What’s this?
Nagomu is a man who left his home in Kyoto and his family’s confectionery when he became a musician. However, learning that his father has been hospitalized, he returns home to take over the family business. However, while he was gone, a young girl named Itsuka started working at the store. The whereabouts of Itsuka’s parents are unknown, and she has no other relatives, and Nagomu is listed as Itsuka’s adoptive father. Itsuka, on the other hand, doesn’t like Nagomu for leaving the family to become a musician. She proclaims that she will be the one to take over the store one day instead of Nagomu.
Deaimon: recipe for happiness is based on rin asanoThe manga and broadcasts on Crunchyroll the Wednesdays.
How was the first episode?
Nicholas Dupree
Classification:
Alright, time for another daddy anime! It’s been a while since we last got a show about a single guy in his 30s who suddenly became a father figure to a little girl, and since we haven’t had a second season of Barakamon, this cozy little show bun will have to do. I use muffin because I don’t exactly know anything about traditional Japanese sweets. But I know a thing or two about found family shows, and so far Deiamon is off to a decent if not exceptional start.
Although the Dad Anime part may be a bit premature. Sure, the show itself is adamant about it: Itsuka first meets Nagomu by mistaking him for her absent father, and Nagomu’s own mother basically asks him to become the girl’s surrogate father. But Nagomu himself doesn’t really have dad’s energy, adoptive or not. He has the vibe of a grown-up older brother who went off to do his thing after college, or sometimes he’s kind of the Steve of blue tracks where he resembles both a child and the real 10-year-old boy. This gives her a somewhat unique dynamic with Itsuka in that she can be quite charming at her best, but she can also seem too lazy to give her interactions the necessary bite to convey much of this episode.
Itsuka, on the other hand, will surely carry this show if the premiere is anything to go by. Her personal conflict of feeling that she has to be “useful” to keep her place in the store, and with her loving caregivers, speaks of serious trauma. And seeing her slowly come to accept the unconditional love of her new home and her new family could be heartwarming. So if they can build a good relationship between here and Nagomu, I think there’s room for a really nice show here.
I wish the way we got to all of that was a little less clunky. There’s a scene where, without warning, Nagomu just dumps his entire backstory for leaving the family business for a whole decade, and it’s all based on how he gets really mad about selling his family’s beloved sweets to other people. Meanwhile, the climactic conflict stems from a prank call by a random person calling the store with a bogus order, and I’m guessing none of the adults in the store thought to get contact info or take some sort of deposit before committing. with a large (?) order of sweets. It’s an awkward and contrived way to make Itsuka mess up without actually messing up so that it can be easily resolved in time for the credits to roll, making the resolution feel contrived. In a show that is built on emotions and personal relationships, that’s a bad sign.
But those could be growing pains from having to squeeze this all out in one episode, and I wish the show could find its balance. Is not Barakamon, but few things are. If they can get their act together, Deiamon could be quite sweet and hearty.
Rebecca Silverman
Classification:
At least one star of this rating goes to the delicious traditional Japanese sweets. That’s important, since the show takes place in a traditional confectionery, but still each little manju and treat is a beautiful work of art that simultaneously makes you want to eat them and neatly display them on the mantelpiece. I fully admit that I have a very, very sweet tooth, but even if I wasn’t, the glimpses we get of the sweets are just lovely.
That’s what this series as a whole is: simply charming, though certainly not without its angst. The sweet shop, run by an older couple, is also home to two young men who are trying to work out some pretty heavy issues in their lives. Nagomu, finally returning home after ten years, is dealing with what looks a lot like a failed career as some sort of chestnut-themed singer while also coming to terms with the conversation he overheard that sent him packing a decade ago. That almost pales in comparison to poor little Itsuka, whose father, a distant acquaintance of the store owners, basically left her with them a year ago. That put Itsuka in an unbearable position: a part of her seems to know that the couple considers her their granddaughter and truly loves her, but she also feels that she has to go further to become “valuable” to them, to prove that she deserves its place in your home. Presumably telling her that she would one day inherit the confectionery was meant to show her that they had no intention of kicking her out; instead, she has become an additional burden on the girl, who now feels that she must be an even more determined worker to prove that she is allowed to be her granddaughter.
For her to see Nagumo as a threat, since they are actually a blood-related family, makes a lot of sense, and not just to Itsuka. Her adoptive grandmother is well aware of how hard Itsuka works and the insecurities that plague her, and although her request that Nagumo be the girl’s father (who, heartbreakingly, is still searching for his missing father at the train station with often) is too much, it’s also easy to see that she thinks she’s helping them both. And really, Nagumo is well placed to help Itsuka deal with things, because she’s afraid he’s usurping her place. It’s all very moving, and while those of us burned by the bunny drop The second half of the manga can be suspicious, I think it will be sweet in some senses of the word.