Restaurant to Another World Episode 8 Review: Hamburg Steak – Assorted Cookies

Professional mermaids, infatuated teenagers on dates, job-hunting, wealthy kids, afternoon tea and cookies, salt and sugar… This episode of Restaurant to Another World has a little bit of everything.

Japanese Original Episode Title: ハンバーグ / クッキーアソート

Plot

Rokie the young impressionable fisherman (not the boxer) with stars in his eyes almost dies in a totally unpredictable storm, but is saved by Arte the blue Mermaid, who prays to the Blue God and knows how people operate in their own world unlike the mermaids in the north who don’t, even though they also worship the Blue God. So she asks him to pay her for saving him from certain death. Rokie does so with a smile on his face (can’t really put a price on breathing, can you?) even though I believe she is a bit expensive. Ten silver coins for shoving someone out of the water, saying a couple of prayers to whoever this Blue God is and then pushing a boat to the shore? You can’t survive in a competitive market like this. That’s probably why Arte asks Rokie to join her at the Nekoya, where being the impressionable the kid that he is, he buys her dinner, twice. The perks of dating younger guys.

Aletta is still looking for a job in the other world, and somehow lands a fantastic position cleaning up after Sarah Gold (the annoying treasure huntress) who seems like the type who’s got plenty of money to spend, judging from the fact that she owns a large house, can afford a housekeeper on a treasure hunter salary and being the daughter of a wealthy merchants’ family. Her sister, Shia Gold, visits while she’s not there, and devours all the expensive cookies Aletta got as a congratulatory gift from the chef for –finally- finding a job. Hungry for more, she puts a gold coin in Aletta’s hands asking her to buy her another box, OR ELSE. Obviously, she’s expecting to get some change back.

Episode Highlights

These mermaid stylings though: Following Kuro’s example of hair-over-nipples styling, Arte also covers her distinguishable nudity with some sort of white fabric that looks like Rokie’s sails (sorry bro), and then experiments by trying on some dragon legs. It looks terrible, but at least she’s got blue hair.

Mermaid business: To my mythological knowledge, mermaids were more interested in sinking ships (and people) rather than in saving them. I’m guessing when it comes to collecting a reward even the most stubborn and traditionalist monsters have to adapt to the market somehow.

Mermaid diets: You’d expect someone who lives in the sea, worships blue gods and has a fishtail to be interested in eating something with fish or crustaceans or mussels or seaweed or, well, something you can find in the sea. But her favorite meal is Hamburg steak. German style meat. Fair enough…

Mermaid sex: There’s this saying where I’m from, about mermaids… It goes something like this: ‘They’re the most useless of being, you can’t really fry them, and you can’t…’ well, I’ll let you imagine the rest. I don’t know if this applies to the dragon legs situation.

‘Sweets are much more delicious than fruit’: is the last thing Aletta was heard saying before getting demon-diabetes.

William’s curse: Also known as the ‘Lara Croft Syndrome’. Dangerous stuff, it really can kill you.

Themes & Trivia

Hamburg Steak: a popular dish in Japan. It is made from ground meat with finely chopped onion, egg and breadcrumbs flavored with various spices, and made into a flat, circular shape. It became popular during the 1960s as a more affordable way to serve otherwise costly meat. Magazines regularly printed the recipe during that decade, elevating it to a staple dish in Japanese culture. In Japan, the dish dates back to the Meiji period and is believed to have been first served in Yokohama, which was one of the first ports opened to foreigners.

Maybe I’m a dragon

I’ve never been a huge fan of the show’s animation, but it has been particularly bad in this episode… along with the direction of most scenes. The characters barely move and shots change in the driest of ways. Also, I find the chef to be the blandest character ever. He’s just there just being nice all the time, can’t see any proper dimensions to his personality. I hope he gets angry once in a while.

Hope you enjoyed this review! Let us know what you think in the comments below and see you next week with another Restaurant to Another World review on Manga.Tokyo!

NEXT TIME: Fried Seafood / Cream Soda (シーフードフライ / クリームソーダ)