Osen ep.01

May 5, 2008 | 13 Comments

OP Theme: 「踊れ」 (Odore) by Micro
Download: AVI version (27.1MB) | PSP version (17.1MB) | YouTube version

My original intention was to actually blog this drama, but since I already picked up Last Friends on top of Zettai Kareshi, I have to put this on the side for a while. I simply can't afford to download more than 20GB worth of stuff per month and 3 one-hour dramas per week means losing around 2.4GB per week. Not good when I have other series to cover. It's especially hard since for some reason anime broadcast goes pseudo-HD, inflating the filesize up to 500MB each. Moreover, 3 dramas in one week would be a bit too much for me. Having said that, I'm still interested to cover this and will find a way to do it somehow. I probably won't be able to keep it up on a week by week basis but I'll catch up somehow every few weeks. Anyway, let's see what happens. I'm more concerned with the bandwidth thing more than anything else. At any rate, this is a pretty good first episode. It brings back good memories of old anime series like Fruits Basket and Yakitate! Japan. It's probably because this show is so entrenched in Japanese culture just like those series I mentioned above.

An English narrator explains how these days in Japan, you can practically buy any kind of foods from Japanese to Western, from Noodles to Burger. There is an emphasis on quickness, easiness, and quantity. However, there is a uniquely different restaurant in the Shitamachi (downtown) area of Tokyo. One which maintains the old fashion way of cooking. The narrator then shows the proprietor, who turns out to be a young lady in her early 20s. In contrast, at a high-class city restaurant, an equally young chef called Ezaki Yoshio (Uchi Hiroki), is seen playing the role of a Samurai who uses his flaming sword to cook food for impressionable gaijins. After he exits the dining room, Ezaki is asked by his manager to be more showy next time. Ezaki, however, tells the guy that he dislikes doing this, prompting the manager to tell him that he doesn't want to hear what Ezaki likes or dislikes since their customer wants showy performance. In response, Ezaki tells the guy that what they serve are not 'real' cuisine, prompting the guy to ask him what he defines as 'real' cuisine. When Ezaki can't answer this, he asks the guy to not call things 'real' so easily. In response, Ezaki tells his manager that he wants to quit.

A few days later, Ezaki is out on the street, looking for a location. Upon realizing that the map his grandmother gave him is old and useless, he crumples it up and throws it away. An old man is unhappy that Ezaki litters the street so he chases Ezaki with his broom, asking the boy to apologize to Earth. Thanks to the incident, however, Ezaki manages to find the place he's looking for, a traditional restaurant called Isshou-an. Inside, a girl is taking a bath when she realizes that she still has her slipper on. She is then informed by her employees that there is a guest for her so she goes off to meet Ezaki. Ezaki introduces himself and believes that the Okami (proprietress) probably has forgotten about him. He claims that when he was a kid, she told him to come again once he's an adult and want to work here. When he remembered what she said 10 years ago, he decided to come here so he can study making timeless cuisines from her. When the girl wonders what kind of food is this "timeless cuisine", a confused Ezaki tells her that it's what some people called "slow food". As it turns out, this girl is a bit of an airhead too. She actually misheard the word as "slow tofu" so now she wonders what kind of tofu is this.

Upon hearing this, Ezaki finally raises his head and for the first time, notices that the person standing in front of him is not an old lady but a young woman who introduces herself as Handa Sen (Aoi Yuu). Ezaki immediately turns his face away from the woman because her breath smells like a drunkard. Because of this, he asks Sen if he can talk to the owner instead but Sen tells him that she's the owner. A flashback shows a young Ezaki being asked by a middle-age woman to come again when he becomes an adult and wants to work here. This causes Ezaki to wonder if he's okay with the fact that the owner of this restaurant is now a drunkard young woman. Sen, who doesn't hear this, asks Ezaki what he did before coming here so Ezaki explains that he was working as a kitchenhand at a restaurant called "Aokage". Upon hearing this, Sen tells Ezaki that if he wants, he can work here. Ezaki is confused to hear this because Sen didn't even look at his resume. Despite this, the head waitress, Asai Shizu (You Kimiko) takes Ezaki to kitchen to meet the head chef, Fujishirou Seiji (Sugimoto Tetta), second in-charge, Takeda Tomekichi (Mukai Osamu), and a kitchen runner, Hasegawa Kenta (Okumura Tomofumi).

