It's very clear to me, watching this, that the source material was just a little slice-of-life manga, and was never really meant for an adaptation like this. It's too frictionless, too lacking in incident to justify 40-minute episodes. The series does add this layer of questioning the system, at times mentioning that all these rules that the maiko adhere to arbitrary and antiquated, and that maybe these girls should be allowed to be seen with mobile phones. Or maybe they should be able to marry and have children without having to leave the profession.

That's very compelling to me, though nothing substantial really comes of it in the show. It's just brought up, and then the show continues with the…

Thanks to Kore-Eda, I get to live in Japan without actually living in Japan.

There have been a few works for Geisha representation in media before, but many, like the most popular one, Memoirs of a Geisha, show it as glamorized prostitution. Kore Eda set out to display the real art-loving reason behind it all with a comforting feminist lens. Here men are passive creatures. It is a woman’s world where any activity or work that she is doing, be it dancing, cooking, or homemaking, is through her own agency and for serving other women or serving the performing arts.

I rarely watch shows or series, and knowing that Ai is just a supporting character here in Makanai, I wasn’t…

Kore-ecember: Part Six

Started watching this as a light, easy break from buckling down and trying to finish my book (the same way I watch Bake Off), but then I fell in love with Kiyo and Sumire and their journey together. Come for the beautiful food photography, stay for the heartwarming friendship and sisterhood vibes? But it's not just their bond that's so beautiful.

The series is also about cultural tradition and generational heritage: after the first episode, I thought it was going to be about the oppressive environment of stagnating traditionalism, the way strict adherence to the past stifles the future, but as Kiyo and Sumire grow and thrive, it begins to feel more about the way that the…