Common Name: Amaama to Inazuma
Alternative Names: Sweetness & Lightning
Score: 8/10, 5/5
Length: 8 Episodes
Genre: Slice of Life, Foodie, Drama, Comedy, School Life
Summary: Ever since the death of his wife, Inuzuka Kouhei has been struggling to care for his daughter, Tsumugi, and keep everything together. With such a struggle, though, some things are bound to fall by the wayside, things neither of them they never knew they couldn't live without. In their case, Kouhei doesn't even realize how important his wife's homecooked meals were to keeping everyone happy. As this realization begins to dawn on him, so too does a desire to make up for all the mistakes he's made in raising Tsumugi until now. With the help of one his students, Iida Kotori, daughter to a celebrity TV chef, Kouhei and Tsumugi start learning to cook together. Though this new, shared experience will never completely heal the pain of their loss, it will undoubtedly heal the rift between this bumbling father and his beloved daughter.
Review: As I was working on my Barakamon review earlier this week, a thought crossed my mind. I've written several reviews now that have brought up a little show called Sweetness & Lightning. I've talked about how it's one of the most emotionally resonant shows I've ever seen. I've used it as an example of what a good child character looks like. I've even gone so far as to lump it into a category of shows I call the "struggling father's slice of life" subgenre. Despite how many times I've mentioned it, though, I keep realizing that I've never actually gotten around to writing a proper review for this show. So, I think it's about time that changed.
Yeah, I've kinda been putting this one off for a while and that's kinda not OK.
As a whole, I've found that Sweetness & Lightning is one of those shows that can be appreciated from a few of different angles that key into interconnected but disparate ideas that can be easily associated with show's various characters. For example, the primary idea that I keyed into instantly was the show's theme of "family amid loss" or, alternatively, a family's recovery following a devastating loss told from the perspective of Inazuka Kouhei. The show initially tries to hide this perspective as we are introduced to the Inazuka family going about their daily routine (waking up, eating breakfast, brushing teeth, and rushing off to school and work). On the surface, everything seems relatively fine in spite of the glaring lack of a mother figure in this situation. As things progress, though, what starts as a quiet feeling unease starts to rise to the surface as we see Kouhei regularly fall into a self-absorbed melancholy and Tsumugi, Kohei's daughter and a character that is typically depicted as all smiles and youthful enthusiasm, occasionally withdraw into herself or become quiet and clingy at the drop of a hat. All within the first episode, we see this slow revelation that something is very wrong develop until, suddenly, all the little hints and subtle tells reveal the simple fact that Kohei is utterly failing as a father. Due to the sudden and devastating loss of his wife, Kohei has been constantly struggling to push down his feelings so he can focus on raising Tsumugi. Yet, in doing so, all he's done is fall into a routine he assumes will get the job done. Since he's so distracted with shoving down his own pain, though, Kouhei pays little mind to just how much this routine is harming Tsumugi. Terrible as all this might sound, the show takes a sudden and necessary shift once this failing on his part is recognized and he realizes that his desire for an easy routine has been depriving Tsumugi of the healthy, balanced diet.
If my summary isn't conveyed just how heavy this shit is, let me put it this way:
It's rare for an anime to shatter me emotionally, but this one managed
to do it with just one line of dialogue in the very first episode.
From this point on, we are introduced to Sweetness & Lightning's second main idea: the understanding that food has the ability to connect people and aid in the healing process following a significant loss, told from the perspectives of both Kouhei and his student/cooking instructor, Iida Kotori. Desperate to make up for his failings as a father, Kouhei endeavors to ensure that Tsumugi is given a proper meal. Initially, his mad dash for redemption is still very limited in scope, believing just going to a restaurant will suffice. As he runs into the restaurant formerly run by Kotori's over-worked mother, a celebrity TV chef, the plan slowly changes as its revealed that Kotori only knows the basics when it comes to cooking. Still driven to see his daughter eat something she'll enjoy, though, it's eventually decided that both he and Kotori will learn how to cook, thus opening up a world of possibilities for Kouhei to be the father Tsumugi desperately needs. In other words, his learning to cook gives him the opportunity to learn what foods Tsumugi really likes and give him an excuse to spend more time with her as he takes time to make that food. At the same time, though, this exercise effectively draws Kotori into their family dynamic and serves as a means for her to slowly overcome her own family issues involving her parents' divorce and her mother's absenteeism. Again, as terrible as that situation might sound, the show ultimately works to bring both Kotori and the Inazuka family to a place where they can, at the very least, function and be happy in spite of their various losses.
