First Impression: Lunch Queen (2002)

Takeuchi Yuko.. 😔

My Netflix notification popped up with this drama and I immediately know how old this is, hahaha. The color grading, the image quality - this is so early 2000.

But look at the cast list.

Bukki at his prime (only 23! so young! So fresh!), chibi Yamapi (I don’t think he debuted yet with NEWS?), young Yamada Yuki (almost didn’t recognize him!), and freaking Eita with only 5 mins of screen time on first episode?!

Each one of them is now a household name and to see them in one drama like this again is probably unthinkable - unless it’s a mega budget movie with backing from big companies or something like that.

Okay now on to the story - you bet there’s going to be a romance, but this one.. I am not too fond of. Firstly, I know Bukki and Yuko are the same age but the styling for Yuko here made her look waaaayyy much older than Bukki with his baby face. So when that scene on episode 2 came, I CRINGED.

It felt like watching a baby brother kissing his older sister. “Forced” or sudden kiss was cool back in early 2000s, but watching this in mid 2020s felt so wrong and so weird.

To be honest, I much prefer Natsumi with Yuijiro. They bicker, they are freenemies - all the recipe for a great enemy-to-lovers arc.

Also, 3 episodes in, and I still can’t grasp what exactly is Natsumi feeling towards lunch menu and Kitchen Macaroni.

Well I will probably watch here and there - but this is not exactly my forte.

Still, to watch Takeuchi Yuko in her prime.. it is bittersweet.