See You Tomorrow at the Food Court

SanaeK10★ 8

Food Court is what happens if you take the Choco-Coronet scene from Lucky Star and stretch it to about 20 minutes for 6 episodes straight. It is literally just two girls talking about stuff in one location, and the premise doesn't change one bit. It is the anti-CGDCT show, and I absolutely adore it. Part of it stems from how real the show feels. It's uncanny how just about any scene from the show resembles something I've lived through. I've had dumb conversations with my friends that went nowhere, went somewhere, or even had some heart-to-hearts out of nowhere in random locations coming right out ofnowhere. Wada especially, it feels as if someone has been secretly recording aspects of my life and is broadcasting it all for the world to see. It is eerie, to say the least, but also comforting knowing that many people lived through a similar life to the lives of Wada and Yamamoto as depicted in the show. Look, the premise is just one terminally online shitposter girl with a terrible attitude and her very reasonable friend having random conversations with each other. It is such a surprisingly novel concept you don't see replicated too much in anime, but these things are dime a dozen on places like Youtube, where you can hang out with your not-really friends for 20 minutes or so and just reminisce on better times. I don't know how this thing got greenlit for an anime, but I'm forever grateful it did. In a way, it's the closest we'll ever get to seeing My Dinner with Andre in anime form. And as Martin Prince would do so in the Simpsons, I'll always firmly point my joystick towards "Tell Me More". Now, if you'll excuse me, I probably need to talk to a very old friend I've lost contact with after I moved here. 8/10

KANLen09★ 8

See You Tomorrow at the Food Court - Wada and Yamamoto sitting at the food court, T A L K I N G. Talking and eating — that's what their friendship bumps onto. (If you know the pun of which this is from, it's cringe as heck...) They say, "it takes two (pairs of) hands for friendship to clap," and it's even difficult to keep the conversation going, regardless of whether it's seamless or always diverging from where it's supposed to go, that only true friends will know each other and let loose of who they really are to just bask in the moment. This isthe case for transgender mangaka Shinichirou Nariie's series Food Court de, Mata Ashita. a.k.a See You Tomorrow at the Food Court, a go-getter story about two high school girls being friends who can converse about just about anything under the sun...er, I mean, in the food court. With only 2 volumes out since its serialization, which started as a webcomic on the author's Twitter account, the series may be as bare-bones looking externally, but within the adaptation of its half-than-usual 12-episode set of the webcomic-turned-manga, you can get a feel for what the show will be like: a chill, true-to-the-bones, slice-of-life comedy drama about two girls of different high schools converging at their secret place to just talk gobsmackers of anything in relation to them or anything within their control. I think it's smart of Shinichirou Nariie to feature not just two high school gals who have this kindred friendship towards each other, but also, in hindsight, their own appearances are also misleading to think that a normal girl and a literate gyaru would talk smack and not get into constant friendship fights. For one, the two simple girls of the quiet, rich honour student Wada and her accompaniment, the intimidating gyaru Yamamoto, on the outset, look anything but a pair that will literally bring in the catfights for how different they are. "Different" is the word of relation here because more than being the straight-laced student that she is, Wada is anything but studious and gets pissed off over petty issues, from her life's struggles to the gacha game that she plays, featuring her love-hate SSR character Duke Abel that has her always claiming that she hates him to the max, but that deep down, she loves him to the max. Compare that with Yamamoto, as her intimidation is only but a farce given her flashy but supposedly carefree personality, the complete opposite of Wada, who is studious, very interested in urban legends, and often uses English words to express her emotions through normal talk in the hopes of visiting America one day. It's easy to see how both Wada and Yamamoto can easily bump heads without getting into needless conflict for dramatic reasons, given how different they are since the time they met each other in middle school to keep this secretive friendship going. Even towards Wada, who grieves about the other students that notice her, like the gorilla girl of Saito (whose face that's full of makeup we never get to see), and much to her chagrin, a doppelganger case where her worst fears are realized when she sees her partner be one of the flat-chested girl's sworn enemies, being a pervert at best since middle school. God, I swear that Wada is interesting on her own, given her flurry of stories that only serve to traumatize her, but pairing this up with the nonchalant Yamamoto, who tries her best to measure against her best friend's rambling and get her back into reality, is even more interesting. You can't get a friendship so frenetic and yet so sane, like both girls do. For a debut performance, newbie VA Hiyori Miyazaki did a knockout job portraying Wada as the mature-but-immature Wada alongside VA Yoshino Aoyama, featuring the calm Bocchi gal that keeps her temperament straight-laced and cool. And if I may add, it's the art of the voiceover skills that makes this show truly the talk of the town. Otherwise, it's a plain ol' simple show that needs just the right amount of effort, alongside a simple staff team that could do the job at half the usual quantity but with the quality of a full seasonal set. It's nice to look at, given that this is rookie studio Atelier Pontdarc's 3rd main production series that honestly needs no punches nor glamour just to get the job done. The music is honestly hit-and-miss, though it too gets its nuances just alright with Oisicle Melonpan's slow-beat OP, and the mingling of both Wada and Yamamoto's VAs with the playful ED (which I feel is the best of the 2). All in all, you could do worse than passing on this "looking ol' simple" show and not realizing that it actually has depth for what seems to be a rather simple premise about friends hanging out at their usual spot. Sure, the "food" part has its focus at times (since this is a food court after all), but it's the friendship of the central MCs that makes this show shine the most. It's undeniably "slice of life" at its core, charming at times, and is one show where this quote sums it up best: "Less is more." We don't need excessive bombarding of other shows this season; just friends hanging out at a food court and sharing about anything and everything they can is what brings us the feels for Chicken Food for the Soul, showcasing ordinary life at its most natural.