Fermat’s Cuisine Netflix Series Review - A Fast Food, Not A Scrumptious Dish

Fermat's Cuisine, based on the manga series Fermat no Ryori by Yugo Kobayashi, is too simple-minded. You don't need to pay close attention to it to completely "grasp it." Its uncomplicated story becomes comprehensible even if you don't always look at the ongoing events. The series is defined by exaggerations. The actors move every single muscle in their body to express themselves. Gaku's (Fumiya Takahashi) father laughs so loudly that he seems like a candidate fit to sit on the couch occupied by Archana Puran Singh in TKSS (The Kapil Sharma Show). Gaku is a genius mathematician, which means Fermat's Cuisine milks his love for math through dreamy images. The numbers start floating from the people and the dishes, and Gaku runs among the equations to reach a bright light. It all appears fine at first but feels inadvertently funny later, especially during that row of dominoes moment.

Gaku makes cuisine using calculations. He is a living calculator who uses logic so well that he swims pretty successfully on his first attempt. He shares his excitement for numbers through his delicious dishes, and Kai Asakura (Jun Shison), a brilliant chef, notices his potential. Naturally, Kai asks Gaku to work at his restaurant. Gaku eventually agrees as he has stopped finding math invigorating. But his passion for the subject resurfaces when he applies it to the world of cuisines. This means be prepared for taut cooking sequences. The chefs work under tight deadlines. They serve meals with clockwork precision. The swift movement of the knife combined with the closeups of tense faces should have created a dramatic atmosphere. But the editing is merely functional. The camera shows the images from different angles without imbuing them with any significant weight.

What's worse is that the food itself looks devoid of succulence. We hear it's delectable, but the view doesn't make your mouth water. The meal shots are terribly bland. Perhaps, in the manga, the cooking routine is illustrated with vibrance. One can imagine how visually energetic the sequences with chefs in the kitchen would have looked in an anime adaptation. There is so much drama in the visual language of an anime, and the genre would have greatly elevated this material. In this live-action adaptation, everything looks cheap and flat. The one-note villains make villain-like faces, while the good guys wear an innocent appearance. The acting is superficial and obvious. Takahashi looks fragile as if he will get knocked down by a gentle wind. Shison sees Takahashi with a madness that suggests he will either swallow him or offer him a chance to take part in a threesome.

Kai wants to divide the history of cuisine into "Pre-me" and "Post-me." The series is divided into two parts, too. We see events from 2024 as well as 2023. The colors during the former year are muted because Gaku is frustrated. What happened? The five episodes don't provide an answer. Instead, we get a weak obstacle near the end whose origin seems needlessly complicated. It's one of those stupid decisions the characters make of hiding information from someone else. Steps like these give rise to artificial tension in the screenplay. But it's not just the words in the script that prove to be uninteresting and irksome. I was also bothered by that sign that read, "Closed Sorry We're." Shouldn't it be, "Sorry We're Closed?" Never mind. Something like Fermat's Cuisine should be immediately discharged from your body. It's a fast food, not a scrumptious dish.

Final Score- [3.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times