Amaama to Inazuma

[MFauli]

Kraco, but he isn´t her home room teacher. He´s just one of many teachers (which subject btw? dunno), who happened to cross her path. I agree that having a music teacher teaching a student music would be okay. Heck, I myself had a music teacher as a child who taught me playing cello (no, I cant play it at all anymore). But that´s not the situation at hand.

@shinta: first of all: lol :P Secondly: Her being past-pubescent matters because it makes her a sexually active human being. Now David thinks she actually has feelings for the teacher. Personally, I´m not sure what it really is. The fact that we still don´t know why she´s so obsessed about inviting the teacher to her has me sceptical. As I said, ever since Usagi no Drop, I´m wary of such situations. And this one would be more dangerous than the one in Usagi no Drop! Heck, we know he is single. We know he´s not seeing any other women, despite certainly having the option to do so. Now this cute teenager girl spends all the time with him. Maybe that´s my dick talking, but I know what I would do ;>

Instead of repeating myself, let me ask: What do you guys think is the reason for Kotori to continuously invite her teacher, even meeting him at the school?

[shinta|hikari]

She's lonely and feels sorry for the daughter.

Eating with other people, assuming you don't despise them, is a nice thing. She can't very well ask her classmates to skip family dinner and eat at her place. There's no excuse. The teacher has a daughter's health and happiness as excuses.

They met at school by coincidence at first. Now they are friends. So it isn't strange at all. Not all adult males want to rape JKS. I know that doesn't sound convincing coming from me, but it's true. 3DPD.

[MFauli]

episode 5 is out
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It somewhat weirds me out how happy these people are about eating. You´d think it´s the most important thing in the world.

Also, do they realize that you can take a look at the underside of a frying doughnut before its complete done? That way you´re alway in full control and nothing will burn. It´s kinda shocking how dumb they are about cooking. Throw together the ingredients, form doughnuts, throw them into the oil till they´re done, finished. It´s so easy ...

And Kotori didn´t help my previous issue. Defending the teacher´s "normalness". Uhoh.

[shinta|hikari]

You´d think it´s the most important thing in the world.

It kinda is, next to breathing and drinking.

[MFauli]

It kinda is, next to breathing and drinking.

So every time you eat, you look at your food, your eyes are gleaming from happiness and every bite brings you closer to having an orgasm?

[David75]

So every time you eat, you look at your food, your eyes are gleaming from happiness and every bite brings you closer to having an orgasm?

Ever had a cat or a dog and watch them while you prepare their food and watch them eat ?

[MFauli]

Ever had a cat or a dog and watch them while you prepare their food and watch them eat ?

This anime is not about cats and dogs ;P

[shinta|hikari]

I was just commenting about how silly you phrased it lol.

[David75]

This anime is not about cats and dogs ;P

Sure, but we humans can still have traces of similar behavior left
Though it varies from an individual to another.
So I can certainly understand the behavior depicted in that show.

[Buffalobiian]

That way you´re alway in full control and nothing will burn. It´s kinda shocking how dumb they are about cooking. Throw together the ingredients, form doughnuts, throw them into the oil till they´re done, finished. It´s so easy ...

If the temperature isn't right then the thing becomes burnt anyway. You undercook the inside, then burn the outside while you rectify that.

It kinda is, next to breathing and drinking.

And urinating.

This show is fun. I'm a but burnt out after watching 5 episodes in a row, but as a once-weekly thing this works.

You guys talked about how sharp the eyes of the girl looks. What popped out to me was how similar she looks to some hentai designs. It adds an interesting spin on how I see her.

[Ryllharu]

It's pretty obvious that Kotori is falling hard for Kouhei and Tsumugi, or will be. Someone's gonna be a stepmom~!

What makes the execution of this series so well done is that you can see it. While her emotional state is typically obvious, Kotori infrequently has displays where it's not clear that she's getting excited about cooking/eating with them, getting attached to them emotionally (as a new family unit), or simply happy she won't be alone on a particular night. She wavers between these. Or sometimes they show something softer. She gets "melty" for lack of a better term.

