The Japanese series that will be the best of Netflix in 2023 and nobody is watching

Unfortunately, most Westerners are familiar with the world of geisha through the American film with a Chinese (not Japanese) cast Memoirs of a Geisha. The story of the novel (and the film) so outraged Mineko Iwasaki, the geisha she is inspired by, that she was forced to tell her own story in the form of a novel that would deny that of Arthur Golden, full of sensationalism and morbidity around the controversial, mythologized and never clarified Mizuage ceremony (sale of virginity and ceremony by which a Maiko or apprentice becomes a Geisha), prohibited in Japan like so many other forms of prostitution for more than half a century.

Getting to know the world of the Maikos and Geikos of today’s Kyoto could well be one of the main attractions of Makanai: the cook of the maikos. The series of 9 chapters of approximately forty minutes arrived on Netflix on January 12, but it is already one of the few good news for the platform in recent months. We are not talking, of course, about an audience bombing like Wednesday (unfortunately for the platform, there is still season 2 left)but yes of a series whose quality can compete with the HBO of The Last of Us or with any other production. We are talking about an author series that will not be or want to be for the masses. For starters, it is created and directed by probably the best Japanese director of the last two decades, Hirokazu Koreeda.

The award-winning director of A Family Affair, Like Father Like Son, Nobody Knows, Still Walking, After Life or the recent Broker He is known worldwide for his attention to detail and his amazing way of portraying events of daily life. Also because of how he treats his characters, whether they are heartless criminals or simple victims, and the affection that is shown towards his cast. All of this is found in Makanai, the cook of the maikos. The story is based on a manga by Aiko Koyama, which has also had an anime adaptation in 2021. In it we meet two close 16-year-old friends named Sumire and Kiyo. Both go to a house of Maikos in Kyoto to become Geishas. Sumire’s talent soon becomes clear, and it doesn’t take long for her to become the promise of the city, but also that Kiyo was not born for it. The young woman, in order not to abandon her friend, becomes the young cook of the house, becoming through countless dishes, the heart of all those women, from the young apprentices to the acid but charming mothers and teachers. Honestly, have Makanai, the story of the Maikoby Koreeda, is a gift to Netflix and its viewers.

Accustomed to Asian series based on violence, Maiko takes us to that hypnotic tranquility that also exhibits the best of Japan. Combining the art and customs of the maikos, which gives the series great ethnographic interest, the series becomes a reference foodie, filling its episodes with extraordinarily beautiful dishes and kitchen scenes. It is a series that does not want to hook the viewer with dramatic illnesses or deaths, or with traumatic family stories or betrayals and love soap operas. Makania hooks you with her warmth, her sense of friendship and affection, and her attention to detail. But no, it is not a cheesy or cloying series, it is a series full of subtleties, which always questions the viewer and its protagonists about the meaning of life and sacrifice, about the dominance between social relationships, the danger of depending on someone and the rotundity of who tells the truth while remaining silent.

Accustomed to screaming series whose best intention is to create trends on Tiktok and TT on Twitter, Makanai is a comforting fiction, in which spoilers do not matter at all, because the important thing is to see each scene of the series. I would tell you that my favorite moment of the entire season is the one in which Kiyo decides to make a special dish for a Sumire with a fever. To do this, he searches an entire city for the best tofu shop, the best fish chip shop, and the best seaweed shop. Later, she cooks it and smiles together with her friend. There is nothing interesting in this description, but there is in the scenes of the series that tell the same thing. There is it in seeing each one of those stores, in discovering Kiyo’s concentration when cooking that simple dish, in Sumire’s eyes when she discovers that there is much more behind that noodle soup. It’s not the what, it’s the how, and Netflix is ​​not going to have anything more delicious to take to the mouth and eyes throughout the year. And this is a fact as big as we all want to be Sumire to have a friend like Kiyo.