Episode 7 – Sakuna: Rice and Ruins

Since the last few episodes have felt a little too much like a video game, I’m ready to see the show return to the relatively low stakes that made the earlier episodes work. Instead, this week’s episode escalates things further, as we see Sakuna return to the sublime realm, time jump, and some dramatic twists, all of which threaten to shake up the status quo. While it wasn’t quite what I expected, it all worked out, not only being one of the show’s best episodes in a while, but laying a pretty strong foundation for what’s to come.

After a good harvest, Saki decided to take the fruits of her labor back to the upper world and dedicated some of the rice she made to the top goddess Kamizuki. While Sakuna thinks the service should be enough to get her back to her old comfortable lifestyle, Kamuhitsuki isn’t too impressed, and it’s clear Sakuna still has a lot of work to do. Meanwhile, Sakuna catches up with her friend Kokorowa, who doesn’t seem as happy to see Sakuna as he is to see her. We learn that after Sakuna left, she managed to inherit her old position and everything that came with it, making things very awkward. While Sakuna in the first episode might have been furious about this, she ended up accepting it pretty well for the most part. Her experience on the island truly changed her, and although she complained about how difficult everything was there, she also admitted that the hardships made things more satisfying when she was able to taste the fruits of her efforts.

Soon after, Kamihizuki decided to visit Saki and asked her to compare the quality of the rice she provided with the rice her mother had provided before. When Sakuna tasted how good her mother’s rice was, she discovered it was because her mother had been growing the rice for longer than Sakuna had in a year. Now fully aware of how much effort she would have to put in, Sakuna returned to the island and began work on her next harvest. A lot has been harvested. Several years have passed on the island. By the time of the fourth harvest, the quality has improved enough that Kaminari is willing to consider giving Sakuna a new mission to return to the upper world. Even if the show was committed to showing how time-consuming the process of growing rice is, I don’t think it would commit to taking that much time (it does seem odd that the kids don’t seem to get older during that time) , but I’ll chalk it up to video game logic.

However, while Sakuna may be on track to regain her status as a god, Kokorova doesn’t seem excited about the prospect. In fact, she’s always resented Sakuna’s lazy and arrogant attitude on some level (which is at least a little bit considering how dismissive Sakuna was earlier in the episode when he brought up all the work she needed to do) Easily arouses sympathy) So part of her fear is that Sakuna’s return means all the hard work she’s put in before will be taken away from her. But at the same time, she also acknowledges that Sakuna has an inner strength that she seems to lack, which only seems to further fuel her resentment, making things very ominous when the demon appears before she can offer some rice seeds. It’s a welcome twist, because as much as I enjoy the show’s relatively deadpan vibe, I don’t feel super attached to anyone in the cast, so Kokorova’s hidden jealousy instantly makes her a part of the show The most interesting character to me in the show and I’m curious to see how far she will ultimately go in her desire to compete with Sakuna. It’s definitely going to lead to some pretty spicy drama as we get into the second half of the show, and while I’m not expecting anything too crazy from this, it does provide a fair enough sense of where things are going. direction, so I’m eager to see how this all ends up playing out.

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Sakuna: rice and ruins Currently streaming on Crunchyroll.