Back when Restaurant to Another World dropped its first season in 2017, I fell in love. I was not affiliated with Beneath the Tangles at that time, other than having contributed a single guest post; but the “Western Restaurant Nekoya” inspired me to write a second post for BTT. RtAW, it seemed to me, portrayed a place and events that resembled the sacred, the liturgical, and communion. Something about the chef, his staff, and their guests all gathered to enjoy a meal that was in no way magical and yet somehow more than natural warmed my heart and drew me to them.

So watching the beginning of Season 2 felt like meeting up with old friends again. “There’s the Chef!” I wanted to shout. “There’s Aletta! There’s Red!” And true to form, the series introduced us to a new character and new dishes as well: a cat-girl “demon” adventurer who goes by the moniker “Hilda the Night Strider”—a name that should incline you to at least be somewhat wary—and her beloved soufflé cheesecake. (Ok Primes, stop drooling over the keyboard!)

Given that this is a slice-of-life series with well-established characters and setting already, episode 1 provides just enough background to remind us where we are, and then sets up several potential story threads that it will probably wind its way through as the season develops. There’s Hilda, who in this episode toys with telling her adventurer friends about the restaurant “some day”; in the OP, she and her friends are enjoying a meal at Nekoya together. So I expect we’ll be seeing more of them. There’s also Sarah, the adventurer from Season 1, who is in the middle of tracking down a great treasure. And the episode 2 teaser promises some star-crossed lovers, perhaps a variant on Romeo and Juliet (but with food instead of suicide).

(I should mention that it’s not all fun and food: Hilda serves up some mild but bloody gore as she slaughters a tribe of goblins. So be advised, though it’s not a major part of the episode.)

All in all, be ready to eat your fill and be satisfied at Western Restaurant Nekoya! You can visit the Restaurant on Crunchyroll seven days a week, not just the Day of Satur!

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negativeprimes

Dr. Steve, aka NegativePrimes, was introduced to anime while working on his Ph.D. in literary studies, when the local anime club showed Naruto’s fight against Zabuza and Haku on an auditorium big screen. His favorite anime series include FMA: Brotherhood, Erased, Snow White with Red Hair, and Gate, and he also enjoys computer programming, gaming, and technology. Where he finds the time for these, after prayer, work, and raising several children, remains something of a mystery.

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