Cooking with Valkyries Spring Festival Special

Cooking with Valkyries is an off shoot from Honkai Impact 3 game and animations, both of which I have not watched as a bunch of the entries are still being "vetted" and are not official on MAL yet, as of the time of this posting. Story 7/10. Character 6/10. We've had 2 seasons now to get to know the characters and this time there's a story! It's all about Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) food preparation as Steam boat food is a major part of the re-union dinner the night before CNY so there's a lot of nostalgia and feels (longing for family, homesickness) experienced when Iwatched this. Art 9/10. Sound 9/10 The animation is beautiful. All the girly Characters look very traditional high end Japanese anime even though this is a donghua (China animation). The food is gorgeous. There's even a 2 part beach episode at the end to satisfy the swimsuit cravings. If you watch the Japanese Dub on Youtube you would not be able to tell this is a donghua. The OP song will get stuck in your head and make you think of Pizza. And after episode 10 you'll be thinking of the Beach Watermelon Pizza (what a great idea). Enjoyment 9/10 As a gourmet fan I really, really enjoyed this anime for the food, which is the focus, except this time food is the central bonding agent to the reunion dinner which is all about connecting with family and friends through eating good food together. This made me miss my family's cooking as we have not had a chance to visit during the Lunar New Year for the past 20 years. Gourmet Rating 8.0/10 - excellent, one of the best for preparation and cooking with instructions and recipes. 08/10 Visual appeal of food - tasty looking food, very accurate 07/10 Reaction of characters to food - Characters enjoy the food and make satisfied faces especially the "piggy" of the group. No sparkles or clothes flying off, but a more realistic approach. 05/10 Difficulty or complexity of food featured - a few simple recipes, with the rest of medium difficulty. 10/10 Preparation or Cooking Instructions - they actually show the preparation and cooking as this takes up the majority of the anime time. There are recipes with the ingredients and instructions at the end. Some are simple enough you can make them at home. 10/10 Desire of viewer to cook or buy dishes featured after watching show - Will motivate you to cook if you have the ingredients available, especially for the simple, accessible dishes like Watermelon Pizza. Overall 8/10 It's a grand gourmet anime that has 100% focus on preparing, cooking and eating the food during the Chinese New Year Spring festival period. The anime shows true respect to the food tradition during the celebration period.