It doesn't take long for Ezaki to make an ass out of himself by being obnoxious about his ability in handling kitchen knife. Despite this, Shizu introduces Ezaki to the other waitress Suzuki Teruko (Suzuki Ranran), Kubota Fuyuko (Kudou Risa), and Wakisaka Tamagoya (Morita Ayaka). Anyway, when the tofu guy arrives, Sen decides to ask the guy what is "slow tofu" but not surprisingly, the guy doesn't understand. Either way, the guy has brought with him Yosedofu (a tofu which is created by mixing soy milk with Nigari). Sen seems to like the tofu so she decides to make it taste even better by drinking alcohol even though it's broad daylight. Shizu can only ask the girl to moderate her drinking before taking Ezaki to look around the area again. After Ezaki left, Tomekichi and Kenta agree that the guy is careless. Meanwhile, Sen is making a phone call to her mother, asking her if "Slow Tofu" is chinese food. Her mother immediately guesses that the person who said it probably meant "Slow food'. Either way, she feels that he doesn't do a good job of saying it so she warns Sen not to trust him. Unfortunately Sen already hires him so her mother tells her to do whatever she likes since Isshou-an is now her shop.

Sen's mother then claims that she has to go since her manuscript editor has arrived but Sen knows that her mother is busy having grilled Abalone. Her mother pretends that she didn't hear and just disconnect the phone. After talking on the phone, Sen realizes that the weather has turned cold, because of this she suggests to Seiji that they don't make Mizoreae (snow-styled daikon) since it's going to snow tonight. Instead, they should make Furofuki Daikon (daikon radish simmered in miso sauce). Seiji immediately assign Ezaki the job of skinning the daikon but he is discharged immediately because he's wearing rings while cutting the daikon. Because of this, Seiji orders him to learn from Kenta and to be a kitchen runner for the time being. Ezaki tries to protest but Tomekichi asks him to shut his pie hole. Despite this, Ezaki still can't shut his mouth so Seiji orders him to boil the daikon for 5 hours and watch over it. He's also surprised when he finds out that they use whole sardines to create the stock including the head. He thinks it'll smell bad if they boil it. Kenta, however, tells him that they don't boil the sardines. They just soak it in water for one day until the color changed then they use strainer to get the stock for the daikon.

Tomekichi, however, is not in the mood to hear the explanation so he orders the two to stop their idle chat. A few hours later, Ezaki is almost falling asleep while watching the daikon being boiled slowly. Because he's impatient, he decides to increase the heat but Seiji catches him doing this and tells Tomekichi and Kenta that they can't use these daikons so he suggests that they prepare it for the staffs instead. He then asks them to prepare a whole new one for customer's consumption. Ezaki claims that he's been watching over it but they simply ignore him. That night, Sen and the other serves a customer, a cooking school owner called Kinoshita Hideo (Matsukata Hiroki) so they serve him a properly made Furofuki Daikon. As for the ruinied daikon that "Yocchan" (taken from Ezaki's first name, Yoshio) made, the staff end up eating them for dinner. Much to Ezaki's surprise, the staff actually likes the daikon and thinks it's delicious. Because of this, he wonders what's wrong with the daikon that they can't serve it for the customer. Tokemichi lost it and tells Ezaki to take a look at the daikon because they are not longer nice and firm but instead angled and kind of overcooked. Ezaki argues that this is why they usually cut off the corners before boiling daikon. Seiji, however, asks him where would the corners go if they are cut off?

Ezaki guesses they'd go to rubbish bin but the other staff points out that it's a waste. Shizu tells him that not wasting thing is not being stingy. Sen explains that of course cutting off the corners will save time but because they put a lot of time and effort into it, they can exhaust its use. Sen decides to change the topic by suggesting that they have drink together for "Yocchan". Seiji, however, refuses since they have to wake up early the next day. As a result, Sen ends up drinking with her friend, the curio shop owner that Ezaki met earlier. While the two drinking, the shop owner asks Sen if she'd like to buy a water bucket. Meanwhile, Ezaki finds out that he has to share a small room with Tomekichi and Kenta. He also finds out that newcomers only get paid 50,000 Yen (around $500) per month. Kenta points out that they don't need much money since they live in the restaurant. Ezaki starts bitching about Sen, pissing off Tomekichi in the process. Before they can fight, however, they are startled when Sen opens the door to their room and passes out. The next day, Ezaki continues to complain about the fact that he has to wake up early in the morning and picks up vegies and wash them in cold water. When he sees a truck bringing his luggage, he tries to get to them but is ordered by the others to finish off his job.

