Amaama to Inazuma Episode 3 Review

Changing things up

(This review contains spoilers!)

          After last week’s good but repetitive episode, Amaama to Inazuma came roaring back this week with an episode at the exact same quality of the pilot, if not better.

          We got the return of some of the more realistic elements from episode 1, and I couldn’t be happier for it. One of my biggest gripes with this show so far is that while it’s clearly going for more of a realistic slice-of-life angle rather than a comedic one, the show can often seem a little too “perfect world”. Last week was a clear example of this. Aside from the looming shadow of the mother’s death, nothing is really going wrong for these characters. They’re just kind of smiling their way through. And while this is heartwarming and sweet to watch, it doesn’t exactly make for interesting story.

          Instead, this week we saw Tsumugi throwing a tantrum at school, and her father needing to come and get her, shaking up the norm a little bit. I’m so glad they did this, because I was worried that we were going to see the same cycle as the last two weeks. Now, we got to see a different side of Tsumugi while breaking the mold at the same time. The overarching plot of an upset Tsumugi also stretched and continued into the cooking segment that took up the latter half of the episode, tying everything together in a lovely little package.

          But the best part of all was a perfectly done scene where Tsumugi and her father had a quiet talk about what happened shortly after her tantrum at school. Their relationship is quickly becoming one of my favourite parent/child pairings I’ve ever seen. It’s not over-the-top, but it’s not understated either. You can easily figure out just how much the two of them care for each other, and it’s just fantastic. The entire presentation of this scene, from start to finish, is excellent.

          Speaking of excellent, the normally choppy and slow animation’s been fixed this week! Everything moves at a regular pace, and it no longer feels awkward or jumpy. I can only hope this continues in the future.

          This is exactly what I hoped Amaama to Inazuma was going to be like when I first heard about it: an excellent relationship, with the father and the daughter both dealing with hard times, and some fun cooking segments along for the ride. I sure hope that this quality continues, because if it does, we might have a real winner on our hands.

FINAL SCORE

9/10

Amazing