Welcome to the Outcast’s Restaurant! – Episode 1

Content Warning: slavery, fan service, objectification of women and children

What’s it about? Dennis was a powerful level 99 cook for the famous guild “Silver Wing,” but was kicked out by his jealous leader.  Rather than feeling discouraged, he decided to follow his dream of opening up a restaurant in the countryside.  He hopes to live a quiet and idyllic life alongside a formerly enslaved child named Atelier, just cooking delicious food for any wayward adventurers that happen to find his humble business.  

I’m annoyed because I was fully prepared to like Dennis until the infamous slavery trope reared its ugly head again in this premiere.  I’m frustrated at how normalized it has become to see enslaved women and children in this genre without any meaningful critique on the social structures that cause it to happen.  When you really think about it, what purpose does this trope truly serve? There are plenty of ways a story can write a traumatized character that isn’t rooted in slavery.  The only thing this trope fosters is the “benevolent master” narrative, which then creates immense emotional dependency from the formerly enslaved characters.  

Even when these protagonists grant the enslaved characters their freedom, they usually cannot fathom being separated from their “masters.”  That’s why I couldn’t enjoy any of the tender and quiet moments between Dennis and Atelier.  I don’t expect Dennis to start a revolution, but his casual acceptance of slavery as a fact of life really bothered me.  There’s absolutely no criticism against a system that dehumanizes people, especially children.  The overwhelming amount of grown men bidding against each other to buy a little girl was frankly, extremely gross.  The fact that the perversion of these men was handled in a humorous manner made me lose all interest in the cozy and slice of life cooking show it desperately wants to be.  

What’s jarring is that the show knows the subject matter is intense, just looking at the way it handles Atelier’s state of mind.  There’s virtually no life in her eyes for a majority of the premiere. It basically had no business trying to stick such heavy subject matter into a fluffy slice-of-life show. If you take out this portion of Atelier’s backstory, the rest of this premiere would’ve been decent.  For a second, I felt grateful to finally have more fully grown adults as protagonists in this genre rather than another hapless teen trying to navigate this world with his harem of women. 

Granted, that doesn’t mean he won’t get a harem later. It’s already no secret that his ex-comrade, Katie, has a crush on him and the series doesn’t seem to have a problem with sexualizing her (what even is that outfit).  Beyond that, the show is just another middling fantasy show with nice images of food.  This ain’t for me folks, and I predict this show will gradually disappear from the general consciousness. There’s plenty of other good shows coming out this season.