Gonna try something different for this review: instead of taking the time to detail what happens in the episode and intersperse my thoughts within those descriptions, this review is going to exclusively focus on my thoughts about the episode. Because experimentation is fun!
I like how this episode was two stories that aren’t related, but they were both entertaining in their own rights. While the first story had a spookier atmosphere, the interactions between the characters were very entertaining to watch. And while the second story could be considered out of season, it was still a nice story to finish the episode with, even with that more comedic ending.
…okay, maybe “aren’t related” isn’t the right phrasing for me to use regarding the connection between the two stories. There is a character in both of the stories that, albeit not being someone who got a lot of spotlight in the stories, ended up playing a part in both. And honestly, I found that to be funny. Is my humor broken? Who knows.
Honestly, getting to watch the characters interact in various different ways week after week is so refreshing. I love shows that are able to tell a variety of stories without needing to follow an explicit formula. Not to say that shows that follow formulas in every single episode are bad. There are some shows that follow formulas in every single episode that are still great watches. However, if a show can consistently tell good stories without needing to follow a formula, then I personally believe it’s a better show than a show that constantly uses the same formula in every episode.
And I’ll state it again, just in case: that doesn’t mean that shows that follow formulas are bad.
In fact, this episode gave me the most vibes of “Saturday morning cartoon” than I had ever had watching it during this anime season. It probably has to do with the fact that this episode was two stories in one, which a lot of shows that I put under my umbrella of “Saturday morning cartoons” (even if they don’t even air on Saturdays and/or in the morning) also do. That probably doesn’t count for anything, but I’m just letting my thoughts run wild on the page at this point.
The Christmas party was also quite nice. Seeing the girls do something so fun together was very relieving after a story that would easily classify as a Halloween story. Honestly, it makes me wonder if this series was initially pitched as a web series of 11 (or so) minute long episodes, but then they changed it to be a more traditional anime series, so while they reworked some of those ideas into standard episodes, some stayed in their original format, so they paired some of those together instead. I dunno, I’m not someone who knows the ins and outs of anime production like the back of my hand.
But after this, there’s going to be only one more episode of Food for the Soul?! It’s hard to believe we’re getting so close to that point already! Genuinely feels like this show is going to be a single cour thing, but if it does end up getting a second cour in the future, I’d be more than willing to watch it! Of course, I hope that this show doesn’t end up fumbling the ending (of this cour, on the off chance it gets more episodes), but I will be keeping a close eye on it just to make sure that the ending is satisfactory.
ADDITIONAL POSTS ABOUT FOOD FOR THE SOUL:
Sara Talks Anime 
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