Raise your hands if you wanted see more of the Meiji Restoration Electric Girl Band on Sparks of Tomorrow! 🙌 Because I definitely want to see more of Inako and the girls playing on the stage with Kihachi’s electrical instruments. But since this isn’t a musical, things take a different turn.
Quick recap of Sparks of Tomorrow Episode 6: Kihachi and Inako, along with her friends Kate and Suzu, visit an amusement park, where Yosuke shows them a grand steam-powered musical organ he intends to inaugurate soon. Unimpressed by his little musical teaser, the gang accepts Yosuke’s challenge to perform after him at the inaugural event. Kihachi comes up with electric musical instruments, while Inako, Suzu, and Kate practice like their lives depend on it. Despite some parental (Inako’s dad forbids her from playing) and technical hurdles, the girls – Meiji Restoration Electric Girl Band- eventually perform and blow the audience away with their never-before-heard sound.
The episode ends with Yosuke back at his mansion, talking to a steam-powered puppet/mannequin fashioned after Seiroku… unless, of course, there’s an actual corpse inside.
Titled ‘Elopement’, episode 7 of ‘Sparks of Tomorrow’ puts the band events behind and kicks off with a cutely dressed Inako trying to put on a brave front for her forced engagement ceremony to crackhead Yosuke. While the Momokawa household prepares for a formal betrothal ceremony, an excited Kihachi visits Inako to show her something new he has been working on. Kihachi and Inako’s friends are shocked to learn of the sudden ceremony, and they all encourage her to ditch the ceremony and pursue her dreams of becoming a master brewer instead. Older sister Noriko included.
Much of this edition is thus focused on Inako’s escape from the engagement ceremony, and of course, much like their hilarious flight in ‘Sparks of Tomorrow’s’ second episode, Kihachi once again helps the wide-eyed Inako flee from her strict father’s clutches. And Yosuke hilariously chases them across the region, with Kengo by his side, and that his car is driven by the ever loyal Izo, goes without saying. Although another primary sup-plot in this chapter is about someone claiming to have Seiroku’s 20th Century Electrical Catalog and even though Kihachi thinks it could be a hoax, he is persuaded to investigate the truth.
The mystery isn’t simply whether someone truly possesses Seiroku’s famed Catalog, but what exactly that Catalog might be. Is it the missing half of the book already in Kihachi’s possession, or an entirely different volume containing more than the doodles and dreams of his childhood? The half Kihachi already has does contain coherent ideas for electrical instruments and other machines, so the simplest explanation is that the mysterious Catalog is merely its missing second half. But for those of us who haven’t read the original work, there’s no harm in hoping the story has a bigger twist up its sleeve.
It goes without saying that the evil, bratty, shiny Yosuke hilariously chases Kihachi and Inako wherever they go, with Kengo by his side and, of course, his ever-loyal Izo behind the wheel. There is no way he will give up his future fiance or the chance at getting his hands on the catalog. The chase sequence is very entertaining, with the creators leaning into some exaggerated fun, like Kengo behaving like a supernatural acrobat who simply cannot be stopped by anything.
And that’s really the biggest theme of ‘Sparks of Tomorrow’: everybody is fiercely intent on pursuing their own goals and dreams. At this point, I don’t even care if no romance develops between the primary leads. The friendship and support is so much more fun. Inako better become a master brewer! And Kihachi better make more cool machines!
The animation in ‘Sparks of Tomorrow’ continues to be immersive, even though there aren’t any real standout moments like in the previous episode. It’s probably going to be hard to top that crazy rock-band performance by the Meiji Restoration Electric Girl Band, although we can always trust the nonchalantly crazy Yosuke to pull something ridiculous out of nowhere and surprise us all. Besides, the mystery of what exactly he has in his basement remains, and hopefully we’ll finally get some more elaborate Seiroku flashbacks soon.
Watch ‘Sparks of Tomorrow’ on Netflix.
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