Sweetness & Lightning

Episode 10

If you're a fan of the show's extended cooking segments, this week's Sweetness & Lightning is for you. In spite of the series' comfortable (but somewhat repetitive) two-act structure, this latest installment spends virtually no time on the setup, opting instead to dive right into the food prep. I've been hoping for Sweetness & Lightning to change up its formula for a while, and for the most part, episode 10 gave me what I wanted. Still, I can't help but feel that a cooking-less episode might ultimately prove more entertaining than one that keeps our heroes in the kitchen the whole time.

In an effort to cheer up the still-saddened Tsumugi, Kohei takes her to the ocean, where the Inuzukas encounter some of their neighbors on a fishing excursion. After the neighbors graciously give Kohei a few of the Japanese horse mackerel they caught, he and Tsumugi decide to share their haul with Kotori. Although the initial plan had been to fillet the fish before bringing them to the restaurant, Yagi was too busy to show Kohei the basics of filleting, prompting Shinobu to encourage Kohei to teach himself. Fortunately, Kohei's a quick learner, and despite his initial nervousness, he's able to scale, gut, and de-bone the mackerel with relative ease. Watching her father prepare the fish for cooking proves interesting enough to bring Tsumugi out her funk, and before long, she's singing and dancing again. She even feels adventurous enough to rethink her distaste for raw fish and try some mackerel sashimi. When Yagi eventually arrives on the scene, the group prepares an assortment of tantalizing dishes and enjoys a hearty feast.

Tsumugi still reeling from the realization that her mother is truly gone could have made for some interesting drama, but ultimately, her spirits were lifted too quickly to warrant her continued sadness. Also, like last week's cooking segment, not much goes wrong in the kitchen this time around. Sure, Kohei's a little nervous when he's cutting the fish, but this doesn't lead to any noteworthy setbacks. Even Kotori, with her fear of cutlery, never seems particularly concerned as the relatively inexperienced Kohei performs some delicate knife work. In a show like this, there doesn't need to be a major disaster each week, but even something like a small error during cooking can go a long way to add tension to the formula. As it stands, this episode is essentially an animated tutorial on filleting fish, albeit an entertaining one.

One notable change to the main trio's usual routine comes courtesy of Shinobu, as episode 10 marks the first time the gang consults the World Wide Web for advice. Since a young adult and an almost-young-adult comprise two-thirds of the main group, I'm surprised they haven't turned to the Internet prior to this. Then again, they've had some pretty solid successes sticking to their comfort zone. (Their “comfort zone” being the eternally busy Megumi's overly detailed recipes.)

While there was nothing inherently bad about this week's Sweetness & Lightning, so much of its runtime is devoted to food prep that it feels more like an actual cooking show than a character-driven work of fiction—which is disappointing since the series has thus far managed to maintain a nice balance between the two. The first few minutes led me to believe that at least some of the action would take place in a different location—in this case, the beach—but Sweetness & Lightning clearly isn't interested in offering the audience a change of scenery. Still, if you've ever been curious about how to fillet a fish, I can think of worse tutorials to consult.

Rating: B

Sweetness & Lightning is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Amy is a YA fantasy author who has loved anime for over two decades.