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I'm no expert either, but I do not see the purpose for cutting it up while it's still alive. Seems to me you could just whack it against the counter to kill it first, but that could also result in the release of toxins from the organs / eyes into the edible portion of the fish.
If you ask me, such blatant cruelty to an animal is a good enough reason not to eat it, even if the fact that fugu doesn't really taste spectacular does not make you think twice about spending $100 to $300 for a meal.
But non-western cultures have a very different, right or wrong, outlook on what is and is not cruel to animals. Japan also has a dish in which they take a live fish, cut strips of flesh from it, spear the fish on two vertical wooden rods affixed to the plate, lay the meat out in front of the fish, and then the diner eats the meat while being watched by the fish. I guarantee the meat doesn't taste any different for that treatment. From my perspective it is a sad attempt at sadism, since the fish probably can't figure out that that's bits of itself that you're eating, and all it knows is that it's in a lot of fucking pain.
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