Keyakizaka46: "Keyakitte, Kakenai?" episode 87 recap

 Had thoughts about recapping many of the older episodes for this show along with 'KeyaBingo!'. Decided against that as there's too many shows to catch up on plus there's a few new dramas that I'm going to start to post about. So will concentrate on the newer shows, this one aired on July 9th and will have their latest one coming up soon. Will also be recaps for the third season of 'Bingo!' whenever they get subbed.

 Could have titled this a solo Nanako post as she was the featured member for this episode and had at least 2/3 of the screen time. Watching this I noticed how much she resembles Manatsu Akimoto who you all should now but think Nanako seems to be a bit more attractive. Theme for this show was eating with the title of 'All You can eat Revenge Match'. In an older episode Nanako had boasted at what a huge eater she was and that no member could top her.

 That older episode had featured an eating contest, one at which Nanako was forced to eat her words! Lame pun was intended, she finished third as the champ was Mao Iguchi who is a 'Hiragana Keyaki' member. Had never noticed her before but she seems like an gal we should get to know better, she'll be turning 22 soon so I'll put on the to-do list that she deserves a post.
 In second place in that first match was Aoi which is kind of surprising, she looks as though she weighs 80 pounds soaking wet. Joining the trio in the new match is Nanami who also says she's a gluttonous eater but was absent for the first match. However the big question before the brutal competition began was....

.... where's Nanako who requested the rematch? Seems she was too humiliated to face the members after that dreadful loss she took, she may still be eating her words. Nanako has gone a bit reclusive but was found for a few minutes to answer these questions.

 Nanako revealed during this secret interview that she's gone into hiding to practice her eating skills or should we say lack of them. But she won't be doing her training alone as she's recruited Yuki Iwai who seems to be a friend of the group to be her rah-rah coach.
 But her secret weapon will be the distinguished eating champion 'Giant Shirota'! He is a real life eating champion plus also an actor and wrestler. Kind of a skinny guy but have noticed many of those champion eaters are.

 In the above screenshot that's Giant on the left, Yuki on the right. The trio first stopped at the 'Fujiyama Dragon Curry' restaurant where their huge curry dish is over five pounds of food. Hard to believe that Nanako could eat so much, know that amount of food would last most of us for days.
 Giant said he could two of them in less than twenty minutes, watching him eat I can believe it. Nanako really struggled at first eating that massive plate of curry and sides, she can eat but these Keya competitions are timed so she needs to find a way to step up her pace.

 Nanako is also in amazement at how much Giant can consume in such a short amount of time. But by watching him she did pick up some tips, her speed rapidly picked up and she was able to eat most of that humongous plate of food. Yuki even showed her a pic of her rivals to get her more motivated.

 Eating curry wasn't the end of the training as the threesome headed to the 'Tsukemen Sumida' restaurant. Tsukemen is a type of noodle and will be in the Keya match. Naturally Giant impressed the pair with the quantity he could eat quickly, the secret he said was to slurp instead if chewing. Unfortunately for Nanako her slurping skills leave much to be desired, she could do it with a small amount of noodles but not enough to make much of a difference.

 It's time for the competition and Nanako has come out of seclusion to exact her revenge on Mao and Aoi. As mentioned above there was a fourth eater in the contest who is Nanami, a fifth was added just as the match was about to start who was Yuuka from 'Hiragana'.

 The match consisted of three rounds. The first was eating plates of gyoza, the second was consuming bowls of tsukemen while the third round was a bit of a dessert as it was eating cream puffs. A cream puff was what Yuuka was as she finished dead last even though she said she was a huge eater. Think she wanted to be in the competition so she didn't have to go buy dinner later on.
 There was a reason why Mao won the first competition and that's because she can eat a lot at a very fast pace. The first round of eating gyoza was never in doubt for Mao as she easily whipped her opponents. Aoi is such a thin girl but she's an impressive eater as she was second after one round, Nanako once again may have to eat her words.

 Nanami started out strong but was unable to keep her pace up, she was fourth after round one and never contended after that. Not a huge lead for Mao but in all fairness she could have eaten more in the first two rounds but her 'Hiragana' sidekick Kumi(?) kept talking to her.
 On to round two where Mao increased her lead as she can certainly put down the food. The rounds last for ten minutes with a five minute break which all of the gals no doubt needed. Aoi slumped a bit in this round as she dropped out second place with Nanako has passing her. But heading into the final round she's five plates/bowls behind Mao.

 Surprised that Nanako hasn't gotten sick, when she finishes eating she looks like she does in that above pic but perhaps that's why there's the five minute break. There were four cream puffs on a plate, Nanako ate 12 plates which means 48 cream puffs in ten minutes which seems impressive to me. However it wasn't enough as Mao was able to eat eleven plates and won the competition by four over Nanako who at least moved up one position this time around.

 Was going to say that it was a crushing defeat for Nanako, perhaps one not seen since the days of Waterloo. But then again Mao is one tough rival, not sure many of us could top the amount she eats though wouldn't mind competing against her.
 That probably means there won't be any more sassy talk from Nanako now as it was a case of eat up or shut up and she had to take the former. Will give her an A+ for effort though, Nanako is one of the few members with at least two solo posts as she's become one of my bigger Keya faves and may have moved up after her performance even though it was a losing one.

 If Giant was watching then he heard an apology from Nanako, she was quite down after the match but she did improve quite a bit from the first competition. Popped in my head now but perhaps Keya and Nogi should determine their champions in matches like this and have some sort of challenge match between the groups. Not sure any member in Nogi can top Mao's eating skills.
 This was a fun episode and in watching Keya shows they all seem to be or at least compared to the recent blandness of AKB/Nogi shows, can't even watch 'AKBingo!' these days. Will be back over the weekend with episode #88, so far no news on when the last four shows of 'Zankoku' will be subbed.