One morning, Kuroyanagi has finished taking his bath and is preparing to use the hairdryer. Just as he flicks the switch on, he gets a strong electric shock and this marks the beginning of a series of unfortunate events for him...The 2nd round of the Yakitate 9 contest begins with Master Liu representing St.Pierre for the sake of challenging Azuma, Kanmuri and Kawachi after they won the Monaco Cup. Kawachi has reservations about Liu knowing how to make bread though. When Liu chooses the panel reflecting Ookuchi in Kagoshima Prefecture which is written in red, Kuroyanagi explains that this is because the type of bread they have to make has been decided in advance and for this case, they are supposed to make Chinese buns. As Liu is an expert in Chinese cuisine, the Pantasia trio will face an uphill battle in this round.
Kawachi asks Kanmuri if he has thought of something to win this round and the latter brings them to a black pig farm. Kanmuri reveals that the black pigs from the Isa region would be their biggest weapon since the filling inside many Chinese snacks include pork and the meat from the black pigs is of a high quality. To the trio's surprise, they bump into Kuroyanagi who says that he's here to find out about the famous local produce as a judge of the contest. However, they sense that Kuroyanagi is not his usual self and are even more surprised to see him not reacting to the delicious pork. Before they can find out what's wrong, Kuroyanagi prepares to leave and reminds them not to be too complacent because this will be the biggest undoing for a chef. Kanmuri feels that the pork is not enough to give them an advantage since Liu is making the same dish as them and may use similar ingredients.
Meanwhile, Kuroyanagi discovers that he has lost his sense of taste as he tries stuffing himself with different food items but they taste the same to him. He recalls that this must be due to the electrocution accident and doesn't know what to do. The Pantasia trio come to know about this and Azuma promises to make the Japanese-style Ja-pan Chinese buns so that Kuroyanagi can regain his sense of taste. Kawachi scolds Azuma for this because the stipulated theme is Chinese buns but Kuroyanagi says that as long as the buns are steamed, the filling is not that important.
The Pantasia trio return to their motel named "Damesou" (Cannot make it) after buying the ingredients for the contest. Besides the pork from the black pigs, they also acquired the Kinzan spring onion and Satsuma City dried fish. Azuma says that they still have to work on the skin of the buns because it would be better to use the dough meant for baked bread. However, due to the difference in water content of the dough as well as the use of the steamer, it is impossible to do this in practice. Kawachi tells Azuma to give up the idea since they have less than a day to the contest. Suddenly, Azuma thinks of a technique to improve the dough which will help them win.
On the day of the contest, Kuroyanagi is worried about his inability to taste thus is mentally prepared to quit as a judge if he doesn't recover by this round. Meanwhile, Liu shows off his skills in frying the ingredients for the buns' filling which impresses the crowd. In response to this, Azuma uses the local yam wine which is added to the stew of spring onions and pork meant as the filling. Besides this, he also uses the technique for handmade noodles so as to prevent the dough from turning soggy due to the steaming and giving it an enhanced chewiness.
Liu finishes his Manhan Banquet buns but Kuroyanagi is unable to taste anything. As such, he enlists the help of Meister Kirisaki's peacock, Kuu. After tasting Liu's buns, Kuu spreads his feathers completely to signify that Liu has gotten full marks. On the other hand, Kuroyanagi is unable to regain his sense of taste and decides to resign as the judge. However, Azuma wants him to eat his creation first before quitting since he's confident that this will help Kuroyanagi to recover.
Upon tasting the bun, Kuroyanagi goes back to normal and starts to display his usual exaggerated reactions. He then declares Pantasia as the winner of this round which causes Liu to protest. Kuroyanagi explains that since Liu's buns did not make his regain his taste and had used only one type of local produce, it was clear that Azuma's side was superior.
Actually, coming to this point, watching this anime has become more of a habit rather than an interest in how the story develops. That is because it's easy to predict that Azuma's side will win the contest at the end although there might be some hiccups along the way. If not for the humour, the central theme of food and the fact that I've been following it for more than 1 year, I think I would have dropped this long ago based on my usual preferences and watching habits. Kuroyanagi gets to take centrestage in this episode which can be considered good news to me since he's been one of my favourite characters ever since I started watching this anime. That part about the electrocution and the unexpected announcement of Kuu being a special guest judge instead of Meister Kirisaki were really classic humour moments. And not forgetting, the name of the motel which the Pantasia team has to stay in, never fails to make me laugh. Trust them to think of a name like Damesou!
Next episode takes another shot at a parody of SMAP when CMAP makes another appearance. This time round, the remaining 3 members of the group challenge Azuma and gang so it should be fun trying to see which CMAP member is supposed to represent the real-life SMAP members. ^__^
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