Kinou Nani Tabeta/What Did You Eat Yesterday Episode 6 (Recap)
Sorry about the delay in recapping. It is true that I was
very busy this weekend with all day events at work; however, episode 6 is
exactly the kind of drama episode about which I hate writing. I know some
people find embarrassing situations hilarious, so many people are going to
probably list this as their favorite episode. I, on the other hand, get no
pleasure out of embarrassing situations for essentially good people. And this
episode is a cringefest.
I found no pleasure rewatching to do this recap, so I’m
going to make this one as short as I can manage (as you know I’m no good at
summarizing). But this recap will be a little different. I won’t recap in order
of the episode’s storytelling like usual, but I’ll recap each cringeworthy
situation.
Oh Shiro, what are you thinking?
Episode 6
“The Intern”
Apparently it’s that time of year again when firms start
getting asked to take on apprentices and interns. Shiro’s boss, Mei Ueimachi, gets called to take on a female apprentice by
someone whom she owes a favor, so she feels like she can’t refuse. Shino
wonders why they don’t send the student to a bigger firm while Osamu comments
on the increasing number of female law students. Shino tells him that this increase
has also brought on an increase of harassment cases, too. It turns out this is
the reason Mei was called. The caller wants the apprentice to have a female
mentor. Mei disagrees and asks Shiro to do it.
- Does this mean that she knows he’s gay, so doesn’t see him as a threat?
- He’s socially awkward and knows it.
Mei thinks it unfair that they assume a female apprentice requires
a female mentor when really they should just be looking for the best person.
She also thinks that female apprentices should have opportunities to work with
men. I find it interesting that she picks Shiro instead of her own son.
Shiro is relieved at the fact that his boss still doesn’t
have a clue, but when he talks to Kenji about it, Kenji is concerned. I want to
strangle them both during this dialogue. Kenji says he feels sorry for the new apprentice because she’s going to be mentored by Shiro who is in his eyes is perfectly smart
and sexy but gay. He presses Shiro about watching out for the fact that she
will probably still go after him even if she knows. He makes Shiro promise not
to go out to dinner with her since he won’t be home tomorrow. It’s clear that
none of this would have occurred to Shiro without Kenji talking about it, but now
he’s worried.
Beginning of rant: you can skip and not miss anything
I actually stopped
watching at one point in this scene to yell at the universe.
MEN! WE JUST WANT EQUAL PAY!! WE DON’T WANT YOU!!
I mean
really. She’s coming for an apprenticeship. She needs mentoring to get a job.
Yes, he’s attractive, but if she’s in law school, she is probably going to be
focusing on that not getting a date. Would they even be having this
conversation if the apprentice was a guy?!?!?
End of rant
When the apprentice shows up the next day, she seems like a
nice, earnest young woman. It’s Shiro who reads so many things into the
situation, believing that she is falling for him because she admires him. His
character is really complicated and naïve. He believes Kenji and thinks she
might have a crush on him because of his good looks but doesn’t get that she
might admire him professionally after he clearly shows her how he understands
what his grieving client really wants and follows that instinct even though he
knows it will make him less money. I mean there is a reason why Mei recommended
him to mentor her. He’s an excellent lawyer. Pfft.
In his attempts to “let her down easy,” he thinks that she’s
nice and must have boyfriends so she won’t feel so bad if he lets her down and
tells her he’s not interested, thus in the middle of lunch he blurts out “Do
you have a boyfriend?” Clearly not something you should be saying at this
point. And they both realize it at the same time. We cut to office where we see
Mei telling him that she will reassign the woman to her son. Sigh.
This embarrassment would be enough for one episode, but we must completely
torture Shiro and us with his socially awkward behavior.
“He’s baaaaaack”
When Mei is pondering the situation about the apprentice at the beginning of the episode,
Shiro is actually not paying attention. Instead he is looking at a text from
Kohinata.
Shiro ends up at dinner with him, and Kohinata is the same
weird guy. He talks about his problems with his boyfriend again and how his
boyfriend is so demanding. It makes Shiro think again that he’s coming on to
him.
I suppose I could see that, but I could also see that he probably just wants someone else to complain about his boyfriend to. I mean after the first time who else besides Shiro would listen to him? I’ve been in that scenario myself that someone keeps telling me things not because they like or need me or my office but because I was the first person who actually listened to what they were saying.
Still, Shiro—who is already feeling guilty because he didn’t
tell Kenji he was going out to dinner with Kohinata—blurts out that he’s
already living with someone when really Kohinata is trying to tell him that he
invited him to dinner to meet his boyfriend who shows up at that very moment. He is VERY
different from what I expected and clearly Shiro is shocked as well.
In Shiro’s
fantasy, he was a real Gilbert type (from the famous manga Kaze to Ki no Uta),
partly because Kihonata described him that way. So we are expecting a young
elfin-type sexual manipulator. What we get is a scruffy 30 year old who wears
cutsey sweatshirts out to dinner.
The most troubling thing is that when Shiro comes home, he
lies to Kenji about being out to dinner with them. Why? However, after the intern disaster at work, he comes home furious at himself over everything.
He ends up making a fantastic meal out of his frustration:
Kinpara
And then a dish with the leftover chicken stock and rice as a second
course. I don't know what this is called, but it looks like congee or juk with egg:
He even tells Kenji about his mistaken perception of about
Kohinata’s boyfriend, and they laugh at the contrast between his imagination and
the real life person as well as Kohinata’s slave-like behavior towards him.
Kenji is intrigued and as they laugh, he says he wants to meet them while Shiro looks at him realizing that Kenji thinks more of him than he thinks of himself.
Comments
When Shiro says at the end that he isn’t as suave as Kenji
thinks, I laughed because it’s something viewers already know. Kenji is
completely in love with Shiro and fell for him at first sight as we saw, so of
course he’s going to think that anyone around him will do the same.
But Shiro is old enough to understand that allure is really for Shiro alone and not get caught up in his own ego and awkwardness. I’m worried what life is going to be like for him at work now when work was a place where he felt secure, confident, and successful. He is a very admirable lawyer as the intern says. After this case, I felt inspired, too.
