Whole Year of 2018 Anime Review : Today's Menu for the Emiya Family

Remember that time when everyone summoned some historical hero figures and trying to kill each other in Fate series? Guess what? You don't need to remember all of those tragedies, betrayals, and deaths because Shirou Emiya now dedicated himself to cook special dishes for all of you! Weirdly enough, this anime released every first week in a month of 2018. So, it ended up with standard 13 episode seasonal anime count but span for the entire year of 2018. This is an adaptation of a manga that no one wanted and no one expected to come (mainly because we were expecting Heaven's Feel part adaptation) but ended being very fun and interesting twist for a franchise that already too dark to begin with. Produced by the same studio who brought any other good Fate franchise adaptation, ufotable, this is Today's Menu for the Emiya Family.

This anime set in Fate/Stay Night non-canon (or so I assume) universe where everyone have summoned their servants but no one fought to the death for the Holy Grail so everything felt very peaceful and yet, it was a perfect setting for Shirou to explore his hobby of household activities specifically cooking food for anyone around him. Because of this particular activity, Shirou bonded with everyone even Lancer who supposed to be Shirou's enemy in the beginnings of Holy Grail War but ended up having a part time job in local market's fish store. Or if you want something crazier than ever, Caster, who is the major villain in the course of Unlimited Blade Works, asked for Shirou's help to teach her how to cook meals for her master. Supposedly, Shirou's cooking connects everyone from allies to enemies, making this show is quite interesting for me.

Since this is a cooking show, let's talk about Shirou's cooking instruction. Surprisingly, the instruction in this show is very easy to follow and successfully motivated me to cook just like Shirou. To proof that, I tried to cook myself a food that being presented in this show. It is Japanese home cooked Hamburger with a bit modifications from myself to accustom the ingredients those available which turned out to be delicious despite my fails at keeping it together. So, it safe to say that Shirou's instruction more or less true and you could try yourself cooking Shirou's dishes at home with instructions from this anime. Also, the dishes in this show looks very good but still have this level of modesty inside which is rare inside a cooking anime.

One thing that is uniquely I want to praise despite this anime's short run (12 minutes per episode) is the cutely and beautifully drawn animation. It made my heart fluttery and calm. Not to mention that pool and volleyball episode which I think as a show off from ufotable capability while keeping its cute animation. I mean that volleyball sequence probably the best fan service episode I have ever watched in the year of 2018 since the fan service itself came from unexpected animation of ufotable's direction.

Overall, this anime is perfect for you who want to try to cook Japanese home made food or at least motivated. The modesty inside this dish made you think that it actually easy to cook the dishes. And the calming animation will definitely make you stay just to enjoy lunch or dinner with Emiya family.

(This review was previously written in MAL : https://myanimelist.net/reviews.php?id=298091)