Title: Bansan Blues / 晩餐ブルース
Rating: 7 / 10
Recommended for:
For those who want to watch a healing show featuring food and friendship amid the struggles of life
* Potential spoilers ahead!
Liked:
- What really left a deep impression on me was how well the cooking scenes were done. While it may feel like I was watching "Kinou nani tabeta" at times, the style here was a lot more "calming and comfortable" because there was hardly any narration nor loud BGM to explain the steps involved in the cooking process. As such, I managed to focus more on the visuals of the food and natural sounds from the cooking steps which somehow felt very therapeutic to watch. Be warned though, don't watch this while hungry because it can be quite torturous to see the delicious dishes on display and the cast indulging in the food.
- The "blues" part of the story was handled with the right amount of heaviness and did not make the whole drama feel like a depressing tale. The struggles felt by the key characters in this drama were relatable and very real. As the story progressed and the trio rekindled their friendship through sharing dinner, the whole atmosphere became a lot more positive and hopeful even though there wasn't any definite or long-term solution given. This transition coincided with the season setting in this drama i.e. from the cold and bleak winter to a warmer and brighter spring.
- Inowaki Kai and Kaneko Daichi were very good in their respective roles. Inowaki managed to convey the lethargic and somewhat brooding character especially towards the end. As for Kaneko, I thought that he did the cooking scenes really well and showed the depressed side of his character with precision without going overboard. I must say, this drama has also changed my impression of Kaneko to a large extent because I honestly didn't remember much of his past performances in supporting roles even though he is a familiar face to me.
Disliked:
- While it was good that the episodes were less than 30 mins long, I thought that it could have been a bit shorter because the pace was a bit draggy towards the last few episodes. This probably coincided with the twist in Yuuta's (Inowaki) psychological state because he had been the one who was more "cheerful" at first so the atmosphere became a lot more heavier compared to when it was Kousuke (Kaneko) who was in the doldrums. Perhaps keeping it to between 6 and 8 episodes might make the story a bit more succinct.
- As I pointed out above, I liked the cooking scenes for being "no-frills" which allowed me to enjoy them more. Towards the end when more people started to cook with Yuuta, it got a lot more noisier and there were some parts which had narration so I didn't quite like this change.
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