Original subtitles

I want everyone in Japan to eat the ramen I made.

So if everyone here doesn't agree that it's good, I'll make it over.

Don't hold back. If it isn't good, please say so honestly.

Of course, if it's good, please say it's good.

Then, let's eat.

Manpuku

♫Marumatteru senakani ni morai naki ♫I get infectious weeping looking at your stooped shoulders

♫Haji datte issho ni ♫We'll share the humiliation too

Week 18

It Will Soon Be Complete?!

♫Hikoukigumo bonyari nagamu ♫Gazing absentmindedly at contrails

♫Kokoro kokoni arazu ♫Here in body, but not in spirit

♫Nenkan totaru moshi shitara ♫If I was to calculate an annual total

♫Tsukiau watashi sugoi? ♫Aren't I amazing for keeping you company?

♫Toboketeru mayuge ni morai warai ♫ I get infectious laughter looking at your comical eyebrows

♫Tere datta nandatte ♫Be it embarrassment or whatever

♫Morai naki morai warai morai ikari ♫Infectious weeping, infectious laughter, infectious anger

♫Moraippaji don to koi! ♫Infectious embarrassment. Bring them on!

♫Seiten mo donten mo hekireki mo ♫Sunny days, cloudy days, thunderous days too

- It's good. - Yes, it's good, Manpei-kun.

Is it really!

I'm sorry, Uncle Manpei.

I can't eat it after all. It's because of morning sickness.

You should've said so from the beginning.

I'm sorry.

As for me, I don't think it tastes good.

Mom.

It's not good.

- Is that right... - You don't have to be so emphatic...

I have to agree.

I won't say it isn't good, but it's an ordinary taste, or should I say...

it's not something I want to have everyday.

Auntie Fukuko.

What Manpei-san's trying to make is

the kind of ramen that would surprise the world, right?

If that's the case, I don't think you should be satisfied with this taste.

I'd have to agree.

That's true.

- I think it tastes bad.. - Grandma.

I understand.

- The whole chicken? - Yes.

Give me 5 chickens for now.

Are you going to be using this for ramen soup?

I want to try different things like breast meat and thigh meat.

They're not cheap like chicken bones.

- It can't be helped. - Thanks. Come again.

He failed?

It's okay. We weren't expecting it to go well from the beginning.

But he even built a hut and he's working on it all by himself...

Tachibana-san really is something else.

Of course he is. He's the one who made that Daneihon after all.

Are you okay for money, Fuku-chan?

Expense for ingredients pile up too,

and he also has to purchase a lot of equipment too, doesn't he?

If he's going to be making ramen, he'll need things like noodle-making machine and this and that.

But we're okay for money yet.

We still have some leftover from Manpei-san's severance allowance

and I'll work hard here too.

- We'll have to increase her hourly pay. - We should.

We'll take it out of your allowance.

She's just putting on a bold front.

He may have made Daneihon, but that was a long time ago.

There's no way a restaurant business started by a former executive director of a credit union

- is going to go well. - That's right.

Manpei-san immersed himself in making the soup.

Outside, it was a cold midwinter day.

But inside the lab, it was suffocatingly hot.

And 1 week later.

It's the new soup.

He tried various things and used breast meat from chicken.

It smells really good.

- The smell itself is always good. - Really, Mom, not again.

- Taka-chan still can't make it? - She's still battling morning sickness.

She says nothing tastes good, so there's no point in inviting her.

Please give it a try.

This is delicious!

Yes. It's much better than before.

Thank you.

It's delicious.

Is it?

I disagree.

In fact, the first one may have been even better.

- The first one? - What are you talking about, Mom.

Doesn't everyone have to say it's good, Manpei-san?

Yes.

Why don't you think this is good, Mom?

- Why do I need a reason? - I certainly think it's delicious.

Mom, you just want Manpei-san to give up making ramen, don't you?

No. I really don't think it tastes good.

No, I'm sure that's it. You're just being mean.

This is only the second try yet.

How do you expect to come up with a taste that would turn the world upside down

on only your second try?

That's right, isn't it?

That's right, isn't it?

I think it tastes good too, but

I also think people would get tired of a taste like this right away.

You have to make the soup much, much tastier.

- That's right. - Fukuko...

I'll make it over.

- It's good. - What's not good about it?

