Review of Gimbap and Onigiri / キンパとおにぎり〜恋するふたりは似ていてちがう〜

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

When it comes to blogging, or even watching movies and whatnot, I’ve been in such a weird headspace lately. I started a new job after quite a bit of a spell of not having any besides freelance and contract work, and now that I am actually working, I’m not watching as much as I used.

Part of it is fueled by my newfound YouTube addiction, but part of it just is that I can’t stay awake long enough to get everything I want done. I haven’t even been going to the movies lately to see them in-person because I simply am just tired after I get everything else done.

One of the shows that I’ve recently adored (at the time of typing this) is Gimbap and Onigiri. I feel like it’s such a recent phenomenon that Japanese and Korean television series are coming out, and I get the sense I’ve enjoyed these series overall. I really wanted to watch this one because I absolutely adore food-focused dramas, and this one came across as fairly meaningful in that sense.

And I would say I was accurate in that assessment. Let’s get into the review before I start rambling too much!

A young Japanese chef meets a Korean animation graduate student, sparking a romance with some cultural differences.

Our main characters in this television series are Taiga and Rin. Taiga is from Japan and works at a local restaurant called Tanomi part-time. There, his talent for cooking becomes increasingly obvious, especially as their customers notice how he is able to create new, inspired dishes that taste good.

Rin moved to Japan from Korea in order to study animation there, but she finds herself going through all of the rounds when living in a foreign country. Her mother wants her to come back to Korea and take a job there upon graduating, while Rin is feeling conflicted about her path.

The story begins when she is forced to move out of the student dorms and has to find housing last-minute, which, as a foreigner, isn’t easy at all. She doesn’t know what to do and has a strict deadline, which is how she ends up meeting Taiga. She ends up going to Tanomi and eating some onigiri he serves her, which makes Rin feel better at the end of the day.

It’s from that moment on that we know that Rin and Taiga are going to be seeing more of each other. Their romance is pretty sweet and kind of chaste (minus the implied sex scenes that happen in later episodes), but what’s interesting the most about these two is how they inspire each other.

For Taiga, it manifests in his cooking and recipe ideas. We see how his past influences his present day mindset, as well as with Rin, but it’s through interacting with Rin he is able to build more Korean-inspired dishes that potentially advance his career.

But there’s also something else about their relationship that’s impossible to ignore: the cultural differences. While Japanese and Korean culture do share some similarities, there are different customs, beliefs, and attitudes that shape these two fundamentally, and if they can’t get over that, then their romance is going to crumble.

There are some other side stories throughout the show, but I found them to mainly be fluff compared to the main characters!

Overall Thoughts

I can’t say this with a ton of shows, but I genuinely enjoyed tuning in to this series every week to see the latest episode drop. Was the ending a bit frustrating? Yes, but I found it to be realistic compared to the normal Korean and Japanese dramas and their storylines.

In the end, I really liked how these two genuinely tried to sort out their differences in order to make something beautiful work. It’s really hard to be with someone from a different culture, especially when you’re a foreigner in the country you’re living in.

Regardless, I had a great time watching this show. I also loved the cinematography and just the way it was film, and the characters arcs beyond the romance elements. I typically don’t like Japanese food, as I don’t eat seafood, and this show had me wanting to eat more of it.

Go watch it if you have the chance and the synopsis interests you. It’s worth trying to see at least once!

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