They... Did not need that.
Yes, I am going to talk about that scene, that already made a lot of noise. I knew that it was unlikely for me to continue after 2nd episode after I finished 1st one, but I still wanted to see, if maybe there will be some interesting concept there. When I read about the scene, I knew that chances of my picking-up the series till the end would be close to zero, but I still watched the 2nd episode. Because... Maybe it actually fits the narrative? Somehow?
It does not.
Objectively, even the guy supporting slave-trading by sinking millions to save the girls instead of shutting down the whole operation already felt icky. Not by the fact that this existed at all, since other stories use this as well, and I remember "outrage" when 1st season of Shield Hero came out. But there it kind of made sense due to low power and low influence Shield had. The cook here, on the other hand, seemed strong, and possibly has some influence due to affiliation with the strong party, so...
But, ok, maybe it was just handled poorly. What about the 2nd episode and the sexual assault in it? I think from the narrative perspective the problem is how much time they spent on this. Half the episode, maybe more is about the girl going to that dungeon with those dudes. The main scene is also too long, almost as if the creators were... "Savoring" it. Which they did not need to do, because the show is clearly not about that, it's not dark. It's not even "Goblin Slayer" dark, and that became almost like a long beach episode in 3rd season.
The distress scene in general in this story is fine. It can be used to show how MC is strong and good, and also "teach a lesson", that you need yo be cautious, and all that stuff. Considering that the guy was an active raider, it makes sense to have such moments in the story instead of only showing his daily routines in a restaurant. It can also be used to introduce new characters. Otherwise we would be watching Clark Kent, the journalist, instead of Clark Kent, the Superman, right?
That's why the slave trading, even though, poorly handled, still fit. It had a purpose, and it did not overstay its welcome. But the assault took too much time and focus. Heck, even if it was some show, that's dark and depressing by design, it probably would be too long. At least, I can't think of any show, where it would fit like this. So no, it's just poor taste, and I share the opinion, that this might have been done only to attract attention, create news buzz, nothing more.
Which is sad. Because even though it did not make sense for a cook to be on the frontlines, it could have worked out and be "Battle Chef Brigade" the anime. The point is to cook food, but you need to go out and kill stuff for the sake of getting ingredients. The food does look quite good, and during "normal", calm moments, it can even feel "wholesome" to a degree. That would have been totally fine for quite a few enjoyers of such shows. But creators had to ruin it... And even if the scene was in original manga/novel, they still could have cut it to not stand out like a sore thumb. Very poor decision.
