Greetings everyone! Have you had a nice weekend? I had quite a stressful one, but gladly there was such an amazing cure like Udon no Kuni no Kiniro Kemari! When I watched the latest episode all of the stress was released in a single moment and I was able to relax and let go of all of the negativity that was flowing around me and was turning into a gloomy cloud..! I hope that unlike me you all had a great weekend and Udon no Kuni made it even better!

Japanese Title: 小豆島

This week’s episode was another heartwarming one. I think that it was mostly concentrated on Souta’s and Poco’s relationship. We got to see how much it has developed from the very beginning of the anime. Souta himself got to see how much he cares about Poco after all. He was forced to face his own feelings and accept them. We can say that his character definitely has had a major development throughout the episodes. However, it’s done in a really nice manner that makes you think of the development as the natural course of events. On the other hand these days so many anime just throw so much information into an episode, force their characters to develop, and at the end of the day it just gives you a headache and you just can’t find yourself liking the certain anime. It is exactly because of this reason that anime with such good character development stand out so strongly! But that’s enough dwelling on this topic. Let’s get down to business!

Plot

Souta and Poco go to a nearby island, Shodoshima. They take a ferry from Kagawa, and Poco gets to enjoy his first trip on a ferry. You could call this a business trip, since Souta is going to Shodoshima in hopes of meeting a guy to whom he was introduced by his ex-boss Dahama. Basically Souta is job-hunting.

This episode was quite packed with action compared to the previous ones, but it was still an enjoyable one. We had a lot of characters come together again, and were even introduced to a couple new.

Poco’s love for Gaogao-chan was confirmed once again, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to any of us anymore. But this love for Gaogao-chan got him into some trouble. Our sweet tiny tanuki got lost, or so Souta was thinking. He almost got himself ran over by a car while chasing a totally random tanuki.

Of course Souta was dead worried about what might have happened to Poco, if he was still in his human form, if he was afraid, if he was hurt… or maybe somebody saw Poco in his tanuki form and took him away. All these thoughts basically drive Souta crazy, but also help him realise that he thinks of Poco as much more than just a “pet” as he expressed it himself. Poco is his family, a person whom he want to protect, somebody with whom he want to keep living together. I guess our boy has really strong fatherly instincts! 🙂

Episode Highlights

The episode was filled with a lot jokes and gags, which made the slightly nervous atmosphere of the episode disappear. Those were mostly revolving around Hiroshi, the young guy from Souta’s office, who looked up to Souta quite a bit. He took a vacation and decided to cycle from Tokyo to where Souta is! That’s like a hilarious distance! A couple of hundreds of miles, no joking!

What I liked the most was seeing Hiroshi fall in love with Souta’s sister at first sight, and then getting really depressed for not being able to talk to her. Seeing Hiroshi getting all excited after meeting her again, and getting really depressed yet once again, after finding out that she is married.

We got to meet another interesting and funny character, who is probably Souta’s soon-to-be boss, Manabu. The guy apparently liked dressing up as Gaogao-chan, and his tiny yacht is covered in Gaogao-chan’s posters and stickers. How much more hilarious can this get? 😀

With this I’m going to conclude the 8th episode review for Udon no Kuni no Kiniro Kemari. I found it to be a very fast-paced yet nicely balanced. Feel free to tell us here on Manga.Tokyo what your opinion was on this particular episode! See you next week!

NEXT TIME: Dried sardine (いりこだし)

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

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

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