#Midnight diner

[bengiyo]

I can say with confidence that our collective favorite show, between you and me, is What Did You Eat Yesterday?, the GOAT BL, and an exemplary example of a slice of life drama. What are your other favorite slice of life dramas, BLs and non-BLs?

Thank you for this ask. I have been trying to stay out of a bunch of discussions about this, but it seems that people feel really strongly about how people talk about a mid-tier BL produced by the largest producer of BL content in the world, currently sold as a premium product exclusively on a Chinese streaming platform, and currently receiving almost universal acclaim from its viewership on this platform. So, since I am possibly the only person who has posted publicly how much this show doesn’t work for me, I will continue with my task and clear up some confusion I’m having with the discourse.

We Are…Struggling With Definitions

Thankfully, @lurkingshan provided a good framework to discuss what slice-of-life even means. While I am willing to accept that a strong episodic structure is not inherently required for a good slice-of-life drama, the bite-sized nature of an episode lends itself to enabling clear stories about the complexities of mundane human existence. It’s a very popular genre, especially in anime. As I said in an earlier post, this is a mature genre with a long tradition.

Most of my favorite approaches to slice-of-life are from Japan. When America does slice-of-life, you get it more as sitcoms than thoughtful dramas about everyday life. One of my favorites would probably be Midnight Diner. As Shan defined before, a good slice-of-life drama could go on forever, and in so many ways Midnight Diner has. 

I’m actually currently watching Three Star Bar in Nishi Ogikubo because Machida Keita and Fujiwara Kisetsu are in it.

We Are…Already Familiar With Slice of Life QL

We’ve actually had a few QL projects cover the slice-of-life feeling before.

You and I are both big fans of What Did You Eat Yesterday?, a show I loved so much we had to do a whole podcast episode about it.

On the lesbian side of the equation, we have the lovely She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat.

We also had Naked Dining, which I had some mixed feelings about.

There's the gay dads drama from Taiwan in Papa & Daddy.

For people who seem to struggle with non-Thai productions, there’s also Ingredients with everyone’s favorite singer Jeff Satur.

Besides, I argue firmly that Tadaima, Okaeri is the only true slice-of-life BL airing right now. It’s the married gay dads show we’ve been asking forever to get, and it’s even in the omegaverse!

We Are…Possibly Suffering From Recency Bias

It’s surprising for me how hard everyone has fallen for this show, considering the long history of reactions to New Siwaj’s work. He’s been in the genre for over a decade.

I am intimately familiar with this man’s work, and have been a Make It Right Apologist for years. I’ve been with this man since I got into the genre. This isn’t even his first attempt at 16 episodes about boys in college.

Everyone else watched My Engineer at the time, but I watched EN of Love and was not surprised when Love Mechanics got its own full series afterwards. I’ve been with this man working through gay angst in Make it Right, examining intergenerational queer trauma in Until We Meet Again,  fumbling through Between Us, trying for something in Dear Doctor I’m Coming For Soul, hustling in Even Sun, still crying with him over Love of Siam (2007) in My Only 12%, and squandering everyone’s time in Absolute Zero. 

It’s kinda baffling to me that I’m catching strays over not liking New Siwaj works in 2024. It feels weird that the show I’m getting heat over not liking is the least-queer thing I think he’s ever made. I don’t know what that says about current BL tastes. I will say this plainly every time: Queer Truth is Non-Negotiable For Me In a Genre About Boys Kissing Each Other. If that statement bothers you, please swerve on.

We Are…Not the Only Examples of Queer Fun

While we’re here, I wanna talk about how there really is a whole gay world outside of BL. I feel very strongly that Western viewers are extremely rude and often racist when it comes to their disdain of BL. However, there is all kinds of fun to be had in queer cinema if you can handle projects made more than a few years ago. 

If you want silly fun, you can always go to TLA Releasing. They funded an entire gay parody of the American Pie franchise. They’re great for the types who want to see pretty people smile at each other and have sexy times. 

If you’re in the mood for something a bit more serious and heartfelt, you can dip by Strand Releasing. They have one of the best coming-of-age queer films I’ve ever seen. They also picked up a really melancholy Japanese film called Egoist. 

My favorite studio, who shows up repeatedly on my BL Syllabus is Wolfe Releasing. They have my all-time favorite Big Eden (2000), and many others. 

My point is that there is a huge world of queer media out there well beyond the latest mid-tier BL from GMMTV designed to keep the boys working. We also don’t need to argue that some of their shows are more queer than they actually are, especially when Cooking Crush is right there.

Thanks for the ask!

[landoffish]

what yall know abt midnight diner…

[icedteadrinker]

[wrathful-ghosts]

Started midnight diner and this is constantly popping into my head

[ross-hori]

I have Midnight Diner on the mind.

[redsamuraiii]

Tetsu Ota Michiko, 2 Man Kiro: Chichibu Hen (2024)

Train Otaku Michiko (Tamashiro Tina) returns for a second season, as she explores more train lines and unmanned train stations around the Japanese countryside.

One of those comfort J-dramas where you follow the main lead on their journey across Japan. It's like a mix of travel vlog, drama and documentary.

Hope Netflix or any of the stream sites pick up this show. It's as therapeutic as Midnight Diner, Samurai Gourmet and The Road to Red Restaurants List.

[shizukais]

Shinya Shokudo (深夜食堂) Midnight Diner, Abe Yarou.

[neuroticbookworm]

Current Tag Game

Tagged by my dear friends/mutuals/incoherent scream sesh partners @twig-tea (here), @colourme-feral (here), @blmpff (here), @telomeke (here) and @waitmyturtles (here)

Current Time: nearly 5:00 PM

Current activity: Doomscrolling on social media (not recommended), writing this post (highly recommended, please interact on Tumblr, that's what makes this hellsite fun!)