Meanwhile, Sen is visiting an art gallery with the curio shop owner. The curio shop owner suggests that they free the 'water bucket' (which looks like an old pottery) from the glass case. Sen immediately agrees to buy the pottery without even asking for the price. Because of this, she asks Ezaki to come to the gallery with a carriage. Needless to say, Ezaki is shocked when he finds out that the price of the pottery is 2,000,000 Yen (around $20,000). Sen claims that she fell in love with the pottery at first glance. Ezaki becomes even more frustrated when they arrive back at the restaurant and find out that his goods are nowhere to be seen. It appears Sen has sold his TV, bed, etc to the curio shop since they don't suit this place. In exchange, she gives him around 1100 Yen plus chawan cup and a chopstick. XD Shizu reminds him that he was the one who told Osen that he wants to make a fresh start with only his body. Ezaki points out to Kenta while they only get paid 50,000 Yen aka 100 Yen per hour, Sen bought a 2 million Yen old pot. Moreover, he points out that Sen tends to drink alcohol while taking a bath in the morning. This prompts Kenta to say that he wants to get into bath with Osen. o_o Ezaki thinks Kenta is annoying so Kenta orders him to stop calling him "You" since technically he's Ezaki's senpai.

Ezaki gets another shock of his life when Sen asks him to place the 2 million Yen pottery in the front garden. Later on, Sen shows the curio shop owner the garden with the 2 million Yen pottery. The idiot guy feels like the pottery has always been there since years and years ago. Later on, Kinoshita visits the restaurant again but this time he brings with him two guest: a scary-looking old lady called Sakurai Michiko and Ezaki's ex-manager. Michiko thinks she can cook simmered dish like the one in front of her using microwave in 7 minutes. Kinoshita, however, disagree that microwave can produce this kind of taste. Kinoshita then talk about an event and wonders if MIchiko is fine with it. Michiko claims she's okay with it but wonders about Isshou-an. Not long after this, Sen comes with more food for them. She also tells Ezaki's ex-manager that Ezaki is here. The manager explains that in his restaurant, Ezaki was in-charge for the floor's service. Ezaki claims that he's learning how to make real cuisine here. He, however, becomes embarrassed when Sen can't even tell Michiko and his ex-manager where the soybean used to produce the tofu that they ate came from. Later on, the ex-manager asks Ezaki if this is what he had in mind when he's talking about real cuisine, causing doubt in Ezaki's mind.

Meanwhile, Sen finds out that Kishimoto has put her as Michiko's rival for a cooking duel in his school. Much to Sen's surprised, Kishimoto has advertised the event at a newspaper so now she has no choice but to go. The next morning, Ezaki comes over to Sen's room, telling her that although it's selfish of him, he'd like to quit his job today. Osen is surprised to hear this and clearly upset since she calls Ezaki a quick-tempered person. He explains that he came here thinking that he doesn't want to get carried away by time. But his longing to work at Isshou-an turns out to be just an illusion. He thinks this place is outdated. How rude. He still has the manner to thank Sen for her courtesy though. After asking Sen to take care of herself, Ezaki excuses himself. Before he left, however, Osen asks him for one last favor: to bring her a beer. X( Later on that afternoon, the other waitress are cooking while watching Sakurai Michiko's TV program. One of the girls explains that she's famous for her speedy cooking using microwave. Today, she's teaching how to cook roast pork in 20 minutes using microwave. While Ezaki is busy looking for his next job, he notices the duel cooking ad featuring Michiko and Sen. Back at Isshou-an, Sen tells Shizu that she has no choice but to go since she already promised Kinoshita.