This might be why her design has "sharp eyes," it's much easier to convey a subtle difference in her demeanor than it would be for the token round eyes design. Tsumugi gets something similar, but Tsumugi's childlike round eyes would make a teenager or an adult look insane (and is used that way in other series).

I can't be the only one who feels this is a more informative and accurate cooking series than SnS. These are home cooks, learning to follow a recipe left by a 'celebrity' chef. They're allowed to fail a little. Or learning tips from the other moms at kindergarten.

The point is that cooking isn't that hard, and home-cooked food tastes better than industrial garbage. Eating (and cooking) meals together is one of the strongest bonding situations there is in human society. Tsumugi was getting depressed, Kouhei was starting to lose connection with his daughter and her feelings, and Kotori is lonely as hell once her friends go home. Together, though, those problems fade away, and their various issues slide into the background where they can get healed.

[shinta|hikari]

Well, Kotori is way past age of consent in Japan anyway, which is 13. Are they in Tokyo? If so, it'd be 18. They'd only have to wait a year or two, which is probably enough time to convince Kouhei to break his normal society mindset about age gaps and cradle robbing.

[Ryllharu]

I think of it as more in terms of how long it takes Kouhei to get over the loss of his wife. It hasn't been that long. They said it in the first episode. It's been like 6-8 months at this point.

He's been learning how to pick up the pieces and raise Tsumugi on his own.

Kotori's helping them heal, the same way the two of them are getting rid of Kotori's loneliness.

edit:
Kotori is an interesting case all by herself. Her friends comment that she's always eating, but due to her irrational fear of knives, she can't cook at home. It's become clear that Kotori spent most of her childhood (until very recently) spending her evenings eating with her mother in the open restaurant and talking to the customers. Since Kotori's mother has become so busy with television to make ends meet, Kotori is lonely and hungry. She needs to be near people cooking and eating to feel "normal" and she hasn't had that. I'm guessing she's been snacking constantly to try to reclaim that feeling, but she always looks depressed unless the food is really good and she's at least near her friends. She only experiences true joy when she's eating with others, especially homemade.

What I'm saying is that if anyone is "using" the others at this point, it's Kotori. Kouhei needs to learn how to cook wholesome meals and snacks for Tsumugi. Kotori is too afraid of knives to learn how to cook, and with this setup, she gets to eat good food with others while he does most of the work. A lot of the recipe suggestions are Kotori's.

[MFauli]

If the temperature isn't right then the thing becomes burnt anyway. You undercook the inside, then burn the outside while you rectify that.

This is wrong. We´re talking about a large amount of oil in a pan. I´ve fried a myriad of Wiener Schnitzel in my life, and I´ve never let it burn once (would be a waste, there´s nothing more delicious than Wiener Schnitzerl!!). It´s as I said: You keep watching the food as it fries, lifting it a bit if you´re unsure if it´s time to turn it on the other side. Even if the oil is very hot, that just means you have to keep better watch and turn it around more often, so that the outside doesn´t burn and the inside gets enough heat. It´s really simple.

You guys talked about how sharp the eyes of the girl looks. What popped out to me was how similar she looks to some hentai designs. It adds an interesting spin on how I see her.

Lol, thanks, now I know why I find Kotori somewhat hot :P

Also screw all of you!!1 xD
First, I was posting about how I find it weird that Kotori and a single teacher are meeting. You kept telling me how that´s not weird, how there is nothing romantic going on. NOW you´re all talking about them getting together as if it was obvious from the start!!11
Wahhh!

[shinta|hikari]

Maybe your burner was too weak to burn things lol. When oil is really hot, it burns anything very, very quickly. For most food, flipping while deep frying them does very little because the item is submerged in oil. It just so happened that donuts float, so flipping actually mattered in this episode.