Currently thinking about: Just watched the IFYLITA finale this morning with my bestie @lurkingshan, so my brain is currently ??????-ing all the different iterations of Yai we got to see (I like that Commander Yai looks more self-assured and confident than our widdle-20-something-lost-and-confused-baby Yai, but, DEAR LORD, The Mustache has to go. Just.. nope. Get that man a razor, STAT). Oh, and also, thinking about dinner.

Current favourite song: I recently watched Utsukushii Kare / My Beautiful Man (Season 1) a few days ago and I have the song from the opening credits stuck in my head on repeat: Caramel / カラメル by Mosawo / もさを。(Original MV with English captions)

(I'm also gonna link the Utsukushii Kare Lyric MV from MBS because I want Kiyoi's pretty face on my post)

I've also been feeling nostalgic lately and listening to some decade-old bangers from my teen years (ah time, thou art a cruel wench)

Patakha Guddi lyrics, translated from Hindi, here

Mogathirai lyrics, translated from Tamil, here

Currently reading: Nothin' but meta posts from the lovely big-brained folks of Tumblrville

Currently watching: Oooooh. I actually wrapped up a lot of live watches and caught up on some incredible shows last week, so lemme do 3 mini-lists:

Recently Watched: Only Friends, Utsukushii Kare / My Beautiful Man, If It's With You / Kimi to Nara Koi wo Shite Mite mo, I Feel You Linger In The Air

Currently Watching: Midnight Diner / Shinya Shokudo, endless reruns of Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Community

Next-Up on the Watchlist: I Cannot Reach You / Kimi ni wa Todokanai, Shadow, Dark Blue Kiss, Middleman's Love, Last Twilight, Playboyy, The Whisperer

Current favourite character: Ryuji from If It's With You.

< mild spoilers ahead for If It's With You >

This show did an incredible job portraying two people who have different levels/intensities of desire for one another and I was *floored* when Ryuji responded to Amane's confession in episode 4 with so much care, thoughtfulness and respect for both Amane's desire and his own boundaries. "Please make it one sided for a while" will live in my head rent free for the foreseeable future.

And Amane and Ryuji's conversation at the beach in the finale was another heartfelt and expertly written moment. I deeply adore how Ryuji basically went "I miss you and want to meet you whenever I feel like it, and if that means being a lover, then so be it. Let's date".

So yeah, I'm in love with this highly articulate, fictional, Japanese teenage boy

Current WIP: Ohhhhh man, SO MANY. The most pressing one is a retrospective meta on the Only Friends finale, which I must release into the wild before people move on from the show

Tags: I'm epically late to this one, so I might tag folks who have already done this, so if I do, apologies, friends!

@bengiyo, @italianpersonwithashippersheart, @sunshinechay, @syrena-del-mar, @ranchthoughts, @troubled-mind, @sorry-bonebag, @so-much-yet-to-learn and anyone else who wants to participate. No presh!

[moondrophibiscus]

Tampopo x Tokyo Midnight Diner

[strathshepard]

Shinya Shokudo by Yaro Abe

[empty-dream]

the average experience of watching Midnight Diner

[bengiyo]

Rules: list 10 of your comfort shows and then tag 10 people

Tagged by @lurkingshan. This is actually kind of a funny question because we've been busy in BL for so long that I actually haven't been able to go back and comfort watch much.

What Did You Eat Yesterday? I am always thinking about a rewatch of this show. Whenever I need to calm my brain and go to sleep I put on one of the episodes.

Star Trek. Usually either Deep Space Nine or The Original Series. I've always loved Star Trek. I will continue to love Star Trek.

Babylon 5. We wouldn't have Star Trek: Deep Space Nine or Sense8 without this show. It's a favorite.

Is it Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? I like adventuring party and dungeon crawling anime that aren't isekai. I compromise on harem anime.

Elementary. Yes, it's copaganda, but the relationships in this show are really well done. This is my favorite adaptation of Sherlock Holmes and Watson.

Midnight Diner. No one does late-night programming like Japan. This show is a fantastic slice-of-life experience about the patrons at a restaurant only open late at night.

Haikyuu!! I love this little volleyball anime.

Yu Yu Hakusho. Smile Bomb gets me going every time.

The Fosters. I still love Stef and Lena so much. I do not miss the Brallie nonsense.

Avatar: The Last Airbender. Really one of the biggest moments in my media life, honestly. I return to this show every other year it feels like.

Let's see about tagging @shortpplfedup, @ginnymoonbeam, @littleragondin, @callipigio, @twig-tea, @so-much-yet-to-learn, @dontgofarfromme, @negrowhat, @fluidsoul31, and @jjsanguine

[neitherabaron]

It’s cold and dark where I am so I cheered myself up with some soup and violin practice!

I took a picture of the soup. I didn’t have enough hands to take a picture of the violin practice.

[somanyjacks]

I shouldn't have been surprised to find out that Netflix has additional episodes of Midnight Diner that are available in Japan, but I'm happy to discover this nonetheless.

[khuantru]

In one of the episode, the master says: "if you want to enjoy my diner, leave your pride on the door". - , it doesn't matter who you are, students, workers, yakuza, dancers, or anyone. Everyone here are treated equally in the diner. 

This drama teaches us about equality and humanity. - Hafid.

show: Midnight Diner.

song:  Tsunekichi Suzuki - Omoide

[redsamuraiii]

First the recipes for The Makanai, and now this. Nami is just awesome!