Hello there, Split Screen fans! For once, it’s a light week on your favorite strange pair of shows. This time, the boys and girls of Coffee Prince talk Legos, nail polish, and devils on your shoulder, and the kids of My Hero Academia build a theme park and eat some cheese. Grab a snack and let’s jump in.
(First time reading Split Screen? You can catch up on all of our posts here!)
Coffee Prince Thirteenth Cup (up to minute 30)
M: This was a buffet of story beats this week.
E: There were a lot more scenes than usual, I felt like. It seemed like there were a few like 30 second check-ins to events.
M: I can’t believe they showed Sun-ki entering the home of a random woman who is probably the mother of his child, and then just…moved on.
E: They just totally dropped it! Next we see him, Eun-chan is talking to him about how attractive her boyfriend is.
M: Sun-ki has a lot going on, but at least he’s a good communicator.
E: He gets to the point.
M: He doesn’t play games. But he does paint his nails, willingly.
E: Is there a difference between painting your nails unwillingly and willingly? The philosophical question of this episode.
M: I don’t need to call in resident philosopher Clickbait Boyfriend to tell you yes. Pretty clearly there is a difference.
E: Eun-sae’s world was really falling apart this episode.
M: All of Eun-sae’s plans for eventual world domination have crumbled. Remember when she auditioned for a talent show on TV and got roasted? This girl is having a rough few months.
E: She said to the weird butcher man this episode that she had wanted to get rich on singing and buy her family things, which was sad. Considering what we know about her singing.
M: The weird butcher man became super sympathetic this episode out of nowhere. I’m still rooting for Mama and Mr. Hong to rekindle the flame, but he’s angling for the kind stepdad role.
Weird butcher man does not judge
E: I liked how everyone commented that it’s been awhile since they’ve seen him. Because it has been a few episodes.
M: Who even noticed that he was gone?
E: Apparently not us. Because I had a moment of “oh yeah that guy” when he showed up.
M: Eun-sae can make him her personal valet now that Min-yup is totally over her and out on the town with a considerate lady who plays with her hair a lot and says absolutely nothing.
E: But she will share her…melon? It was some sort of green fruit.
M: I loved when he almost ate it off the fork and then pop-up Ha-rim reminded him not to get cocky.
E: Big fan of pop-up Ha-rim, more than the man himself.
M: We could use him commentating on entire episodes.
E: I don’t know if I trust someone with a bunny girl tattooed on their butt.
M: I’m glad that the content of the tattoo was revealed, at least. I would have wondered forever.
The wink here….
E: Anyway, the big revelation of Han-gyul’s parentage was revealed rather blasé-like from grandma this episode. In that he is totally adopted, not just…half-adopted.
M: I can’t believe they made his grandma spill the beans. His presumably still very sick grandma, and not his dad in that ill-fitting suit.
E: You can see where Han-gyul gets his fashion sense from.
M: That was a good burn.
E: When Eun-chan called him stylish, that was peak comedy.
M: Heart in the eye, eye in the heart, to quote her shirt.
E: Something in what I think was Italian, to quote Han-gyul’s shirt
M: Nothing like some hot pot instant ramen and couple’s tooth-brushing on an early date.
E: That is fun though, making the ramen in the pot on the table. That’s neat. I wish I could do that in my tiny apartment.
M: They won’t be able to do that in New York, landlords don’t like open flames.
E: But he’ll get one of those luxury two story apartments, you know.
M: You know, Streeteasy did include in my daily digest of apartments in my price range, randomly, a $18,500 a month apartment in Chelsea. So I guess that’s where Han-gyul lives.
Brushing your teeth, the sign of a true relationship
E: He works for the biggest toy manufacturer in the East Village, so. Making the big bucks.
M: The Lego store is definitely in Midtown, the East Village is not where manufacturing takes place. But I appreciate the attempt.
E: He’s going to be a designer though, right? That’s more of an office job.
M: The East Village is also not peak corporate office territory. You can get a lot of good ramen there! But I don’t think that Lego would have a design studio in the East Village.
E: This is a period piece, so you never know.
M: You’re right, they’ll live with the Rent kids in a loft.
E: Not that far back!
M: La Vie Lego.
E: I do appreciate that it seems like the main conflict in the relationship is going to be the imminent threat of long-distance rather than any sort of misunderstanding or random amnesia girl or something like that.
M: I still think there’s a possibility that he’ll try to hook up with Yoo-joo in New York.
E: She’s not in New York though! Probably! We don’t know where she is, more accurately.
M: Han-sung is leaving messages telling her not to come back soon, which is very convincing.
E: It seems like this was the first time he called and found her phone on though.
