#TANE MINORU & YUTAKA

[gabrielokun]

[ginpotts]

► Bokura no Shokutaku (Our Dining Table), Episode Four

How wonderful it can be to eat with someone... I had no idea back then.

[respectthepetty]

DON'T! LOOK! AT! ME!

Seriously, don't look at me!

If you will look at me, I'll have an entire breakdown right here on main!

Oh shit! It's happening. I feel the tingle in my nose.

FUCK!

If you need me, I'll just be in my feels at the Cheesecake Factory.

[itagakimizuki]

bonus —

BOKURA NO SHOKUTAKU (2023) — episode 4

[choujinx]

BOKURA NO SHOKUTAKU (2015-2017) by mita ori

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Yutaka and Yukata

*deep inhale* 

YOU KNOW WHAT I WILL MAKE A POST ABOUT THIS DESPITE OUR DINING TABLE ENDING LAST WEEK! 

Why? Because I have been personally victimized by Ueda-san’s photo album and I want everyone to know about it! 

I mentioned it once in passing on my blog last week, but I’m gonna talk about it again because like many things in this show, one brief moment radically alters how deep the emotional wounds cut. This is not my typical analysis, this is mostly just be screaming in to the void!

“W-K-A, what the fuck are you talking about?” you ask. 

“This!” I reply

“Here! Have just a fraction of the instances that Yutaka is called ‘Yukata’ instead!” 

“Now, W-K-A,” you sigh. “That's because Tane is young and just messes up his name. You don’t even know Japanese, so you can’t wax poetic about the name meanings and their significance. Surely, there can’t possibly be anything contained within this show to make Yutaka’s nick-name hurt more. It’s just a silly little gag! You’re over-reacting, you’re reading too much in to it,” 

Now, on claims of overreacting, I will one hundred percent agree. But like I said at the beginning this show has ways of making the smallest frames, the most off-handed comments, the flashbacks pack a punch. And well, dear readers, this? This shit ruined me:

Devastation to the highest degree in these three translated words. Mika in yutaka. Like????????????????????????

Hello??????????????????????????????

You’re really gonna make me sit here, knowing that the only captured memories we see clearly depicted in that photo album of a one most precious and beloved wife and mother is her wearing yukata????????????????????????????????

When Tane literally only ever calls his new best friend Yukata???????????????????????????????????????????????

And you just expect me to sit with that?! You expect me NOT to read into that?

I cannot describe to you how strong of a blow I took, when I saw this moment on screen last week. This sudden realization that Koji probably spends a lot of time looking over these books. That Minoru and his father spend time making sure that Tane gets to know his mother, through the meals they make together, by having him say goodbye to her in the mornings, by having him share presents with her. 

I don’t know, y’all I’m just thinking about where and how Tane learned the word Yukata, and who and what he associates yukata with. 

And you know, this all would have ended there. With me saying that I was emo about Mika and Yutaka and yukata, BUT I PLAYED MYSELF, because I was going back through episodes to take screenshots for my examples, when I found THIS!

In like…episode 2? 3? Something way early on and, I should not have done this to myself because I saw this frame and all I could think about was the way this mirrors the scene we get in Episode 7, when Yutaka tells Minoru his backstory.

Anyway, this show is perfection and I’m going to go take a long walk off a short cliff about it. 

Thank you for your time.

[fadelikeclouds]

I love the silences in this episode. No music, no conversation. It feels a bit awkward. But really, we are just waiting for Yutaka to build up enough courage to express himself. Because it takes courage to talk about a painful past.

He hasn’t talked about it to anyone else. He probably never planned on speaking about it to others, so of course doesn’t know how to start or what to say.

So we get this silence, filled with the heaviness of unexpressed pain, but more than that, it’s really an uncertainty. Yutaka is hesitating on the threshold of a different life: one in which he has warm people who care about him, want him in their lives, and love him. Minoru is someone who wants to know more about him, not just to share in his happiness but also understand his pain. Yutaka is no longer stuck in isolation, but that is such a huge shift in his experiences up until now. He wants to go forward, he just doesn’t know how to proceed with that first step: talking about his past.

Especially when he’s not sure why it’s left him with such a scar even though it could be considered something small, “それだけの事”, a comment from his older brother. In his mind, he thinks there’s something wrong with him because even though he was blessed with a “good” life with his adoptive parents he ended up feeling afraid of eating with others and feeling as if he was lacking something.

"For me, there are no memories of a happy dining table, and that really made me feel like I was deficient as a human."

But he works through his hesitant fear and begins his story, hiding behind the drawing of the happy, smiling self he wishes he could have been as a child.

I loved all the details in Inukai’s acting in this scene: how hard he was gripping the drawing while he talked, the pauses in his retelling, the way the words get caught in his throat. There is a lot of pain as he revisits his past, where he had no real home, no welcoming family, and nowhere he felt completely safe and comfortable.

But the reason he can even talk about his past is because his present is so different.

"But then, I met you two, and eating meals together became something I thought of as happy for the first time since I was born."

And that’s the really beautiful thing about this show. Nothing earth shattering happened. Yutaka met the Ueda family. That’s it. And yet, that’s everything. Sometimes all it takes is meeting the right people to melt a heart frozen by fear and anxiety. Even the most mundane life can be filled with life altering miracles when looked at through another perspective.

A simple encounter at the park with an outgoing, cheerful, and hungry child gives Yutaka a family and a home. And the “small” joys of life return to him: the happiness of eating with others, the anticipation for the weekends, the comfort of knowing there is a place where he is wholeheartedly welcomed.

To Yutaka and Minoru just having each other in their lives is healing and joyful.

