THE iDOLM@STER - Episode 4

Team Tree Frog (Green): Chihaya & Haruka
Team Toad (Red): Hibiki & Takane

Episode Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ (3/5)

Well, looks like I was wrong about this being a Takane-centered episode. Instead, we get a glimpse of the loneliness that Chihaya has to go through each day due to the problems within her family and how music is her escape. Watching her character reminded me a bit of Iwasawa Asami from Angel Beats! who went through similar experiences. This was quite the surprising episode since it wasn't all happy-go-lucky, so to speak. As for the content itself, this episode featured a cooking show which pitted two teams of two idols together to see who can come out on top. I would say that it was Iron Chef with a frog as a host and perverted cameramen who attempted to film under the girls' skirts at every given opportunity. Next week gives us the obligatory beach episode I believe. Hoping to see all the idols here instead of just the four in this episode. From the looks of where the show is going, Producer is slowly forming his harem. So far, he's got Hibiki, Takane, Chihaya and Haruka.

I don't really know what to write here but I guess I'll summarize the idea of Iron Chef along with it's relevance to Gero Gero Kitchen (the show which the idols were in) for those who don't want to read the extremely long Wikipedia article.

Iron Chef

• A challenger chef picks an iron chef to challenge
• The two, along with their sous chefs prepare for battle
• A theme ingredient is revealed, requiring both chefs to use it in all their dishes
• The two teams are given 60 minutes to create a multi-course meal for the judges
• After the cooking finishes, judges taste the dishes
• Judges assign points for the overall meal: 10 for taste, 5 for presentation, 5 for originality; a total of 20 points
• Winner is the chef who gets the most points

Gero Gero Kitchen

• Two teams of two chefs each battle each other
• A mini-game to see who can get a small green flag first in a box of random objects decides the bonus ingredients for each team
• Cooking begins and the host (a frog) interviews each team to find out what they are making
• After one dish is completed by both teams, the same mini-game is played again
• Two more dishes are created after this, with one of them using the bonus ingredient.
• Judges taste the food they are given
• Each one then chooses which team they thought created the best dishes
• Winner is the team with the most votes

To conclude, I think Gero Gero Kitchen is just a simpler and more comedic version of Iron Chef. Personally, I would rather watch GGK not because of the show's content, but for the chance to see idols cook! The dishes at the end looked quite appetizing (aside from the dessert with durian). With this episode done, I'm definitely looking forward to the next episode which should be packed with fanservice.