on, eda is sitting in her spot eating some more bread and just being mad about her mom and what she did on TV to dad. He's like standing in the window.

That hurts.

I love that they have conversations like this.

Yeah, she's outside back against the wall. And he's like cleaning against the window.

Yeah, that it's like almost secret. But also if anybody walked by, it would not matter.

The optics of this are weird. We both know that. But we're just having fun. We're taking care of each other.

Yeah.

Even when he catches her there the first time, she's like, oh, I eat lunch here. Am I not allowed to? He's like, no, that's fine. No one usually is here. It's just odd.

So she asked him how breakfast went and he's like, I burnt the eggs, but the soup was good. And she asks him if he's afraid of undercooking things. And he says that he is because when sumoi gets a tummy ache, it's like really hard on her.

That's some real shit.

Yeah. It's also very relatable. I'm so afraid to undercook stuff.

Yeah. I usually go overboard with it.

Yeah. And Sumugi is at school. Her friends ask her to play, but she's busy making a hamburger steak out of clay.

Hell yeah.

She makes one. Oh my god. The way she like slaps it to the table with such force.

Very dramatic scene.

She makes one, but she wanted to also make like plates and utensils, but she doesn't have enough clay. So her friends are like, hey, you can use ours. That's so nice. And a boy overhears this a little shit.

The smarmy little asshole sucks.

They start cleaning up and the teacher is like, oh, hey, Sue moogie, where did you get all of that clay? And this little shit lies and says that she stole it from her friends. And she's like, that's not true. Right, guys? And then her friends are like, yeah, no, we gave it to her. And he says, like, either way that's not fair because if you're not going to give it back to them, you're a thief. And boy, does she latch onto this. And it is so sad.

For what?

Dad is at work and he gets a phone call and he has to go pick her up because she got in trouble. He gets there and it turns out she scratched the little boy. But it was an accident. It sounds like it was an accident and he's just being a little crybaby.

About it when they say that. Like, oh, she scratched me. I was like, yeah, kick his ass. And then we find out. Okay, yeah.

And then the little boy's mom gets there, and she gets mad at him, and she's like, did you make another little girl cry? You're the worst, son.

He's clearly a little shit.

This woman we don't know her name, just that she's this kid's mom. She rules. She's like, you need to apologize to Sumugi, because even if she scratched you on purpose, you instigated this, so you have to apologize. And I was just like, yes.

This kid is five, and she's done with this shit already.

Yeah. And Sumugi is laying there with her school smock pulled up over her head. And when he does apologize, she just keeps saying no. She throws a little tantrum. And she was supposed to hang out with her friend. She was supposed to go to her friend's house, and dad picks her up to take her home, and as he's walking out, the little girl and her mom are outside, and the little girl goes by Sumoogi, and there's something about a little kid being upset and their friend knowing that they're upset. I don't know. I feel like I've seen something exactly like this before, and it's just like I don't know. I can't explain it. It makes me feel something.

It was incredibly sweet to see, like, her friend patiently waiting of like, no, we'll still hang out when you're done. And then even when it was clear that no, Sumki is going home, she can't hang out today. She's like, okay, hope you feel better. Just like.

The pure empathy of a five year old. It's delightful. So on the way home, the whole time, sumugi is still just hiding in her shirt. And when they get home, he's like, hey, it's just me. Come out now. And she does. She's just upset that he called her a thief. That's it. She's just like, that's not me. I'm not a bad person. And he suggests that they buy some clay to give back to her friends, even if they weren't expecting it back. Maybe that'll make her feel better, because he doesn't want her to think of herself as a beef, because she's not. And then we're at the restaurant, and it's finally time to make that hamburg steak. Sumugi is still in a bad mood from the whole ordeal.

It's been a day.

Yeah. So they hope that the steak will cheer her up, and then they start cooking. It's time to chop some onions. So eda gives dad a face mask and goggles so his eyes don't sting. And they see that that makes Sumugi giggle, like, she's trying to hide it, but she's laughing, so they're like, leave it on.

Do it for her.

And then he, like, holds up the onion, and he's like, I don't know how to cut this. And I'm like, that's fair, bud. So they use the recipe that her mom left to figure out how to cut it. And she does, like, little illustrations and stuff.

Yeah. edith says it's like, oh, we're cooking for a small child. She's like, oh, I'll do a little drawings. And it's like, these drawings help us more than the child.

Yeah. And so, yeah, he's working hard on that onion, and he gets a good chop going. woohoo. And they're, like, excited about it. And they're trying to make Sumugi excited, but she's just not having it. And then they caramelize the onions. They cook some more in this one, they show the recipe with measurements. And I was like, that's baller. That's cool.

Cook along at home.

Yeah. And eda is talking him through the whole thing, and then it's time to shape the patties. And he asks Sumugi if she wants to help, but she says no. First he asks what he can do to make her feel better, which is great. She's still upset. She says that she feels like she did something bad, and so that's when he, like, rushes around the counter and, like, gets down on her level. I love it. She says, I'm not a thief, but I also had no intention of giving the clay back to my friends. Does that make me a bad girl? And he's like, no, sweetness and child. My notes from here on out have.

So weight of the world on your shoulders over this feeling.

My notes from here on out have so much caps and exclamation points that's.

When the emotion kicks in.

Yeah. And he's like, no, you're a very good girl. You're kind and you help around the house, and you make me so happy. And I was just like, I'll cry right now. Do not touch me.

This is too much.

And he says that he loves her, and she smiles. It's so sweet. And then she's like, yeah, I'll help shape the steaks. So they do it, and she does the same thing that she did with the clay. She just, like, throws it to him with such force because you have to toss a hamburger steak to get the air bubbles out is what they say. But I thought it was just to shape it, but they probably know more than I do.

