Review: Ballmastrz: 9009 “Can’t Stand the Heat? Ultimate Kitchen Technique! Finish Them, Warrior Bard!!”

 

Overview(Spoilers Below):

The Leptons’ most apathetic layabout of their team, Leto Otel, wins over his fellow teammates when they discover a hidden talent that he possesses. Leto is an absolute master of the kitchen—specifically when it comes to grilled cheese—and even though the Leptons are eager to exploit this skill, Leto is completely happy with his small, humble existence. Leto eventually gets pushed to compete on Crayzar’s twisted cooking competition show, Gourmet Gamers, which forces Leto to confront his fears of failure and embarrassment. It takes Leto some time to find his bliss and hit his groove, but after a particularly intense experience he is able to reach a happy balance with his cooking where it’s able to please both his closest friends and others that are in need of edible ecstasy.

 

Our Take:

The Leptons are a team that are made up of an extremely eclectic group of ragtag misfits. They each represent a different sensibility or stereotype and together they coalesce into quite the unusual, but effective, package. Out of all of these weirdoes, Leto Otel is probably the character that’s made the least of an impression on me. The character is a constant slacker and pessimist and while he may occasionally spout deep and complex soliloquies or verses of poetry, he’s still a fairly one-note character.

Even “Leather Passions! 2 Hearts, 2 Wheelz, Infinite Roadz. Ride Now!”, Leto’s showcase episode from the first season of Ballmastrz: 9009 basically reduces Leto into a beta extension of Dee Dee. Everything he does and cares about is in relation to her and while that episode may highlight how useful and dedicated Leto can be, it still didn’t do much for establishing a distinct personality for the character. Naturally, Dee Dee is still very much on Leto’s mind in “Can’t Stand the Heat? Ultimate Kitchen Technique! Finish Them, Warrior Bard!!”, but the episode does great work to develop Leto’s personality and to make him feel like an individual, and not just a sight gag of one-liners.

Leto’s big secret that comes to light in this episode is that he’s actually an amazing cook. This is a clever trait for the guy and it’s consistent with the emotional multitudes that he displays whenever he embraces his more sensitive side. Cooking can be just as much of a love language as poetry, so it makes a lot of sense that Leto would be a pro in the area. The Leptons are proud and impressed with Leto’s culinary skills, but it doesn’t take very long at all for them to attempt to take advantage of his abilities and prosper from his talents. Crayzar’s competitive cooking show, Gourmet Gamers, is the hottest ticket in town and before Leto has much of a chance to object to the opportunity he’s thrust onto the program as a contestant and representative for all things Lepton.

Before “Can’t Stand the Heat?” embraces reality competition weirdness and Leto’s latent skills, it explores some entertaining chaos after the Leptons are hot off a fresh victory against some rather atypical nuns. The preferred method of partying in this situation skews towards intergalactic horticulture rather than irresponsible drinking. Leto unveils his stash of “Champagne Supernova” strand of space drugs and the team embarks on a wild ride. As it’s to be expected with Ballmastrz, the hallucinogenic hijinks that everyone takes part in are brought to life with some incredibly trippy and beautiful visuals. The lucid drug effects are a treat, but Ace’s pervasive naivety during all of this hardcore celebrating is a cute reminder of just how precocious the Leptons’ lovable orphan is.

It’s the intense case of the munchies that everyone succumbs to that triggers Ace’s cooking skills and he whips up some legendary grilled cheese. Even though Leto is talented, he’s happy to continue to cook as a hobby that he occasionally busts out to please his friends. He has no interest in monetizing his skills and he’s even worried that doing so would burn him out over his passion. Leto’s satisfied to put the Gourmet Gamers issue to bed, but Dee Dee isn’t willing to take no for an answer in this situation and unfortunately for Leto, she’s his Achilles heel.

Dee Dee’s pleas to Leto to compete are interesting because she actually believes that he’s wanted and just wants the world to see it. She’s not trying to manipulate her friend for any ulterior means, which is a big moment for the two of them. Leto’s largest concerns here are that he’s nervous about the responsibility and he fears that he’ll crumble under the pressure and embarrassment. The way in which Dee Dee forces Leto to compete on Gourmet Gamers isn’t exactly fair or the proper strategy here, but it’s still ultimately helpful for Leto and it forces him to confront personal issues that he’s long avoided.

Gourmet Gamers is a wild ride and because it’s a cooking show that’s run by Crayzar it’s exceptionally insane and features its fair share of crazy rules, like the “Mess Hall” portion of the show. The program also cleverly acts as a way to incorporate old characters back into the show, albeit in a whole new context. Leto’s competition consists of members from the Misfit Murder Squad, the Choo-Choo Chums, and the Shaka City Monkey Men, all of which are nice to revisit. It’s a lot of fun to see all of these characters get competitive and aggressive, but over cooking instead of sports. With the level of creativity and the sheer amount of fun that’s being had with this material, Gourmet Masters: 9009 could easily be a spin-off that could work. The cooking showing at one point devolves into an elaborate food fight, which launches these weird personalities into a chaotic battle that makes use of kitchen equipment. It’s delightful.

Leto’s a confident cook when he’s working on his own terms, but he struggles to perform well under this spotlight and when he’s not baked out of his mind. As he continues to spiral and time runs out, it looks like his worst fears regarding embarrassment are about to come to fruition. In a last ditch effort, Leto cuts out all of the noise and falls back on simplicity. He finds solitude and rids himself of distractions as he falls black on the zen of an empty mind. This calm helps Leto pull through and whip up some top-tier grilled cheese. The appearance of Leto’s food may leave a lot to be desired, but the judges are over the moon with his meal, largely due to Leto’s trippy “secret ingredient.”

The conclusion of Gourmet Gamers and the episode as a whole feel somewhat rushed, but the resolution at least makes sense and is very on brand with Leto. These minor pacing issues would be resolved if the episode got to the Gourmet Gamers material a lot quicker (or even started there), but it’s not anything that wrecks this episode. The material that precedes the cooking show content is worthwhile, especially the game against the nuns, and it’s not as if Ballmastrz isn’t used to quick conclusions to their episodes.

Most of “Can’t Stand the Heat?” takes place within the kitchen, but the beginning of the episode also features an entertaining return to “The Game,” which shows the Leptons in top form. It’s nice to get more of the team’s winning streak and it’s satisfying to see more of the actual sport that the series revolves around, even if it’s in a truncated context. This time the Leptons face off against some Gundam Nuns (Nundams?) and some of the best visuals of the installment are reserved for this early portion of the episode. As Ballmastrz continues to grow it’s compelling to see the balance that they find with how much of “The Game” will be featured. While it will never completely be absent, the series is clearly becoming more confident to tell stories outside of that environment.

“Can’t Stand the Heat? Ultimate Kitchen Technique! Finish Them, Warrior Bard!!” is more animated bliss courtesy of Ballmastrz: 9009. It’s a creative episode that finds another unexpected direction to take its characters that effectively gets them off of the game field, but still doesn’t feel like a betrayal of the show’s values. Most impressively, the episode succeeds in taking a weak character like Leto Otel and giving him some legitimate worth and value. This second season of Ballmastrz has done such exceptional work with the entire cast of characters so far and hopefully the show will get a third season to further explore these more developed and evolved versions of this wacky bunch.

Here’s hoping they don’t spend all of that prize money on more Champagne Supernova.