Greetings everyone! We are back with a new episode of Udon no Kuni no Kiniro Kemari, and if you are having a hard time trying to adjust to holiday season, feeling stressed and pressured with all the responsibilities you have accumulated, with all the gifts you need to get for your friends and family, or maybe you are stressed with the upcoming exams and presentation at university just like I am, Udon no Kuni is going to be the right medicine for you to feel full of energy again!

I need to warn you beforehand though! This week’s episode was a little bit depressive and it left me with a bitter aftertaste. I think that will be the case with most of the viewers as well. It made you think and it made you wonder: how is the story going to evolve, what is going to be Souta and Poco’s relationship, how is Souta going to solve all the problems that might occur because Poco is a tanuki, will Poco be able to grow up, or will he be forever a child? What if the two have to separate, what will happen then? Will they be able to withstand it? And last but not least, why is Poco able to switch to a human, and why did he come to Souta to begin with?

Well these are some, if not most of the questions that have been bothering me throughout the season, but now with the latest episode they kind of hit home, and have been on my mind since I watched it.

Anyway, without further ado, let’s see what happened in this particular episode!

Japanese Title: いりこだし

Plot

The episode was based around Souta, Poco, and Souta’s kouhai, Hiroshi. Basically, after getting his heart broken by Souta’s sister, Hiroshi couldn’t find it in himself to go back to Tokyo and ended up in Kagawa waiting for Souta and Poco in front of Souta’s house. Hiroshi is yearning to eat some udon and get his heart mended. And, of all things, Hiroshi and Poco start forcing Souta to make udon. Though the process of making the men for udon, some things go really wrong. Poco turns into his tanuki self and becomes unable to turn back to his human form. Hiroshi almost manages to figure out that Poco in reality is a tanuki, but things get a bit more calmed down when Poco shows up in his human form.

The main thing is that at first Hiroshi starts doubting if Poco is the tanuki, because he had seen Poco’s ears and tail. Souta tries to confront him and asks what if it’s true, would it matter? Would Hiroshi not be able to continue being friends with Poco? And what’s wrong with being a bit strange. This brings back some memories that Hiroshi seems to have been cherishing. He remembers how Souta stood up for him in the office when he was just starting out. This makes him realise that he doesn’t really care if Poco is a tanuki or a human.

They end up making the udon, which doesn’t turn out that well, and Poco even asks Souta if this is udon or mochi.

Even though the part with Hiroshi ends up on a heartfelt warm note, the last conversation Souta has with his sister got to my heart. For starters, because Souta seems to regret how he didn’t spend enough time with his father, how he didn’t learn stuff from his father. This is actually important even to all of us. One day when our parents, when people dear to us are gone from this world will we not have regrets? Will we not be thinking, what if? Maybe I should have…

The second point was, as I have already mentioned above, Souta’s and Poco’s further relationship. Will they be able to keep living together? This is followed by Souta worrying about Poco’s future, about what will happen if something like this happens again and Poco turns back into tanuki again and gets spotted by other people?

The last thing I found really interesting about this episode was the very last scene. We were shown that the monk Souta met a couple of months ago was reading a book concerning the tanuki lore, and asking about Souta and Poco to his sister. I wonder if he knows who Poco is in reality, well I guess he probably does, and maybe he has something to do with this? Hopefully we will get some answers soon!

And with this the review is over! I hope you enjoyed the episode! Don’t hold back and let us here on Manga.Tokyo know what your thoughts are! And may your days be filled with a lot of tasty udon, that doesn’t remind you of mochi! 🙂

NEXT TIME: The Reservoir (ため池)

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