Wiener schnitzels are very thin and pan fried, not deep fried, so it's a completely different cooking process. It's very hard to under cook the interior of a butterflied and pounded slice of lean meat.

[Ryllharu]

Also screw all of you!!1 xD
First, I was posting about how I find it weird that Kotori and a single teacher are meeting. You kept telling me how that´s not weird, how there is nothing romantic going on. NOW you´re all talking about them getting together as if it was obvious from the start!!11
Wahhh!

It's still very innocent at this point. Kotori is lonely and seeks companionship, particularly for meals, because that's what her life used to always be. Kouhei and Tsumugi are mostly looking for help.

What started as a favor has become Kotori inserting herself to create a family unit from their two imperfect ones. What it will become is a true family unit, officially (stepmom) or otherwise (constant dinner buddies).

That's all we're saying. We're leaning toward "official" because as the series has progressed, there are hints Kotori is starting to get confused about what this partnership is to her.

edit:
If you're not sure about what I've been saying, rewatch eps 1 and then immediately rewatch eps 5, focus on Kotori's dialogue and expressions.
She outright says what she's after (someone to eat with) in the first episode, and now goes into overprotective-mode when she sees Tsumugi with a stranger. She's already sliding into that role, and it isn't "big sister."

It's a lot more like, "nervous young mother stalking her child on their first errand" (a common thing in Japan).

[shinta|hikari]

I'm good with however it goes, but I always prefer cradle robbing stories. Wasn't that frigging obvious at this point?

[MFauli]

Maybe your burner was too weak to burn things lol. When oil is really hot, it burns anything very, very quickly. For most food, flipping while deep frying them does very little because the item is submerged in oil. It just so happened that donuts float, so flipping actually mattered in this episode.

Wiener schnitzels are very thin and pan fried, not deep fried, so it's a completely different cooking process. It's very hard to under cook the interior of a butterflied and pounded slice of lean meat.

I haven´t only cooked Schnitzel, shinta. I´m actually really good at cooking. I never follow recipe, always come up with ideas on my own. And Burning never happens, unless I´m a lazy fuck and simply forgot to turn the meat because I was watching TV or whatever. Let´s be honest, this anime makes cooking look harder than it is to appear special towards the audience. Same with the hyperboli reactions whenever they eat ("OMG ITS SO DELICIOUS I TOTALLY FORGOT THAT I WAS RAPED EARLIER TODAY!!!"). My father had a bakery, making "Krapfen" and stuff every day. I myself made Tempura a couple times. I know deep-frying. It´s harder to have something burn than not. That´s all I´m saying. And really, doughnuts? They take like a minute max anyway, they´re done before burning could even begin to start, lol.

@Kotori: I mean, I´d be delighted if she and teacher get together. I always enjoy it when older guys break social conventions and get unusually young girlfriends, it help purporting themes like that into real life - after all, I totally wanna marry a cute 16 year old girl at some point, and I´m already 30!!1 ;P

BUT: If we´re now openly talking about the two of them maybe becoming a couple, you gotta give it to me that it WAS/is weird indeed!!1 Dunno who said it, but: Would you still be okay with a teacher meeting in private with your daughter, if you knew he´s romantically interested in her? Huh? Huh?! :P

[shinta|hikari]

Comparing cooking a pan fried dish to a deep fried one didn't really make you sound like an experienced cook... So is saying it's impossible to burn things just by flipping them. Oil temperature and burning is one of the most common mistakes inexperienced cooks make. Google it and see.

It was their first time deep frying something. Give them a break.

BTW, tempura, again, is very hard to under cook on the inside, especially if you use seafood and thinly sliced veggies (as you should). Bone in fried chicken is probably one of the harder ones to cook right.

[MFauli]

Even a beginner wouldn´t burn a deep fried dish if they actually LOOKED at the food, instead of praying to god that by following the recipe everything will turn out well.