It's no good unless everyone says it's good.

- I'm sorry, Manpei-san. - There's no need to apologize.

I know that you only said that for my sake.

It's just as Mother said.

It's not going to be perfected in 2 or 3 tries.

That's our president.

Whether it was making salt or Daneihon, you refused to compromise.

Please take it easy, Manpei-san.

I can't make anything new if I take it easy.

- We'll be here to help. - So don't worry, Madam.

Thanks.

So, this is where you're making ramen, huh?

- Shinichi-san. - Onozuka-san.

Oka-kun and Morimoto-kun. Long time no see.

- How have you been? - Sorry for dropping in without notice.

- I did call out to you several times from the front door. - I'm sorry I didn't hear you.

Manpei-kun, looks like you've gone back to the time you were making Daneihon.

And to think you were working wearing a tie until just recently.

I've forgotten about that already.

I'll be rooting for you in your new endeavor, Manpei-kun.

Thank you.

Did you come today to see how Manpei-san's doing?

No. Actually, there's something I want to talk about with Fuku-chan.

If possible, I'd like Manpei-kun to hear it too.

Actually... Actually, the thing is...

It's about remarrying...

- Remarrying? - Yes. I'm thinking about remarrying.

What? You're remarrying, Shinichi-san?!

I met a woman through a friend.

I felt that Saki wouldn't mind me remarrying if it was with this person.

Remarry...

Fukuko.

But of course you should. It's already been 17 years since Saki-san died.

That's true indeed...

Even now, not a day goes by that I don't think about Saki.

- But... - To the contrary, I'm surprised

you hadn't thought of remarrying until now.

What kind of a person is she?

Her name is Honjo Yoshimi-san. She's 35 years old.

Oh no. She's younger than me.

She lost her husband 3 years ago,

and she's raising her two children by herself now.

She has children?

She has a 6-year old daughter and a 4-year old son.

Then if you remarry, Shinichi-san,

you'll be their father?

Well, yes. I never even imagined it until I met her.

Have the children accepted you already?

Well, yes.

Then there's no problem at all. Right, Fukuko?

No, there isn't.

Actually, there is.

Frankly speaking, after Saki died,

there's no connection whatsoever between me and Fuku-chan's family.

But I also helped Manpei-kun at work all these years.

In my mind, I still think of you all as my family.

- I know what you mean. - I feel the same way too.

So...if I can't get everyone's blessing, I won't remarry.

Fuku-chan, Katsuko-san, most importantly, what will Mother think?

Oh, there's Mother...

Won't you meet her once, Fuku-chan?

- Me? - I want to introduce her to you first, Fuku-chan.

You should go meet her, Fukuko.

All right.

Thanks.

It was 2 days later that Fuku-chan met with Shinichi-san's partner.

This is Honjo Yoshimi-san.

HONJO YOSHIMI

I'm Honjo Yoshimi.

I'm Tachibana Fukuko.

Is that Fuku-chan's late sister's...

He was her husband.

- And next to him is...the woman he's remarrying. - That's not for sure yet.

- Uh... Honjo-san... - Oh, please call me Yoshimi.

- Then, Yoshimi-san. - Yes.

Are your children...

The older one is 6. Her name is Hanako. Kazumitsu, the younger one, is 4 years old.

Always looking for trouble. Yesterday too, what do you call that? Hibernation?

- Hibernation? - Started digging a hole in the ground

to wake up the frog in hibernation. I said cut that out, but...

And what came out was a mole. Mom, do moles hibernate too?

No, no. Moles live underground to begin with, so

they're not hibernating, I said. It must've been quite a nuisance for the poor mole.

- You have quite an energetic little boy there. - No, that was my daughter.

She's a very good girl.

On the other hand, my son's introverted and all he does is stay home.

Kids normally play around outside on Sundays, right?

But Kazumitsu says it's a day to lounge around in pajamas all day

and won't even take a step outside. What do you think about that?

Oh, I'm sorry. Here I am, chattering away by myself.

Shinichi-san told me to act like my normal self.

- It doesn't do any good trying to look your best, right? - But of course.

- In short, she's just an ordinary lady from Osaka. - Be quiet!

Fuku-chan, if you have any questions, please go ahead and ask.

Questions?

Please ask me anything.

Yoshimi-san was a totally different type of person from Saki Nee-chan.