Before I get into the review, I just want to say Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out in the world, and I hope that this Mother’s Day goes well for ya! With that out of the way and nothing else that I can think of to include in this segment, let’s jump into the review!
The episode begins with Grandpa and Grandma preparing for their honeymoon, making plans on where to stop. One of the places they want to visit is Tokyo, so Shouta is over to help with the planning, as he’s been to Tokyo before. Grandpa and Grandma were planning to take the sleeper train, but after hearing that it’s not commonly used and that the more commonly used train is faster, you bet they experienced…would culture shock still be the right term here? I’m pretty certain it would be, but I’m not 100% positive. Shouta is also uncertain if he should really be helping in the consultation of honeymoon plans, but after some evidence that Grandpa and Grandma are not ready for travel to Tokyo, Shouta decides that he wants to tag along to help out. Mino’s also tagging along because of course she is.
For him to help out, however, he needs to get permission from his grandpa…and he’s turned down at first. But when Mino comes over to ask herself, Shouta’s grandpa accepts it…because he’s under the assumption that Mino is going to be Shouta’s future wife. At least Shouta managed to get permission to go on the honeymoon trip?
But before the trip, Grandma decides to stop by a market at a point where all the shops are discounted and purchases some daigaku imo, talking with the owner of the shop she stopped at. After finding out that the shop she was at likely wouldn’t survive much longer, Grandma stands outside the market and eats the daigaku imo, leading people to the shop that sold it and having them buy some. I think this was a wholesome storyline to include before the trip itself, and it’s just so sweet how this occurred.
We then get a flashback of when Grandpa said goodbye to people that he knew that were going to Tokyo. The flashback transitions into the real world with Grandma waking up Grandpa, letting him know that they’ve arrived at the station. Yoshiaki is there to say goodbye to them, and Grandpa and Grandma are about to board the train…except they’re about to board the train to Hokkaido, not Tokyo. Thankfully, Mino and Shouta catch this before anything bad can happen. The four board the train they’re supposed to be on, and Grandpa and Grandma take a look at the view, and ask how fast the train goes. It goes 300 kilometers per hour (or around 186-187 miles per hour as a comparison for Americans like me), when Mino notices that Grandpa and Grandma were currently in their elderly form.
As it turns out, the only reason they’re already in that form instead of being younger is so that they can get a discount, and being younger would cause confusion. Once they see they’re getting closer to a specific spot, they go to sleep and, while not shown on screen, they have the hourglass dream and flip the hourglass, just in time to wake up when the train arrives in Tokyo to appear younger. At this point, Grandpa, Grandma, and Mino visit Akemi, who is Mino’s aunt, while Shouta visits his grandmother.
Speaking of Akemi, we get to see her on the phone with one of her siblings, not believing that Grandpa and Grandma would be coming to visit…and of course, at that same time, she’s gotten sick, remembering how Grandma used to take care of her. Of course, Grandma does end up arriving, and putting her hand on Akemi’s forehead, leading the latter to believe she’s hallucinating…until Grandma speaks, causing Akemi to freak out. Mino comes over, which seems to have Akemi be more certain that this is real…oh, and Grandma has to explain to Akemi what’s going on, with the explanation taking an hour.
The group then has a conversation regarding the trip in Tokyo so far, and during it, discussions of Grandpa looking like someone comes up. We don’t have to wait long to see this person, however, as more family members have arrived, beginning with having us see a new face, Kousuke!! Grandpa goes to say hi to the little guy…and he gets scared, calling Grandpa a “fake papa”. We do get to see his actual father, Shinji, and this leads into a funny segment where Grandpa and Shinji do and say the same things, causing Kousuke to laugh.
We then get narration from Mino regarding what occurred the day after, with a focus on Grandpa and Grandma visiting Sugamo and getting enamored by everything in the shopping area. Grandpa ends up visiting a haramaki store, and also gets roped up in modeling clothes alongside the haramaki. The outfit that we see him in reminds me of how you’d commonly see spies portrayed in spy-themed stuff…sorry that I can’t be more specific than that. But we also find out that Grandpa wears a haramaki under his clothes, even when he goes out.
The four then stop by a cafe, where Grandpa had made a reservation. He ends up getting Grandma a parfait, and at first she’s uptight, insisting that she shouldn’t. She later caves to having one spoonful…and then eating it all. I love the sweet tooth she has, it’s nice. While we don’t know what Mino or Shouta ordered, we did learn that Grandpa got the yokan set.
Mishaps then ensue with Grandpa and Grandma trying (and struggling) to use a photo booth. Mino and Shouta take a picture to show what can be done, but when the second attempt done by Grandpa and Grandma doesn’t turn out well, all four take a picture together. This was a super sweet part of the episode, and I think it also captures the “older generation struggle to figure out new generation tech” vibe well.
Grandpa then gives Kousuke a gift of tops…but they’re tops from Grandpa’s time, not the tops that Kousuke was wanting. It turns out that Kousouke wants topblades and —
I don’t know how common of toys these are in Japan, but due to me being an American whose main exposure to Japanese culture is through anime, but these feel like they bear a resemblance to Beyblades. Intentional? I don’t know. But am I still pointing it out? Yes! 😀
Grandpa decides to challenge Kousuke to a duel with the Beyb-I mean topblades and his older tops, promising to buy Kousuke a toy if the topblades win. While the older tops do win because Grandpa got a bit too excited, he does end up buying a toy for Kousuke anyway. I think Grandpa just ended up buying a toy because he felt bad for not understanding the kind of top Kousuke wanted.
The two later end up taking a nap together while Grandma and Akemi have a heart-to-heart conversation. We also get to see what Shiori is doing, and she’s visiting her grandparents’ house…and just casually unlocks the door using a hidden key. While she’s here to study, it feels off because her grandparents aren’t here, and…
…if this episode had come out a week ago instead of this week, I probably wouldn’t be feeling as strongly about this part. But after some news that I heard on the Thursday before this episode dropped…I feel for ya, Shiori. I really do. But during her thinking, she asks for her grandparents to come home… and through some force of nature, Grandpa and Grandma sense it through “grandchild telepathy”. I gotta admit, the ending part was funny. Just…this show knows how to use tone effectively, in my opinion.
The episode ends with someone trying to solicit Grandpa and Grandma into modeling. Grandpa begins by yelling out stuff about Grandma, and then later, Grandma yells out stuff about Grandpa. Shouta had advised them to turn down anyone who tried to solicit them for work. Later, on the train, he asks how they turned him down. The answer? Saying that they’re in their 80s, of course! Shouta doesn’t seem too impressed by this, but to each their own.
And with that, we’ve come to the end of another episode! This was a fun little episode, and I’m glad that it managed to cause me to hit both extremes of my emotional spectrum (after all, it’s not every day that I can catch a potential reference to an anime inside of another anime!), and overall I enjoyed the episode! The name of next week’s episode has the same name as this week’s episode, except Tokyo is replaced with a different location. So I’m guessing the “arcs” are meant to help tell the stages of the honeymoon apart. But hey, a honeymoon related arc is fun, and I can’t wait to see the sights of the place that’s gonna be visited next week!
Additional posts about Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again:
Sara Talks Anime 
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