I’ll give credit to Shoushimin Series for this. If you’re going to adopt a highly unconventional narrative structure, it usually only works if you’re fully committed to it. Go big or go home – and in terms of whatever this is, Shoushimin is going big. I hate to dredge up the Seinfeld comparison again, but it fits. That show worked best when it fully embraced its groundbreaking ethos – “The Parking Garage”, et al. When it got more conventional (especially in the last couple of seasons) it really lost something. This isn’t nearly as good, obviously – but it did get the memo.
Now, if I may diverge (because I have to talk about something)… It so happens that the best dessert I’ve ever had (and I’ve had some good ones) was a charlotte. I couldn’t tell you the name of the place but it was at a casual bistro in Paris, which can provide some of the best bang for buck cuisine in the world. When you order the plat de jour you get a choice of usually 2-3 appetizers, mains, and desserts for a very cheap price. Add a carafe of the always-decent house wine for a few Euros and you’re eating well for a pittance. At one of those meals I chose a chocolate charlotte, and it was unbelievably great. I’ve had some amazing desserts in my time but this – this was special.
Of course I was put in mind of this with charlottes being the MacGuffins (MacMuffins?) of this episode. Now, I don’t go for these frou-frou fruity ones – plain chocolate for me. But watching Jougarou enjoy that charlotte, I tell you, I felt it. It can’t have been accidental that the whole thing was played like he was having a truly orgiastic experience, right down to the aftermath. I almost expected him to light a cigarette. I don’t know if this whole “I don’t like sweets” is a cinnamacho thing he’s doing or a front because his family has a sweets shop, or whether it’s really true and this cake was just that good.
The “mystery”, such as it was, was Jougarou trying to fool Yuki into thinking there were only two charlottes to begin with. Yes, it was so good it drove him to crime. It was pretty clever of her to lamp to it just from him switching from his handkerchief to a napkin for wiping sweat (I mean, a stretch if we’re honest but it’s all in fun), but truthfully this was a trifle among trifles. Still, it was a fun episode – these two are cute together in their weird way. And it was certainly hilarious that the shop was called “JEFFBECK“. Either an in-joke I’m not seeing, or Yonezawa-sensei just really likes Jeff Beck. And hey, either way is cool with me.
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