Shizu argues that she made that promise while she was drunk but Sen points out that leaflets are already distributed. Because of this, Sen makes her way to Kinoshita Cooking School where she's personally greeted by Kinoshita himself. He thanks her for coming and starts showing her the various technology that she never use in her kitchen. Because Kinoshita has to answer a phone call, he left Sen alone with a microwave. Sen becomes interested in the microwave and decides to place an egg inside a metal plate into the microwave. Not surprisingly, the microwave exploded, causing the electricity in the school to be cut off. Thankfully nothing hapens to Sen except that she's a bit shocked. Kinoshita nicely tells her not to put metallic plate or egg into microwave. Sen is clearly upset about the whole incident and thinks that she'd be better off going home. Kinoshita, however, assures her that she's going to be okay so in the end, Sen participates in the cooking competition. As it turns out, this event is to commemorate 60th anniversary of the school. Ezaki manages to make it in time to sit amongst the audience but is spotted by Shizu so she asks him what he's doing here. In response, Ezaki tells her that in here, they can't boil daikon for 5 hours. He receives a slap on the head for this sarcastic comment.

The host then introduces the participants: the easy tips, hyper-speed recipe guru, Sakurai Michiko vs. Handa Sen, the proprietress of a long established restaurant since Edo period. Upon seeing the way Sen dresses up, the bitchy female audiences can't help themselves from saying that time seems to stop at Ryoutei (traditional Japanese restaurant). Today's theme is "After Home Party", it means the competitors have to use leftovers from the previous day, including Tempura, Sirloin Cutlet, and Fillet Cutlet. After thinking for a while, Sen finally goes to the table to gather the materials that she needs. While the host introduces the judges, which includes a Chinese guy, a French guy, and Kinoshita himself, the host asks Michiko what she's making. Michiko claims that she's making Katsudon (egg and pork cutlet on top of rice) without using pan. Sen herself is also making Katsudon but she's not specifying what's special about hers. Meanwhile, Michiko explains that you basically put the rice then cover it with cling wrap. Then place the onion on top of the cling wrap, then the pork cutlet. Pour a mentsu sauce on top of it before placing raw egg all over it. She then places another plastic wrap on top of it before putting it in microwave for 4 minutes. Gross. What's so impressive about it? Egg cooked in microwave tastes nasty.

Since Michiko has more time, she'd prepare another dish. At the same time, Sen cooks her fillet cutlet in an original sauce she made herself. Back to Michiko, she's stir-frying herbs using olive oil to bring out its flavors. She then adds gin and mayonnaise into the stir-fry because they have good affinity with one another. She then puts the leftover Ebi tempura into the mayonnaise sauce and put everything on top of a rice. It's an Ebi-mayonnaise meal!! Michiko also finally completes her nasty Katsudon made in microwave. On the other hand, Sen carefully cuts the leek. She also takes her time to grill the Ebi tempura slowly while chanting "be delicious, be delicious". I can understand why the audiences are weirded out a bit. Anyway, she even creates her own Wasabi and carefully arranges the cut daikon on top of the fillet cutlet. She then pours tea on the dish, turning it into an Ochadzuke. The host calls the two dishes "Ebi Tenchadzuke" and "Sauce Katsudon". As for Michiko, it's the super-speed "Katsudon" and "Ebi-Mayonnaise on rice". While the judge does the tasting some petty mouth in the audience claims that Ochadzuke is not a cuisine. And she thinks Katsudon made in microwave is a cuisine?

After the tasting, the Chinese judge declares Michiko as the winner whereas French guy declares Sen as the winner. Kinoshita decides that it'd be a tie. The idea of hyper-speed cooking for Michiko is excellent, especially her pork cutlet idea. This means within 6 minutes she can served 2 meals. It can respond easily to sudden incoming of visitors. However, he doesn't mind waiting and he doesn't care if it's prepared using microwave or not. His main interest is those who cook food with him in their mind. Because of this, he decides that it's a tie. To save her face, Michiko tells the audience that she chooses to save 1 minute or even 1 second. Because for her time flows and this allows her life to be plentiful. The event seems to change Ezaki's mind, who is now seen sneaking to the kitchen to try Sen's dish. He then has to hide because he overhears Kinoshita coming to the kitchen with Shizu. As it turns out, Kinoshita didn't actually like Michiko's katsudon so Shizu wonders why he didn't just choose Osen as the winner. Shizu points out that it's important to consider the stomach of those who'll eat the dish and Sen knew that Kinoshita had a hungover this morning so that's why she didn't use egg or onion.