While the romantic undertones between Kouhei and Kotori are a tad inappropriate,
the show at least has the grace to make them both stubbornly oblivious
to the possibility, unlike the manga which makes it hard to ignore.
Lastly, there is is the aspect of this show told primarily through Tsumugi's interactions which run throughout the second part until the show's conclusion. Far lighter than the rest of the show's themes, Tsumugi's story is simply centered on the power/nobility of children. Throughout the show, it is made fairly clear that Tsumugi is not like most children. She has, like many children in her situation, matured in a stilted and unnatural manner but this isn't necessarily a negative. Following her mother's death, Tsumugi obviously doesn't have it easy, but she manages to step up and support her father's suffering in her own ways. For example, at the show's start, she doesn't raise a fuss about her food not tasting good to her because she knows her dad is working hard for her anyway. While her desire to protect her dad and keep him happy isn't necessarily healthy in this instance, it does grow with Tsumugi beyond the point when she's finally able to act like a kid again, i.e. once Kouhei has undergone his revelation and starts taking better care of himself and Tsumugi. After their home life starts to normalize, Tsumugi's bizarre attentiveness develops into a keen sense of empathy that is quickly directed at Kotori once she's keyed into the idea that Kotori is unhappy in much the same way she and her dad were. Though she still acts selfishly and exhibits a childishly mercurial personality, Tsumugi eventually grows into what can objectively be considered a "good kid." Though she gained a measure of self-confidence and self-reliance during her dad's moments of weakness, she uses her brief moments of willfulness to help the people around her. The only unfortunate aspect to this aspect of the show is that this development isn't given nearly enough time to shine in comparison to Kouhei's growth as a father or the soothing of Kotori's quiet loneliness. Having read a great deal of the manga, I'll simply say its a tragedy we likely won't get more since some of Tsumugi's greatest moments come right after the show's cutoff point. Even without that knowledge, though, Tsumugi stands as one of the best child characters anime has offered. While she might not be as much of a troublemaker or as impulsive as other children, she reflects a different kind of childhood--one shaped by tragedy but grows well in spite of that--one that I understand well and see from time to time.
Let's just say Tsumugi is the anime personification of a cinnamon bun too pure for this world.
To be clear, however, let me just say that my issues with Sweetness & Lightning do not end with the fact that Tsumugi's story is unfortunately cut short. Rather, my main gripe is that this lack of fulfillment and development is true of the show as a whole. Functionally, once Kouhei starts gaining some level of skill at cooking, all personal and character development ceases to give way to some pure and simple stories into these characters' typical slice of life escapades. While the later episodes that fall prey to this lack of impact aren't necessarily less important to the story as a whole, they end up feeling like pointless filler once it's clear we'll be getting no satisfying conclusion. Especially considering the strong and resonant beginning to the show, the lack of any real message, dramatic conclusion, or personal revelation makes the ending feel even more cheap and half-assed than it actually is in its proper context. This is, however, just one of the few fates expected of anime based on an ongoing manga. Some might say that it's better that the show didn't butcher together some semblance of an ending, but for once I feel like this adaptation succeeded so well up until its end that it might have actually done well with an anime original conclusion. That's simply a matter of speculation on my part, though, and not a real point of criticism. In the interest of ending on a critical note, though, I will simply say that, while Sweetness & Lightning might not be perfect, it stands as an exemplar of its genre--so unique and distinct in its triumphs and failures that I have no qualms using it as a benchmark for other shows that speak to similar themes or character motivations. Though it isn't as good as Barakamon in its storytelling and pacing, it succeeded at offering the emotional punch that show lacked. Though it is, at least in my eyes, definitively better than its derivative successor, Udon no Kuni no Kiniro Kemari, the show did seem to learn a few things from Sweetness & Lightnings weaker aspects. So, if for no other reason than this, I think everyone should watch this show since it will likely shake and shape their ideas of what anime is capable of.