Isekai Shokudou

Western Restaurant Nekoya is a popular eatery located on a street corner in a Tokyo shopping district. Serving both traditional Japanese fare as well as Western dishes, this eating establishment is popular among Tokyo's residents. But this seemingly ordinary restaurant is also popular with another type of clientele...

While the restaurant is thought to be closed on Saturdays, the truth is that on this special day each week, its doors are instead opened to the inhabitants of other worlds. From dragons and elves to fairies and mages, this restaurant has no shortage of strange customers. Nevertheless, the enigmatic chef known only as "Master" will be waiting to serve up their favorite dishes with a kind smile and keep them coming back for many more Saturdays to come.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Owner Main

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Aletta Main

Uesaka, Sumire Japanese

Kuro Main

Oonishi, Saori Japanese

Aka no Joou Supporting

Itou, Shizuka Japanese

Adelheid Supporting

Ueda, Reina Japanese

Samanark, Victoria Supporting

Tamura, Yukari Japanese

Fardania Supporting

Hikasa, Youko Japanese

Gold, Sarah Supporting

Yasuno, Kiyono Japanese

Gaganpo Supporting

Yasumura, Makoto Japanese

Roukei Supporting

Matsuoka, Yoshitsugu Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Kurosu, Nobuhiko Producer

Tanaka, Hiroyuki Producer

Yamauchi, Mirai Producer

Reviews

Sep 18, 2017

Stark700

Recommended

The isekai genre is really becoming a hot new trend of recent years. From RPG game settings to being reborn into a fantasy world, it’s a genre that has attracted a lot of attention. One of the biggest shows from last year, Re:Zero really took that to a darker side. It seems these days, isekai focuses too much on fantasy adventures – the typical story involving survival, battling monsters, or forming guilds. Any fan of open world and MMORPG games knows these formulas as they make up a good deal of the gaming market as well. Then, there’s Isekai Shokudou, a show that takes on ... the isekai genre but formulates it into something much more different.

Also known as ‘Restaurant to Another World’, the series combines elements of fantasy, slice of life, and cooking. Coming into this show, I didn’t originally have high expectations. I would ask myself, “what’s so special about a show with cooking?” That was originally my first impression anyway as the first few episodes introduces the setting and characters. Make no mistake, the series’ title is what it is. The main setting takes place at a restaurant known as the “Yoshoku no Nekoya” (Western Cuisine Cat Restaurant). From the outside, it looks rather unremarkable. Still, it’s the inside that may surprise you especially with the delicious dishes it serves. More importantly are the characters that visits and work there.

This anime consists of a very small cast of main characters. It all begins when the owner of the shop discovers Aletta, a demon girl eating discreetly at his restaurant. Having being rejected by the human world, she finds work at Nekoya and serves as a valuable asset. Joining them is Kuro, a strange black-horned elf girl who serves as a waitress to pay off her bills. Although the show consists of a small character cast, the Red Queen is one other distinguishing character to take notice as she has her own personal reasons to visit Nekoya. With a cast this small, it feels like the show is taking a daring risk to craft any story. To be honest, this show doesn’t have much of a plot as each episode is like a story of its own. The main premise is how this special restaurant brings otherworldly customers on Saturdays each week. These characters ranges from elves, fairies, animal men, and even dragons. From my perspective, the show doesn’t really need to rely on a concrete plot as it demonstrates the ability to entertain with its slice of life content. It achieves this with character interactions between the staff and patrons. While these patrons usually possesses otherworldly features, they behave just like normal human beings. It also helps that the show takes time to get us to know these characters. Some episodes gives us insight about their background stories, the world they came from, and even their origins. As a show that relies much more on its characters than story, it gives more reasons for the audience to care about them.

Despite the show being very lighthearted, it still has some light drama such as fantasy discrimination. It’s why Aletta is ostracized from the human world in the first place. In addition, noble characters such as the half-elf Victoria forbids themselves to marry. On the other hand, dragons are (particularly the elder ones) are worshipped like Gods. To say the least, the cultural drama of the show is just enough to make it watchable but not enough to brew up a story.