[blmpff]

boku_syoku on twt 20.04.2023

[waitmyturtles]

I’m going to save Our Skyy 2 x The Eclipse for my watching tonight in my time zone as I’m absorbing all the chatter about the second episode (sometimes there’s a benefit to living on the far side of the international date line -- I get to take more time to process after an episode is released if I need that time before diving in).

Instead, I prioritized Our Dining Table, episode 5, and as usual, I’m so glad I did, because it continues to be the sweetest, most perfect show.

Yutaka and Minoru continue to be so sweet (I’M NOT FORGETTING ABOUT KING TANE-KUN HERE). I loved Minoru’s frustration when Ueda-san interrupted Minoru and Yutaka’s late-night conversation. But I just wanted to note one really sweet and quiet moment that moved me -- when Tane-kun spilled the juice on Yutaka after eating the ramen fried rice.

Yutaka handled the moment so kindly, wiping Tane-kun and taking Tane-kun to help change his clothes.

One thing I’m loving about the show is that very, very slowly, we continue to see Yutaka getting closer to Tane-kun and helping to take care of him. 

I love this, especially as juxtaposed with Minoru’s college classmate telling Minoru that he needs to get back to his own life. (@troubled-mind, do you know if this was in the original manga? I can’t remember this small bit, but I could just be forgetting.)

I get to be a mom in a dyad in watching this, and I think I wrote previously -- raising kids is absolutely NO. JOKE. THE EXHAUSTION. I am semi-permanently exhausted. The inability to have a full conversation, your meals getting interrupted, your sleep getting interrupted, handling emergencies, cleaning vom, making decisions every minute -- it’s wearying. Your whole body is sacrificed, from mind to skin. We do it because we love our kids, BUT IT’S WORK.

No wonder Minoru quit school -- it’s a huge weight to bear. (Single parents, STAND UP -- much respect.)

So the classmate telling Minoru to get back to his own life -- for Minoru, I get that that’s totally unrealistic.

But Yutaka is there now. In these little moments, he’s there, and he helps. Surely, Minoru is attracted to Yutaka. But Yutaka, separately, IS JUST THERE. And that “there” is so beautiful.

When Yutaka took Tane-kun to change his clothes, I sensed Minoru’s relief, even while Minoru apologized. I’ll do a deep mom extrapolation to say -- that “I’m sorry” might not just be about the spill. It might be about apologizing for the energy that Yutaka will expend in handling Tane-kun in those moments. It gives Minoru the tiniest of breaks -- and that, besides just being there, is something that I bet Minoru is so grateful for, and reflects on the kindness and generosity that Yutaka demonstrates that is so like Minoru’s mom. That compassion that’s been missing from Minoru’s life, that that classmate doesn’t represent, that Ueda-san might be missing a touch from his own personality (at least for now -- we’ll see later in the series). 

This is one of the most quietly compassionate shows I’ve ever watched, and I just can’t get enough of it. If I were Minoru, I’d be on my knee with a ring. But in their world, things don’t move as quickly, and I’m so grateful for it. 

(I said this, and I’ll say it again: this show is highlighting, more than the manga, the physical and emotional aspects of the brunt of parenting in a way that I truly appreciate, and I bet mom fujoshis in Japan are just swooning at it, like me.)

[lgbtally4ever]

OUR DINING TABLE

This scene brought tears to my eyes… AGAIN.

So sweet.

If you haven’t watched this, yet—you’re missing a real gem!

Bonus scene…kiss…

And an official trailer…

It all started with a rice ball.

[gabrielokun]

[lilium-dragomir]

⚜ Happy birthday @aoyamariku ⚜

With your empty blog and me not having an anilist/MAL from you, it was really challenging to find something to make for you! But if my research was correct you like this (live-action) series. Or so I hope. Hope you have a lovely birthday!

[respectthepetty]

Because I'm always thinking about Our Dining Table:

The dad also calling Yu-Ta-Ka, Yu-Ka-Ta like Tane does while Minoru is the only one who says Yutaka's name correctly is elite level cute. Mostly because they NEVER leave food for the dad, yet he is never upset.

I also want to note that in the source material, Minoru drops off Yutaka's food near his job but goes to leave after Yutaka says he is glad that it's just Minoru there because he misunderstands Yutaka believing that he doesn't want Tane there, as in he believes Tane is bothersome, so I'm glad that was changed to show Minoru understanding the compliment and being bashful.

The actor playing Tane is doing an incredible job because when Yutaka froze, even though Minoru was happily looking at Yutaka, Tane froze as well. He looked at Yutaka's brother like he was stranger-danger.

And it works even better because Tane is normally positioned closer to Minoru (but still in between them), but at the end of the last episode, Tane woke up and ran to Yutaka, so in this episode, Tane was constantly seen closer to Yutaka.

I think this entire family is emotionally intelligent and Tane getting closer, literally, to Yutaka shows that he trusts Yutaka as much as he trusts his brother.

[jjsanguine]

Mr Ueda: burns Hamburg steak

Tane: so yukata will be coming tomorrow right? I want to eat his rice ball!

Minoru, resigned: well you can't always have what you want. What you have right now is Hamburg steak

Tane, swiping Minoru's phone: nah, I'm not feeling that. I'm feeling like resolving this situation with Yukata myself

[choujinx]

BOKURA NO SHOKUTAKU (2015-2017) by mita ori

[letgomaggie]

bokura no shokutaku is so good! its such a warmshow, it feels like home. its so gentle, its so kind, its so normal. there is no exaggeration. people are simply people. we love and we lose and we grow and we love again. the good parts of life are in the everyday. you can and should let yourself push your boundaries gently. maybe good company, good food, and warm conversations are all we carry with us in life.