Meanwhile, Ezaki has gone off to find Sen to congratulate her on her absolute victory. He tells her that it's important to consider the stomach condition and the feeling of those who eat your dish. Ezaki then asks to be accepted back as her employees even if the job is a subordinate work. He'll even bear with the small room. Even though Sen knows Ezaki easily changes his mind, Sen decides to take him back. Ezaki, however, also suggests one more thing: he thinks it's a good idea for the proprietress of Isshou-an to know where the soybean in her tofu comes from. Because of this, the two of them go to the tofu shop where they learn the different types of soybean used in the tofu. While the two still don't understand the differences yet, Sen is happy to know that the tofu shop owner knows. As long as she believes in him and considers him like her arm, she'd be fine. After the two return to the restaurant, Ezaki realizes that he has forgotten something but later that night he remembers: he forgot to negotiate his salary. The next day, he asks Kento to clean the gate since he has to learn from Minohatsu, the tofu maker. The truth is, he just wants to sneak out to the city and almost got caught by Tomekichi while sitting in a cafe.

Preview

Impression

To be honest, I like my food to come out as soon as possible when I order them at a restaurant but it doesn't mean I want the restaurant owner to cook them in microwave. X( If I want to eat microwaveable food then I'll make one myself. This is why I was appalled to see Michiko being declared as equal winner to Sen. The idea of eating Katsudon that has been put through microwave sounds nasty. Not only the Katsudon will lose its crispiness, eggs cooked in microwave usually are dry and bland in comparison to eggs being cooked in a pan. On the other hand, Sen's Ebi Tenchadzuke looks crispy and delicious that as long as one eats it quickly after it is drenched with tea, it'll still retains its crispiness. Anyway, I thought the episode was pretty entertaining even though it's pretty standard for a food-related series. I think my main problem with the series lies with the main characters. There's something annoying about Osen and Ezaki.

Osen seems like a contradiction. Judging from the way she acts, she seems like a little kid. However, her words sound adult-like. I don't actually mind her tendency to get drunk but I think her paying her employee low wages while she spends 2,000,000 Yen to buy a cracked pottery is unacceptable. If she can waste that much money, then she should waste it on her employers, who obviously work hard to make sure that their restaurant is high quality. To see her spending money like it's meaningless makes her unlikeable. Plus, she comes across as a bit crazy at times. On the other hand, Ezaki is a lazy, self-entitled know-it-all. If he came all the way to learn how to cook food properly, then he should listen to what his co-workers tell him. I did like his tendency to ask why certain things need to be done in certain ways. Sometimes employer just ask someone to do a job but never bothered to explain the reason. This is not beneficial for the employee because he won't learn anything from it. Having said that, Ezaki needs to tone down his attitude if he want to learn anything.

Performance-wise, I think everyone did a god job with their role. Osen is so different here from her original version in the manga. I guess they changed the role so that she'll be a bit cuter and Aoi Yuu (Hagumi-chan in Honey and Clover live action movie) fits the role perfectly. I just wish they cut down her character's craziness but I guess it's part of the charm. I've never seen Uchi Hiroki before but he plays his part rather well. Ezaki is clearly meant to be somewhat arrogant and know-it-all and he does a good job of keeping him likeable despite some of Ezaki's annoying behaviour. I'm more impressed with Musai Okamu, who really shows some range here as Tomekichi. His role in Nodame was that of a happy-go-lucky playboy. He then plays an easy going and slightly emo Mayama in Honey and Clover TV series. In this one, he gets the role of a temperamental guy who is unable to tolerate fools like Ezaki. I think he nails every single role that has been given to him thus far.

ED Theme: 「恋詩-コイウタ-」 (Koi Uta) by タッキー& 翼 (Tackey and Tsubasa)
Download: AVI version (34.4MB) | PSP version (18MB)

This is a nice ballad that for some reason reminds me of past anime series like Fruits Basket.

Hosoi rojiura ni saiteru hana no you ni
Dare mo kidzukanai sakaseta koi kokoro

Pokkari aita kimi to no jikan ano hi no namida wo
Nuguezumata omoidasu yo wasurerarenain da yo

Nee oboeteru, nee kikoeru
Sugita koto no you ni omou kedo
Nee sono koe mo, sono shigusa mo
Boku wa mada oboeteru

Tsutae sokoneta omoi ga mata boku no kokoro kaki midasu yo
Kono kanashimi mo, nee itsuka wa hohoemi ni kawaru kana

© memento 2005