Now, how can we forget about the food? After all, it’s what the patrons are there for in the first place. Believe me, this series really knows how to craft its dishes. There’s all sorts of food introduced ranging from meat cutlets, fried shrimp, spaghetti, tofu steak, sandwiches, curry, buns, etc. As you can see, the cuisine is diverse and often adapts with each episode’s style. Each episode has new types of characters coming so each it introduces new food on the menu. I’m also surprised by the realistic details of the food as it looks very credible. The coloring, texture, and context overall make the food very convincing. Add the patrons’ reactions and you’ll quickly understand why.

Adapted by Silver Link, the anime has a colorful vibe and solid visual quality with its character designs. The fantasy elements is very evident with the otherworldly characters and their different worlds. By character designs, they reflect on high fantasy traits such as with elf’s ears, demon’s horns, animalistic features of the animal men, etc. It’s very stylistic as the show makes them look convincingly as possible. The restaurant itself doesn’t look very remarkable as it has a very simple design, both inside and outside. There’s minimal fan service in this show as it really relies much more on the food to catch a viewer’s attention. Overall though, I think Silver Link got their point across when decorating the colorful style of the anime.

I can’t say for a fact that the soundtrack of the show will be memorable. It’s mostly lighthearted and hardly noticeable most of the time. What did take my notice is the voice acting especially with Kuro. She’s perhaps the most unique character in the show as she communicates telepathically with others. She also has a stoic personality so stepping into the shoes of such a character is never easy. Thankfully, her role in the show is memorable for those traits thanks to the modern talents of Saori Oonishi.

To be fair, Isekai Shokudou really lacks in storytelling and if you’re seeking a colorful plot, then look elsewhere. Almost every episode feels the same and doesn’t make much attempt to change despite different characters being featured. It’s also a show that can hardly make anyone laugh as its comedy side feels stale. However, I would say this show is recommendable especially if you’re more interested in a slice of life-fantasy anime. Every episode itself has a story and brings together characters to create something worth to talk about. The cooking elements is well-detailed and really offer an interesting side to culinary arts. This is a show that I didn’t regret watching as story isn’t always what matters on the menu.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Mar 25, 2018

Werty800

Mixed Feelings

Everyone wants to get the most out of their moment. In an attempt to create new opportunities for their pursuit of bliss, humans seek out numerous things in order to avoid duties. After all, effort leads to fatigue, which is nothing else than a detriment for one's enjoyment, right?

In Restaurant to Another World the viewer follows beings from a typical fantastical setting. It's a world where dangerous foes, social inequalities, and incurable diseases are issues its inhabitants face on a daily basis. Weeks pass, but their demanding lives don't get easier. Be that a life of a gladiator, squaring off against countless enemies to earn ... his freedom, a sole survivor, enduring a solitary existence on a parlous island, or a stray demon, cast away by the society due to her origin, their lifestyles are far from ideal.

Regardless of this, they can still find pleasure and comfort in their challenging, yet steady lives. All thanks to Nekoya: a magical eatery, whose doors appear throughout their universe only once a week, on the day of Satur.

Nekoya by human standards, does not deviate from the norm. Simple dishes are served in simple ways; it's a typical western restaurant on the outskirts. The otherworldly creatures, however, perceive each course as a heavenly gift. Curry, ice cream, fried fish, steamed potatoes and many others provide intense experiences incomparable to any other. A meal—consumed countless of times before—brings forth a sense of joy and satisfaction on their rigid faces. An entire week's severe workload gone in a matter of minutes. Not much can compare to such gratification.

The cook himself, however, sees the restaurant's menu as being anything but exceptional, understanding that despite the feelings it leaves in its patrons, its crudity can be noticed by anyone familiar with the real-life cuisine. Similarly, binge-watching Restaurant to Another World can lead to feeling blasé. The lack of intrigue, absorbing characters, worthwhile art or music leaves it with only its noncomplex emotional resonance, which relies purely on avoiding the aforementioned feeling. The show puts a high emphasis on the fact that, just like the food served at Nekoya, its simplicity is supposed to be enjoyed seldom, allowing for its message to persist longer, as well as give the person receiving it time to utilize it.

Despite that effort, it still can't avoid the results of its bare-bones presentation. The always present redundancy will inevitably cause the viewer to grow bored, defeating the purpose entirely. Unfortunately, following the most popular anime format, it opted out for twelve episodes, rather than a one-shot OVA or a shorter season. The lengthiness damaged what could have been an uplifting and memorable story, turning it into a forgettable piece of animation.

