The episode begins with an entire SWAT team, complete with helicopter back-up, radio-monitoring and a gigantic toaster robot with inhuman claws, getting ready into action. The culprits? A particularly heinous couple caught in the act of eating these diabolical food products! In less than a minute, their house is torn apart by the humongous toaster with red-blinking light for eyes as a man, with long, shampoo-commercial hair, drops down through a rope from the helicopter and proceeds to give them a lecture about the evils of chocolates.
The next day, two kids (whose names I've forgotten) are walking down the street, discussing the sad state to which their civilization has come to. Just then, a trailer van promoting the credo of the Good For You Party passes by: NO TO CHOCOLATES! YES TO HEALTH!
Meanwhile, at the Bubby Sweet Shop, Lucia is watching -- or rather, barely tolerating -- the same super healthy commercial on TV. Her mother wisely suggests that she should just turn the TV off. Why, you, witless woman! Did you think the Good For You Party never thought of that? They are after all the bringer of Health and Justice! And apparently, a transmitter too that helped them monitor the citizens viewing habits.
Lucia, however -- bless her soul -- decides that she can't take it anymore. So she does the only sane thing anyone can be expected to do in that situation. She tries to restrain the hapless television by putting a rope around it and some sheets. And this is the scene that "Charlie" and his sidekick find when they enter the Bubby Sweet Shop.
It seems the boys have a cute little crush on wild-child Lucia. They are there at the shop on the pretext of buying sweets. Of course, the new sweets recommended by the Good For You Party do not even remotely taste like sweets, so you have to admire their tenacity.
And that, my dears, is Chocolate Underground at first blush. See you in the next ep!
COMMENTS:
Well, it certainly has echoes of Library War. The Orwellian totalitarian government is again brought into focus. Only this time, instead of books, they're attacking chocolates. I know. Why would anyone ban chocolates, right? Why, it's positively inhuman! Which, I think, is the point.
Chocolate Underground is based on a novel by British author, Alex Shearer. The original novel is called Bootleg. Apparently, it has been adapted as a TV series which ran in BBC. Alex Shearer doesn't seem to be a hugely popular writer. That is, if you base a writer's popularity by the number of words in his Wikipedia entry. As a matter of fact, there is no Wikipedia entry for his name. Sad.
But it's a good thing though that someone thought it right to adapt his idea into anime form. Chocolate Underground has all the prettiness of Production I.G. It even has similar character designs as Library War. But let's hope, since it's primarily a children's show (with children as protagonists), it's not that ridiculous because sure, you can expect things to be a little exaggerated and underrated in a children's show.
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