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Originally Posted by Clarste
I disagree with this assessment pretty strongly. While on the surface it appears similar, with the tools being laid out for them and whatnot, when you actually think about it at all the Madhouse version makes no sense at all. The candidates are told to hunt pigs and given a bunch of knives and a firepit. Okay, so what's the test? To make something tasty? How does this test anything at all, other than skill at cooking? Menchi's reason for getting mad doesn't make as much sense either.
The point of the sushi was all about observation and logic. They're told to make handmade sushi, which is the cuisine of a small island nation. They're given a bunch of knives, but no source of heat. They have rice and vinegar, and Menchi waits for their entries with a pair of chopsticks and a small dish of soy sauce. The test is to figure out what the heck sushi is supposed to be. Given the clues, you can guess it's seafood because of the island nation and the knives, you know it's raw because there's no heat, you know it's something you create with your hands and is of the size to be picked up by chopsticks and dipped in the soy sauce. It's an actual test. It's clever. And the only reason Menchi gets mad is because Hanzo gives the answer away in a disrespectful way.
Removing the sushi part removes the test entirely. What we're left with is just an examiner who gets mad at the drop of a hat and fails everyone for no reason.
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I fully support your opinion; I understand completely if you didn't like the episode. At the same time, I feel like we need to analyze the Madhouse version more.
In the Madhouse version, Buhara and Menchi give the following rules: the Exam is based upon cooking, the ingredient is pork and one can use any pig within the Visca forest (despite there only being one type), at least one of the facilities provided (grill, knives, vegetables, sink, salt, pepper, skewer) need to be used, and the taste needs to be "delicious." It's very ambiguous--even if the candidates find the Great Stamp, the examiners intentionally don't specify that there's only one type of pig in the forest reserve. Observation and originality are key--one needs to seek out the Great Stamp, find its weakness, and then deduce how to prepare it using all of the tools at their disposal. Granted, the sushi test was even more ambiguous due to no one other than Hanzo encountering it before. But the pork test in the Madhouse version has the same
spirit of the sushi exam, which is why I accept it.
These are the exact same rules as the sushi exam--switch the fish out for the pig, and you have the same story. The Madhouse version combined the candidates' disdain for cooking into both parts of the second phase; the 2011 series also incorporated the candidates' disparagement of the Gourmet Hunter occupation. The spirit is the same, regardless of whether or not the events follow the manga to a T.
Menchi's irrationality was more understandable in the 1999 version because she was given more reasons to be annoyed: no one takes the exam seriously, they think that Gourmet Hunters are ridiculous, and then the correct methods are revealed to everyone by the contestants. This was a year in which Menchi would have been satisfied if 0-10 candidates passed her exam. Menchi's profession is insulted before the exam even begins in the 2011 version, and then all of the contestants believe that they only need to roast the pig to pass--so Menchi gets annoyed earlier than before. Regardless, Netero finds her exam unacceptable in all versions.
Menchi's passion for cooking and her picky tastes are the same in all of the versions. I think that the Madhouse series was actually more true to her character than the Nippon Animation version was--despite the great differences. In the 1999 series, Menchi stays upset without fully understanding the depths of what she'd done by failing the entire pool. She's less reluctant to conduct another version of the second phase in the 2011 series. Menchi is a better rounded person, whereas in Nippon Animation's adaptation, she's in permabitch mode for the entirety of both episodes 9 and 10.
Though I do agree with your deduction about the small island nation and knives--especially considering that their workstations have no ovens or stoves. It definitely is clever--I just feel as if the Madhouse adaptation did an admirable job combining the second phase into one episode.
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Originally Posted by Clarste
It's not like he had a role in this version anyway. He just passed everyone but none of that counted because Menchi vetoed everyone. So what was the point of him being there?
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Menchi and Buhara are sort of equalized. In the Nippon Animation adaptation, the viewer is supposed to believe that Menchi is the better Gourmet Hunter of the two. She cares more about the taste and is stricter than Buhara is. But Buhara is clearly not as dumb as he looks--his exam was very deceitful in the manga (and 2011 series) and he's incredibly strong. If anything, the Madhouse adaptation gave me more respect for Buhara.