When last we left our wonderfully weird duo, Yoh was grappling with whether Pun might be a vampire or an alien. In the next two episodes the show takes an entrepreneurial turn.
Pun buys a business
Our waitress, Kamsai, finds Pun on the roof with the pork blood soup cart. He bought it, and wants to pay Kamsai to make him the soup. Nice problem solving.
Pun and Kamsai yell “All Hail Pork Blood Soup” which leads Yoh to them. Yoh is still figuring out if Pun is a vampire, because he gives him a huge thing of garlic. Pun is happy to get another gift. Yoh seems disappointed, I think he wants Pun to be a vampire.
Pun tells Yoh about the new business venture, a restaurant only for the three of them.
Yoh takes Pun and Kamsai to see aliens
Yoh is working on his alien documentary and Pun and Kamsai are perfecting the soup recipe but they all take a break for extraterrestrials.
While Yoh is interviewing their guide for the documentary, Pun has his umbrella open in the car. Which is perfect. Once they get there Yoh talks about a pork blood soup place, so I guess this is a two-for-one work trip. They can research pork blood soup AND aliens.
There are more moving lights in the sky but they argue about whether they’re UFO’s or not. Pun casually says he saw the “Vimana” who came from the sky hundreds of years ago. Pun isn’t afraid to say this since no one believes him anyway.
(Vimana are mythological flying palaces and if you search that + alien online you get interesting results that I’ll let you find.)
Yoh takes Pun on a date to figure out if he’s a vampire
Yoh can’t stop staring adoringly at Pun, and his wandering thoughts take him to his childhood encounter on the swings. There was more to the story: Pun brought the sobbing young Yoh his own ice cream. Yoh spaced out remembering this earlier, which is why he thought Pun disappeared from the roof. Which is hysterical.
Yoh feels he owes Pun, if that was Pun, ice cream. He knocks on Pun’s door in the middle of the night to invite him out to dessert tomorrow. Yoh is charming.
Yoh wants to know how Pun hasn’t aged since that time. And if he’s a vampire, why is he okay with the cross and garlic. And where are his fangs?
Pun explains he has weak recessive genes and lives in a buddhist country. He had a dentist take off his fangs. But he can prove he’s not lying by jumping off the roof.
This leads to their first fight
Pun doesn’t really jump off the roof because even if he doesn’t die it hurts. He’s just on a ledge. But Yoh is upset with Pun for tricking him.
Kamsai interrupts because she wants to open the restaurant for real. Pun is against it. Yoh is for it. The argument seems to be about more than pork blood soup, it’s an ideological argument about pessimism versus optimism.
Then the neighbors show up because they smell the delicious smell of pork blood soup. Pun warms to the idea and Yoh is over his anger with him. Pun decides his goal is to spend the rest of his life with his friends and make them happy. Nothing like opening up a pork blood soup place together to heal rifts.
The restaurant will be named “All Hail Pork Blood Soup.”
They get their first employee, and a sinister man appears
The first employee, Shin, has bright red hair and puts his apron around his neck. Pun thinks he’s weirder than Pun. Kamsai hires him because she’s impressed by his determination.
Somchai, a familiar looking young man, shows up at Pun’s door. Pun isn’t happy to see him. Yoh comes by and Somchai makes him uncomfortable sniffing him. Pun makes Yoh go away.
Yoh goes home for dinner. His sister tells his dad that Yoh has found “the right one”. Is this a reference?
Pun shows up, seemingly uninvited, and doesn’t want to eat anything. Unless they have blood. Yoh’s father thinks it’s a good joke that Pun is a vampire. Yoh is annoyed Pun told his Dad and so Pun asks Yoh’s dad to keep it secret. This feels pretty true to life.
Pun cryptically explains he followed Pun to protect him.
Of course Pun is worried about Somchai
We get to see our school group and the silent girl again, but too briefly. Yoh runs into Somchai, wearing an amazing V-neck sweater, on his way back to his apartment. Pun quickly shows up and sends Yoh inside.
The nosy neighbor, who has been lurking around constantly, drags Yoh aside. Of course Somchai is the one who lived in Pun’s room and maybe killed a girl. Yoh and the neighbor agree it’s scary.
Pun wants to protect Yoh by staring at him while he sleeps. But still won’t explain why. Then he falls asleep. Yoh discovers the cross is burning Pun’s chest in the morning.
Merit making before opening night
Yoh takes Pun, Shin, Kamsai, and a schoolmate to a temple. He’s seeing if Pun is a vampire while also making merit for their soon-to-open restaurant. Yoh is good at multitasking.
Pun has his umbrella open in the temple and is starving, but otherwise fine. He has Kamsai make pork blood soup in the temple kitchen.
After a bit of meditating, Yoh asks Pun about the mark on his chest. He doesn’t want Pun to wear the cross if he’s allergic. Pun won’t stop wearing his gift.
Yoh is still on the fence about Pun being a vampire. He’s not sure if he can believe in vampires the way he does aliens.
But it’s time to open their restaurant! The first customer is — we’ll find out in episode 5!
Where we are and what’s next
It’s going to be Somchai, right?
I love that Yoh is opening up Pun’s lonely life by making him open a pork blood soup restaurant. This show isn’t going to get you hot-and-bothered, but I find Yoh and Pun’s fascination with each other infinitely endearing.
We didn’t get enough of Yoh’s college friends, though we got a glimpse of them with strange silent girl. Pun also mentioned the ghost in Yoh’s room. These little bits of unexplained weird are the best. I hope they don’t get over explained later.
Pun is being awfully silent about Somchai and the danger Yoh might be in. The obvious conclusion is that Somchai is a murdering vampire, responsible for the girl in his room and the recent student death. This show being what it is, I wonder if there’s a stranger explanation here as well.
New employee Shin, who seems incapable of doing anything, has to have an interesting story.
The look of this show continues to delight me. From Shin’s bright red hair to Pun’s infinite supply of umbrella’s, it’s so bright and lively. Clearly it was important to the show that it have a certain look.
They’ve also always got extra’s hanging around the apartment to keep it looking busy. Not only that, they’ve always got people hanging around the apartment building making it look busy. The temple was also a welcome departure from the usual schools-apartments-restuarants locations of Thai shows. I’m not surprised, I Will Knock You also made a point of having interesting locations.
This show has my whole heart. I can’t wait to see more next week!