Greetings everyone! This week the world is going crazy thanks to the USA presidential elections. I’m pretty sure you know all too well what happened, but we’re not here to discuss politics, are we? If you, just like me, have accumulated a huge amount of stress because of the elections, I have just the right recipe for instant relief and relaxation:  Udon no Kuni no Kiniro Kemari!

So let’s get started. If you still haven’t watched the new episode, now is the right time for you to do it!

This episode was a tad bit different from the previous four, because it was centred on Nakajima’s feelings rather than Souta’s. The mood and the themes were pretty similar to the previous ones but we will talk about that in a bit. For now let’s start discussing a few of the plot elements! Here we go~

Plot

The episode starts with Nakajima’s flashback. He remembers his childhood days, and how extremely excited he would get when his father would get home from work. When he went to his father’s room you could see his eyes glowing with excitement. However, the scene switches to modern-day Nakajima, who doesn’t seem very happy about his family situation.

Let’s not go into tiny details, but long story short Souta calls Nakajima and asks for help with a project he decided to take on for their class reunion. The thing is that Souta had never participated in their class reunions since he left for Tokyo. He never wanted to come back to Kagawa, nor have any connection with his past life. But since he came back and met Poco, a lot of things started changing. He remembered things he had long forgotten and feeling emotions he had not experienced in a very long time. No matter how I look at this, I feel that Souta’s change was caused by Poco’s appearance and their bonding.

But we won’t get into the details of Souta’s and Nakajima’s visit to their high school. Instead we will talk about what happened in the second part of the episode. Nakajima was asked to visit his father by his mother, because the old man seems to have some health issues. However, our big boy, who is a pretty well established doctor as well, is too afraid to face his father alone and in return for helping Souta with the class reunion project he forces Souta and Poco to join him.

Themes and Trivia

The theme of this episode has already been presented to us in a couple of the previous ones: parent-child relationship. However, it is quite different to Souta’s and his father’s relationship, which has no way of being fixed or reaching closure, because, well… Souta’s dad has passed away. Nakajima’s father is alive and well (maybe not his back though), and with a bit of a push these two can fix their relationship and make it into one that is properly functioning; I am quite sure of that. And guess what? They do get that push.

Since Nakajima’s father has fallen down and hurt his back, he is taken to an onsen by Nakajima, Souta, and Poco. For those of you who don’t know what an onsen is, here is an explanation: an onsen is a hot-spring, extremely famous in Japan because the country is basically one huge hot-spring thanks to their countless volcanoes. The thing is, that except of being a good place for relaxation, an onsen can be a really good spot for bonding as well. In Japan you can’t go into a public bath or an onsen unless you are stark naked. I don’t know if you have been to an onsen or not, but after going to an onsen with a friend with whom I wasn’t exactly very close with, our relationship suddenly experienced a boost and we became best pals forever! These hot waters do magic.

Nonetheless, I won’t tell you any more details, since I do not want to spoil the episode for those who haven’t watched it yet!

Just one last thing that caught my attention is Poco’s devotion to Souta and his promise. After staying in onsen for a while he loses control over his form and turns back into a tanuki. He tries really hard to turn back into a human as soon as he realises what has happened. I found it very adorable. I think that you can see how much Poco loves and cares about Souta just from this tiny scene!

Onsen Bonding

My review of Udon no Kuni no Kiniro Kemari Episode 5 is over! I hope you enjoyed reading it! And do make sure to tell us here on Manga.Tokyo what are your thoughts on the latest episodes, and maybe the whole anime itself. We will be waiting for your comments!

Don’t forget to check the rest of our episodic reviews!

【Official Website】http://www.udonnokuni-anime.jp/

【Official Twitter】@udonnokuni_tv *Recommended hush tag : #うどんの国

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