Today, I want to recommend the show Midnight Diner to you. The show is a little older and got some attention when it was released, but I still think more people should know about it. This is also a little different from shows I have reviewed so far because Midnight Diner is live action, not animated.
The show centers around an unusual restaurant and the patrons who frequent it. The restaurant is only open from midnight to 7 am and only has one item on the menu, a hearty pork soup. The restaurant owner, affectionately called the Master by his customers, will make anything a customer asks for, however, as long as he has the ingredients.
While the restaurant and the Master serve as a central point in the show, it is really about the customers and their stories. There are some recurring characters, but the series is really more of an anthology series, with each episode focusing on the story or issues of a customer. Their quests for love and acceptance, struggles and triumphs, and the family and support they find at the restaurant. Some are funny, some are sentimental, and some are tragic. Each episode also usually has a featured food that each customer requests.
What really strikes me about the series is the general decency of the show. There are all sorts of customers at the restaurant and they are all generally respected and treated as human beings. The restaurant, being open only late at night in Shinkjuku, Tokyo sees all sorts of customers: businessmen, retirees, bar owners, strippers, police, yakuza members, young and old, married, single, straight, gay, and even trans people. They are all equal and shown as just another customer at the restaurant.
The series isn’t perfect. Individual episodes can often seem a bit cheesy, melodramatic, or overly sentimental. Many episodes rely on a sudden illness or cancer to create a tragic ending that can come out of the blue. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Additionally, while generally treated with respect, some of the representation of LGBTQ+ isn’t the best (although, for being a Japanese show from 2009, I am surprised it isn’t worse). One episode in particular stands out as having a harmful stereotype, presenting a trans woman as being sexually aggressive (although not violent or criminal she just knows what she wants and gets from her fully committed and consenting partner), which is used as a joke in the episode. Still, even with that issue, the woman is still treated like just another person and is welcomed as a customer in the restaurant. Additionally, another episode deals with a trans woman coming to terms with who she is and coming out fairly respectfully, although the story is told through the perspective of her straight friend and former co-worker. Honestly, in total, I think it treats LGBTQ+ issues better than most Japanese media available in the US.
Don’t let my discussion of the flaws of the show turn you off from the show. The show is still great. The recurring characters are fun and their connection to each other is nice and the stories in each episode are touching and interesting to watch.
You should definitely check out Midnight Diner. It is streaming now on Netflix. Just a note, there are technically two entries for the series on Netflix. One titled simply “Midnight Diner” and another titled “Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories.” It is the same series, the title switch just marks the point at which Netflix started helping to produce the series. While each episode largely stands on its own, you should start with Midnight Diner before moving on to Tokyo Stories.
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