M: Who knows? I have no further thoughts on Han-sung, thank goodness. I do think it’s bold of Han-gyul to ask Eun-chan to move with him to New York. They’ve been dating for like, a minute.
Here’s the required Han-sung image for this blog. We’ve met the Han-sung quota.
E: That’s kind of what makes it seem more viable than it would at six months though. It’s the hippity happity honeymoon phase when things seem like good ideas.
M: Yeah, but she won’t be able to get home. Also, how will she get a visa? Can she stay? Presumably Han-gyul has some kind of work visa. But then again, the East Village is coffee shop central, so if Eun-chan is going to be a famous barista, this could work.
E: She should open a combination coffee shop-tae kwon do studio.
M: Taekwon Co(ffee)
E: Catchy
M: I was thinking a Lego cafe seems more appealing.
E: With tae kwon do, teaching the secret move: throw a Lego under your opponent’s foot.
M: Yowch.
E: Are we missing anything? Again like 80 things happened.
M: No, I think that covers it. Mama is worried that Eun-chan is going to be cast aside when Han-gyul is done with her, which seems like a reasonable worry for your twenty-year-old moving halfway across the world with her new boyfriend. That said, if the worst-case scenario is that you live in NYC on your rich boyfriend’s dime for a few months and then get dumped, would that be so bad?
E: Well, she’d have to figure out how to pay her way back in that case. Which is a bit worrying.
M: I guess so, but she scraped together like ten thousand dollars for her mom in episode one, so her family owes her.
E: Just gotta launch that singing career, Eun-sae.
she’s really too powerful
M: The Coffee Prince boys would pool their tips to get her a flight back and then go fly over themselves and beat up Han-gyul. This is Romance Tracker, by the way.
E: I am curious how the long-distance thing will be resolved. We’ll just have to find out.
M: I bet they get engaged and go together. Roll credits.
E: I bet they go their separate ways for like two years, time skip, romantic helicopter ride or something.
M: Min-yup is a doctor by that point.
My Hero Academia S4E17: “Relief for License Trainees”
E: Well, we didn’t beat up any children. Disappointing.
M: This episode was unhinged. Also, not true, Inasa hit himself in the face.
E: I had honestly totally forgotten about the Aoyama half of this episode. I just selectively blocked it out, apparently. It all came back with the cheese.
M: Okay, I gotta start with the beginning or this will go completely off the rails. Time to gloat. I was right! Fun ice park! Ice blast! Good prediction, me.
E: It was very good! I am very proud.
M: Still think they should have meatballed the leader brat a little bit for good measure, but I guess fun works too.
E: Everybody got to be slightly traumatized by Glamouroki, it’s fine.
M: That hurt his feelings! One day he wants to be sweet to the girl or boyfriend of his choice. He didn’t understand why it was funny. He just wants someone to share soba with.
E: Todoroki has a rough time. Poor kid.
M: I love how they specified that Camie’s not allowed to abuse her power. As if anyone is allowed to abuse their powers.
E: Nope, just her. Bakugo can go around exploding buildings, Momo can create money, Todoroki can go wild with his ice blasts. Only Camie must be careful.
I mean, look at this. She could destroy the world.
M: I’m glad the kids liked it. Even though Present Mic thinks they are freaks of nature.
E: Quirk singularity doomsday is a heck of a concept to introduce during this episode of all episodes.
M: It feels like something I would make up as a dumb prediction.
E: “One day the children will be so powerful, they will wipe out the world! Anyway, here’s some cheese!”
M: I can’t believe Endeavor thought it was appropriate to have a heart-to-heart with his estranged son in front of everyone. I also can’t believe All Might asked Endeavor why he wanted to be powerful, like he was Deku or something.
E: Endeavor just needs to remember that he has legs…that can cross the distance to his son.
M: Do you think his leg and pit hair is fire?
E: Nope.
M: You’re right, you can see in the end credits that the fire hairdo is a choice.
E: It’s all about the image.
M: Getting rid of the fire beard and throwing in that rad fire tie again would go a long way toward rehabilitating his image. He really should lean into the “he’s just like my dad” PR angle, Shoto would love that. That’s what memoirs are made of.
He probably just can’t grow a real beard because he sucks
E: Should we move on to the real star of the show?
M: Cheese, Deku, cheese!
E: It was a new experience for me, honestly going into the second half of this episode. I’ve watched this before, but I guess I mixed up the order of events. I really thought something else was gonna happen, and then I got hit with the cheese and everything came rushing back.
M:
E: Yup, those were my emotions
M: Personally, as someone whose cheese consumption has taken a sharp upturn during the pandemic, I welcome secret cheese messages. Too bad CBB doesn’t read these blogs.
