Shitsuren Chocolatier Episode 2

This week, Souta learns that the good guy doesn't necessarily get the girl. This comes to him in a dream, and he clearly decides that it was a good dream indeed. I don't know about you, but I don't tend to trust my dreams so much. On the other hand, Souta's too ridiculous to begin with, so it's not that unlikely that he would act so funny.

Summary

Saeko fails to be Souta's first customer. Then she gets chocolates from the rival chocolatier Ricdor, making Souta jealous. Souta decides to try the Ricdor chocolates to see what the big deal is, only to have his stomach "reject" them in a suspiciously bulimia-resembling scene. But he resolves not to lose to Ricdor chocolates, so that he can remain Saeko's #1 chocolatier. As if on cue, Rikudou's birthday happens to be coming up, and he sends an invitation to Souta. Upon arrival to the party, Souta finds out that while Ricdor makes nice chocolate, Rikudou himself isn't much competition when it comes to Saeko's heart. Then he meets Erena the model, who is almost as ridiculous as Souta himself. They end up feeling a connection in their mutual stupidity, and decide to extend the night in Erena's place to deepen their friendly bonds. Turns out, Erena wants just a bit more than being plain old friends. Souta tries to reject her, but finally gets some sense and realizes that rejecting a sweet hot girl for a scheming cheater who happens to be married isn't exactly the most honorable action. Kaokuko gets butthurt that if Souta was going to have another girl, who's not Saeko, anyway, that it didn't get to be her. Souta makes the first chocolate of his life thinking about someone other than Saeko.

Comments

Souta is showing good progress for just one episode. The moment he finally realized that he's Matsumoto Jun and he can have all the women he wants worthy of females superior to Saeko was very satisfactory. It's surprising that he's so completely oblivious to Kaoruko's feelings, but I guess it's because he's known her for such a long time he just takes her for granted.

Oh and his taking notes of everything Saeko buys complete with the weather is really great. Don't mind Kaoruko, more data is always useful in every situation! It's rather cute.

Speaking of cute, how cute is this guy? At the end of the first episode, I thought he was going to turn out to be some serious rival that will try to take Souta down, but wow, was I wrong. (I hope. I mean, I hope it doesn't turn out to be like this is all an act or something to lower Souta's defenses so that the strike will hurt that much deeper. Maybe I just watch too many melodramas)

Also, I don't know if you guys noticed from the subs, but, this guy's name and the shop's name... Well, I don't know if he's the original owner that just happened to open his shop in New York before bothering to do so in Japan, because then it would make sense, but otherwise this is just a too ridiculous move on the mangaka's part. The point is, his name being Rikudou is not actually the case that his name really is Ricdor but that's how it's pronounced in Japanese and it's a "translation error". No, his name literally is 六(Riku)-道(Dou) which is a legitimate name in Japanese. (Unless it's somehow really Ricdor, like his father was foreign, and the real Japanese version is simply an adaptation, the same as a completely foreign person choosing kanji for their name in Japan just because it's convenient to use) In any case, I still think it's funny.

And then there's this girl. Same as Rikudou, I thought she was going to be some evil character out to seduce and destroy Souta, but she turned out completely tame. So tame, in fact, that I found myself finding her cute like a puppy, even though I had my guard up, ready to hate her. Unless, again, it's all an act, because her tameness is just a bit too ridiculous. I mean, come on. At this age, you just have to know that what you're feeling isn't love, right? At least Souta actually knows Saeko in person, knows all of her evil points, but accepts them in his warped obsession. This girl literally knows nothing about the guy she supposedly "loves", but can't forget him. Despite the fact that, being a model, she's likely to be around gorgeous people all day, every day. (Although, maybe that's why she fell for a meh guy, because, if everyone around you is beautiful, doesn't that get to be normal and boring? I wouldn't know, but one can imagine)

I just hope she doesn't turn out evil, otherwise I'm fine with her. Also, great for her for not caring what other people think of her, and just doing whatever she wants to do. Those nails do look yummy. Not as much as the chocolates they inspired, of course.

Personally, I found Kaoruko really annoying this episode. Her fantasy-slapping Saeko was nice, but she's being too mopey whenever Souta pays any attention to another girl. Hers is the only reasonable love in this show, but even she can't be reasonable about it. She has to realize that he's never going to see her that way, and her actions completely invalidate her getting angry at him for going after Saeko knowing she'll never love him. Take care of yourself before you judge others, okay?

At first I was wondering if she was going to end up being paired with Olivier, but then the Ricdor employee guy appeared, so he seems like the only character left for her to pick up. Frankly, I think he's too good for her. 

I wasn't really sure about Olivier, but I think it was him kissing Matsuri in the episode preview, so looks like he's leaning towards Matsuri, and not Kaoruko. Because during the episode it wasn't really clear if he was looking like this to Matsuri because he's appalled at her indecent behavior as such a young girl (I have absolutely no idea how old she is, but she's clearly younger than the main group), or because his heart can't handle the fact that she has another boyfriend. With people like Kaoruko, you just know their feelings instantly from the very first scene, but I guess this guy's not that good at acting yet. Or he's just so Japanese that he really doesn't know how to express emotions. Very unlike the character he's playing.

Saeko got to be last because she was really quite minor in this episode. But seriously, I don't know what she was trying to do in this scene, coming to choco la vie from Ricdor. She didn't even buy any chocolate, so she just came to brag for two minutes? I was really rather enjoying her, even though I keep expressing hate toward her, but it's more of a theoretical hate, I actually think she's really cute and amusing. But seriously I really don't know what she was trying to do here. Is the shop on her way home or something? The wording she used in the first episode when she was saying she'd stop by every day could mean that it really is on her way, but it's uncertain.

Speaking of wording uncertainties, the part where she said she couldn't have an affair. That's literally what she says, but I personally chose to interpret that as having multiple meanings: 1- She can't eat anyone's chocolates buy Souta (except that time with Ricdor, which was clearly a taunt for Souta) 2- She's kind of beginning to have a thing for Souta now that he's successful and popular, but she doesn't want to mess up her marriage of convenience. It was a good place to throw in this ambiguous sentence.

Not that I think Saeko likes Souta or anything. She clearly just wants to keep him as her toy, because it's so much more flattering to a person's ego that way. It wouldn't be so bad if she lost him to someone like Kaoruko, but to lose him to someone like Erena... Well, that's going to hurt. Sorry to all the pure-hearted souls out there, but I understand why she's going to try to "steal back" Souta from Erena. To prove herself to herself.

Although, of course, this is all just speculation.

Conclusion

What on earth is this magical gem-like chocolates from Ricdor?? They are so gorgeous and unlike any chocolate I've ever seen. And the sound of Erena biting into one in episode 1 just makes it look like it's every bit as amazing as it seems. I don't care how nice Souta's chocolates taste, I want these!!!