Maybe a little bit of both.

Yeah, she's doing great. They cook some more. They make a tomato sauce. They put the steaks in the sauce to stew them, and then they put fried eggs on top, and it looks delicious. And they're, like, so proud of themselves, both ida and dad, they're just like, wow, we really did this one. And Sumugi takes a bite and she starts crying, like, full on sobbing, because it was just like she just had such a build up of emotion throughout the last couple of days, and she just lets it all out right now.

She's been looking forward to it for so long.

Yeah. And he picks her up and she's he's like, you've been such a good kid. Like, throughout this ordeal with this little boy calling you a thief, like, it's a little asshole. I know. I know it's been hard for you. I'm proud of you for, like, accepting his apology, ultimately. And you're a good kid. eda asks Sumugi what she was going to make with the clay. And she's like, oh, I was going to make a birthday present for my dad because today is his birthday. And he looks at the date and he's like, oh, I guess it is. I forgot. And there's a little flashback of her mom helping her mark the calendar for his birthday. Yeah. And eda is like, what the fuck? I should have done. I wish I knew. I would have gotten him something. So she makes a perfect bite from her plate and she's like, eat this, please. It's the perfect bite. And he's like, no, that's weird.

I'm not doing that.

Yeah, that's episode three.

Good shit.

Yeah, this was impeccable.

So we aren't there yet. We're going to pass on this one, right?

We're going to yeah, too cutesy for me.

Too cute too.

My brain has gotten so used to being sad all the time. That's all I can absorb now.

Also, I don't remember what episode it was in, but there's one point where Sumoogi tells her dad to write a letter to mom to ask her to do something for them. And I was like, does she not know that her mom is dead? Is that going to happen at some point in the show where he has to explain to her that her mom is dead? Yeah, because that would be rough as hell.

It's the first episode and it's like, yeah, they have the picture. But yeah. I don't know if a child that young fully understands, like, she's gone forever, sort of. And not just like or just like.

The fully devastating thing of like, can we write her a letter while she's in heaven?

It's like, oh, no.

You think it's just a place?

Oh, god.

The concept.

They don't have post offices.

I won't say which. There's an anime where a parent dies and the daughter is like pulling on the mom's arm. And it's like, no, but dad has more work to do. He's got stuff to do. I was like, oh, I know exactly.

You want to fucking talking about stuff. Oh my god.

Destroying. So I'm just like I mean, yeah, the show is 13 episodes and like, it's it's great. The first three I would love if this is just all of the rest of the content. But yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if there's more, like, I guess character development with the yeah, like more emotional stakes with like, you know, the mother's passing sort of stuff.

There's still plenty of time to break our hearts even more than we do every 10 seconds.

If I put a puppy in here, done. We're done.

I actually watched episode four.

I held off because I didn't want to get my notes confused because I didn't want to, like, accidentally reference it. But, yeah, I'm gonna finish. Are we there to get dugan?

I'm I need to finish this. This is so good.

Oh, my God.

My New Year's resolution only very vaguely is doing more cooking, and this hits all the notes of Cooking Found family, raising a cute, durable child. That's the most pure energy in the world.

I think a big part is, like, if you can make a child both interesting and compelling in a show, that's a big achievement because so often can a child be written, just be really annoying. But they do it well. And I granted, she's incredibly emotionally mature for a child her age, but we are just seeing snippets versus we just see her throwing a tantrum already.

Yeah. And she is just written so well where it's like, yeah, she's a likable child, but not in a way where it's like, yeah, clearly, an adult that's never spent time with a child wrote this, and they're like, oh, yeah. Tiny adult, perfect. Cool. That's how they're relatable. It's like, no, she's singing cartoon theme songs. She's playing with Clay, freaking out over being called a thief because I was about to say that's the biggest Traffe she felt. But, no, that's not true. I have to we're holding you to it. You have to hold me accountable for this. I can't not finish.

Okay. You've given us permission.

You can't only have watched B stars in agra. suko, you need something else.

I mean, I never finished those.

No, you watch more of those than anything else.

But if this is the first actual full series, I finish, that is a very good thing. I can feel good about that.

Yeah, it's like Food Wars, but without titties.

Yes, it is.

What if Food Wars was rated G? Wait, hang on. Food wars is the combination of this show and the show about the guy raising the smutty.

I had that exact thought.

From both of those shows, and you'll wind up with this delightful, but yeah.

Hey, listener. Hey. This is your template. This is the golden example of the record.

This is how we can we're looking for so not gantz Zero.

If you have any shows that hit as good as this, then please send them to our email. Our email is areweebetherya@gmail.com or you can reach out to us on Twitter. Instagram. Are we there yet? On both? You can find me on Twitter and Instagram at mrpatrick. dugan and listen to my fiction podcast, echoed locations.

I tweeted about this from our account, but I have some handle changes. I've rebranded myself.

Yeah.

So it's time.

Yeah. You can now find me on Instagram at Honeyperiod d. Honey is spelled hunnie, and D is D-E-E. You can also find me on Twitter at honeyde and honeyde. Art yeah, that's it. Okay. Got it.

Eight, like the number eight.

Eight, like the number eight.

You can find me on Twitter. abts brandon, that's branding I'm going to stick with till I die or until I get on social media, whichever happens first. It stands for Almost Better Than Silence, which is a video game podcast I'm recording in, like, 20 minutes.

We got to get out of here. In that case, thank you to camille for our artwork. And thank you to Louis zong for theme song stories. You can find all of Louis music at Louisong bandcamp.com. Thank you, and we hope you'll join us next week as we learn to live with anime.

I'm so hungry now.

I need a cookie. papa.