Kekkai Sensen: Ousama no Restaurant no Ousama

usually specials are hit or miss because they generally dont add anything or are in anyway way related to the main plotline and are just a goofy thing to watch to subsidize the main anime with really no depth and lack luster visuals and humor. this is NOT the case here. this special was priceless Steven and Klaus are trying to impress a foreign middle east Sultan to that they can create a partnership that would end up earning them 3 million dollar a year. to impress the Sultan, Klaus and Steve take Leonardo, KK, Zed, Chain, and Zapp to help represent their team andentertain the Sultan at a very fancy high end restaurant. it is imperative that the team not screw up and be rude in front of the Sultan because that could jeopardize everything. the wackiness comes from the fact that the team is going absolutely nuts over the quality of food. meanwhile, Femt appears to reck havoc but timelines become tangled when the restaurant also changes dimensions to one where Femt doesnt recognize Leonardo (who got lost on the way to the bathroom) and Leonardo and Femt team up to find their way through the restaurant. story (8/10): it was hysterical and captivating. during the dinner Zapp and the Sultan get drunk and start messing around while all of the rest continue to absolutely flip out over the food to the point of hallucinating (apparently the food was so good it puts people into trances) the dinner portion was genuinely funny and it was so ridiculous i couldnt look away. the dinner scenes then lead into Leonardo needing to go to the bathroom but got lost in another dimension and ends up meeting Femt. this part was so interesting, even though this part was like only 10 minutes of the whole episode. Femt and Leonardo end up searching through the mansion looking for the dining hall again and come across a large room with monsters eating humans(?) and this one off antagonist from the very beginning. it was just so weird but it flowed so well. the best word to describe it is fascinating art (7/10): as far as characters and scenery go, it was all pretty standard. i do give it some brownie points off the top because usually specials dont look nearly as good as the anime and they seemed to not let standards slip. what was really amazing was the food!!! how they drew and plated the food was so pretty, it all looked so delicious sound (9/10): the voice acting is top notch per usual. i LOVE Akira Ishida and Daisuke Sakaguchi so much, they have such talent and make anything they are in just that much better. but what i really am gushing over it the soundtrack. they really went the extra mile to take every staple classical piece out there and fit it in so well. everything from "Pictures of an Exhibition" to a piece from the Romeo and Juliet ballet (the name is escaping me at the moment) were so beautiful and appropriately placed within the scenes. the sound category is so important because it can really make or break a scene, or a whole series for that matter characters (7/10): they were all standard. the weird antagonist in the beginning was really there so that there could be monsters in the mansion later down the line, he really was a non-factor. all of the other characters from the series were standard. the Sultan was pretty funny but they didnt really do anything more with him than have him eat during the dinner scene overall (8/10): Kekkai Sensen is such a good series that i expected the special to be around the sample quality, however i was still pleasantly surprised at how much effort was put in (especially since i have just recently seen some other specials for other animes and they were pretty trash). it was really enjoyable and its a good thing to watch if you wanna break up the longer animes you might be marathoning at the moment