E: Just what is the thought process behind that? He wants to have a nice heart to heart with Deku about their Quirks, and his strategy for that is to leave a note in cheese outside of Deku’s balcony?
M: You can’t tell me that Shoto won’t be doing this with soba as a romantic gesture when he and, I dunno, Momo or like, Sato finally figure it out. Shoto and Sato would be a tough pair.
E: Now, would he do it with the noodles or would there be like a bunch of bowls of soba?
M: I was thinking noodle message, but we can incorporate some bowls too. Deku has never been more relatable. Finally, the fact that he thinks about things for twenty minutes each episode worked.
E: Even Deku’s brain in overtime could not figure out the intentions here though.
M: What did Deku think it was about? That’s what I want to know.
E: I mean, I think the obvious assumption is Aoyama knows something about him and All Might because Deku can’t keep a lid on that and who knows how many people Todoroki has shared his secret love child theory with. I don’t know what he thought about the cheese exactly.
Tasty!
M: I thought for sure it was going to be about Uraraka.
E: Hey, that’s a pretty good theory! Because he was the one who brought Uraraka’s crush up with her. But that was not the case.
M: A missed opportunity. Instead, just bonding over both being weak boys who can’t control their quirks. I wonder if Aoyama has tried an elimination diet. Gluten-free. FODMAP. Maybe he’s lactose intolerant, but I suspect he would rather die.
E: You know, in hindsight, now that I think about it, I kind of understand the point of this half episode? I won’t share it with you. (EDITOR EMMA: I later forgot whatever this point was supposed to be. I have no idea anymore.)
M: Thanks. The point was for the Aoyama fart joke, right?
E: Yeah, that was the whole point. No, there’s several points, but I just thought of a less obvious one. And appreciated it with scholarly interest.
M: The point was to once again expose me to Deku’s cringeworthy room. Usually I love when other people love things, but Deku’s is just like…it’s too much even for me.
E: I mean, at this point, it’s like he just has photos of his dad all over his room. Statues of his dad. When you think about it like that, it becomes a little weird.
M: CBB used to share a bunch of memes on social about some of his academic idols. And now that he works with them, he doesn’t do that anymore. It would be like if we had photos of those guys all over our apartment. And like, action figures of them.
Deku’s having a weird week, let’s leave him alone
E: Oh man, someone should get on the philosopher figure market. Scale figures of Plato, Nietzsche, Hegel… Sell little outfits. Alternate expressions
M: Unemployed Philosopher’s Guild does finger puppets.
E: Not the same.
M: I support philosophy Nenderoids, absolutely. We would have so many.
E: Anyway, Deku and Aoyama are now friends. Lawsuit watch? Cheese crimes.
M: Was that cheese imported legally?
E: Aoyama was drinking wine.
M: It explains where this idea came from.
E: But honestly, there wasn’t much in Coffee Prince, and the ice slide with the fire rings was probably pretty dangerous so.
M: Yeah, somebody needs to inspect that thing.
E: Caffeine Watch is maybe more of a toss up but still leaning towards My Hero.
M: There was a lot that happened on Coffee Prince, but a fair bit of it had a melancholy swing.
E: Good point. Solid win for the cheese.
M: I am ready to make my predictions about what types of cheese will be consumed next week.
E: Alright, Season 4 Episode 18 is called “School Festival”
M: That’s not super descriptive. Okay, prediction one: it’s a crossover episode with Assassination Classroom! And every other high school anime. And Aggretsuko. If only.
E: 
M: Prediction two: Aoyama and Tamaki team up for a booth at the festival selling takoyaki. Aoyama is in charge of the cheese.
E: 
M: Does Tamaki grow an udder when he eats cheese?
E: He probably could, but not like involuntarily.
M: I think it could be strategic. What would you do if your opponent just sprouted an udder?
E: Oookay.
M: Moving right along, prediction three: Aizawa and Joke bring their new daughter Eri to the festival with her newly reduced acne bump. They give her the cat sweater that I have to rewind the opening three times to see every week when I forget what it is.
E: 
M: Prediction four: the festival is going to be some kind of dumb competition. Maybe they won’t be allowed to use their quirks, otherwise Momo would just destroy everyone. She probably still will by throwing money at it, but at least that’s just unfair from a class conscious perspective.
E: 
M: Prediction five: dang, I was going to predict that they would all wear their cute kimonos and yukatas, but they’re going to wear those ugly orange t-shirts, aren’t they?
E: 
–
Hello, Emma here! As always, thanks for watching along with us on Split Screen! We’re checking out My Hero Academia dubbed on Funimation and using Viki for Coffee Prince.
Next time! Please can we get some more Sun-ki? Or something? And it’s time for the next big school event at UA, whatever could it be.