As such, although the show's messages are genuinely worth experiencing, it is hard to recommend—finishing it will grow gradually more tedious, which can suppress everything it's trying to convey. It knows about this, but doesn't attempt to create a captivating experience, instead settling on a monotonous repeat of everything that it already said. The strength its idea possesses is far from enough to carry a twelve episode show on its own.

So ultimately, what you really need to know is that you should enjoy your morning sandwiches more, faggots.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Sep 18, 2017

Fircoal

Not Recommended

Do you like short stories that don't have much of a point but may serve as a nice lighthearted vignette? Do you like watching people gush loudly about how much they enjoy the various types of food that they are eating? Well if so Restaurant To Another World might be for you! If you don't it most certainly won't be.

While Restaurant To Another World has a nice atmosphere and does well to protray a comfy setting, it's only purpose are the two things I mentioned: short meaningless vignettes that can sometimes be heartwarming, and watching people gush over the food that they love eating so ... much. While it does those two acceptably, there really isn't much else to this story. None of the main characters are developed. They have an episode half or two that gives them a little bit of character but for the most part they are ultimately unimportant. Just people that you get to know as you get to see the various walks of life that frequent the restaurant.

The various walks of life aren't very fleshed out either. While we are introduced to important bits of their character for that segment, this does very little but give a general sense of who this character is. In many cases, this character could be one of many others that would be able to fit into the role. Ultimately their personality doesn't matter and isn't explored. They are rather a tool to dig into what one type of typical fantasy character might enjoy at this restaurant. And due to a decent amount of the episode being decidated to their love and eating of the food in question, this limits even more the characterization that the characters get. While there are a couple who get developed to an amount that at least makes them a character, most of them are not.

The stories usually aren't that much to write home about either. Most of them follow the same ordering. First a problem or a character point or some sort of starting idea will be introduced. Then that character will find the door or will think about when they found the door. Then they'll visit the restaurant and proceed to gush over the food that they chose to order. If it's their first time they'll express disbelief about how for some reason this restaurant shouldn't be able to do the meal they want well before turning into putty when they experience the true power of the food that they soon devour down. And then they order seconds, thirds, and as many helpings as they possibly can. While this can get very boring and predictable, I will note that there are times where the show is able to use its formula well and tell an interesting or heartwarming tale. Although some of its better tales are when it ditches the formula and decides to go more freeform, espeically when it involves the main cast. The episodes surrounding the demon girl in particular were able to carve a nice simple heartwarming story. The type of story I had hoped and expected to see more of from the show.

Restaurant To Another World also can have the bad habit of trying to gimmick up some of its shorts in order to cover up it's formula some. However this only makes it worse as the while the formula isn't too annoying the gimmicks almost always are. There is one part in which it tries to present itself like a documentry. While it's a novel idea it ultimately fails to bring enjoyment because documentaries are best for when someone craves knowledge in a subject matter. It's hard to crave knowledge into a fictional subject matter that as a viewer I didn't even know about until that episode started. With no curiousity being built, there isn't any pay off.

The art and sound are both fine. They're both good for the atmosphere that the show is trying to envoke and thusly I think that ultimately they work. Although the OP is very out of place. Personally I'm actually quite fond of the sound cue that they use each time someone comes across the door. It's unique and it makes a sort of recurring sound that adds to the comfiness of the work. I tend to like traits that are allowed to be reused and be familiarized to the audience. It's like a little special trait to itself, and that's pretty cool!

Overall I feel one's enjoyment of this show is really going to depend on the answer to those first two questions. If you want to watch people love and nom on food, or if you like short comfy but meaningless stories you'll probably enjoy this despite it not having the best characters or story. But if you don't like that or don't really care for it, it'll seem tedious and repeative, as that's really the meat of what it has to offer. Personally I'm not the biggest fan of either. While I can enjoy meaningless short stories if they resonate, they rarely did for me. While I certainly understand there is an audience for this I am firmly not that audience as the flaws outweighted the strengths of the show for me. As a potential viewer you'll have to make the decision yourself. Do you think short comfy vignettes and food love can outweight it's lack of character or story depth? If so give a try. If not you're probably better off looking for another show.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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