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god i LOVE house hunting episodes. looking at houses/apartments/etc has always been a lifelong joy of mine. I love looking at floor plans, and I love trying to problem-solve weird spaces. I love the unspoken potential of an empty home.

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Kasuga watching Nomoto eat in Tsukutabe.

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How it started vs. How it's going

I love the contrast between the first time they sat at a table together, and the last time in series two.

In the first:

The lighting is cool, with mostly blue-greys, whites, and bits of brown. It kind of matches Kasuga's muted clothes and Nomoto's skirt.

The camera is angled so that Nomoto's a bit closer to the foreground. At this stage, their relationship is purely transactional and uneven: Nomoto provides. Kasuga eats.

Kasuga's only interested in the food.

Nomoto is straight-backed, apprehensive, and uncertain. She's only observing and not participating.

In the last:

The lighting is SO WARM, with pops of red, orange, and green, reflecting the deep warmth that's grown between them. Their relationship so far hasn't had heat or passion, and Nomoto was struggling with this and what it meant for her identity. And to have this warmth celebrated is just! so!

This scene is so full and cosy compared to the first - full of the food they'd made together, and full of THEM. The camera has centred them and they've taken up the bulk of the screen.

Kasuga's SMILE. She actually stops chewing and puts her croquette down as she waits for Nomoto's "oishii!!!".

As the show progressed, food was no longer only about cooking, feeding, and being fed. It became a way for them to connect, show care, love, and welcome others into their lives.

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TSUKURITAI ONNA TO TABETAI ONNA SHE LOVES TO COOK AND SHE LOVES TO EAT

Subtitles by Furritsubs

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TsukuTabe S2 Is Perfection

I’ve been waffling about what to write about Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna s2, which completed last week (and which we have access to at all thanks to the hard work of @furritsubs). I have had to just give up on getting across how much this show means to me; there's no way I'll be able to communicate these feelings with words. Season 1 was excellent but Season 2 was everything I wanted and more that I didn't know I needed. This is going to be more disjointed than usual because I don't know how to be coherent about this show (and because tumblr ate my first two attempts).

At its core, Tsukuritai Onna to Tabtetai Onna asks what if we were all just a little bit more conscientious and kind to one another? What if women were given space to be themselves and to make the choices that were best for them? This is the world of TsukuTabe, and I'm so grateful to have had the chance to inhabit it over these last four weeks. 

I have so much love for the way Nomoto and Kasuga develop their relationship in conjunction with their relationships with the other women in their lives. Nagumo, Sayama, and Yako are integral to the success of Nomoto and Kasuga’s relationship, and they're also important relationships for the happiness of Nomoto and Kasuga in their own right. The found family vibes are immaculate. 

The conflict between Kasuga and Nomoto this season was so perfectly them; the way they struggled with the transition from friends to lovers and being two people who are kind and giving in a relationship together and how that requires honesty and trust were both familiar conflicts that hit me hard in the feels. 

Kasuga's conflict with her family also hit me really hard. I once did the wrong thing and showed up to support my family in caring for someone who abused me, and it was a horrible experience that was ruinous to my mental health and took years to get over (and in the end they had to find a different solution anyway, which they could have done in the first place). Watching Kasuga refuse to make a similar decision, standing strong in the face of the social pressures of her parents and her aunt was so healing for me. And then to have her decision affirmed by someone of her parent's age? I sobbed in those scenes. 

I also loved the way this season handled Nagumo’s anxiety issues and how she was given space to decide to get professional help on her own time and terms. The way her parents tried to help was also very familiar to me and realistic, and it was just a little heartbreaking how they tried and didn't understand how their attempts at helping added pressure in a way that wasn't helpful. 

The way this show covers this important beats in a person's life through these small, everyday moments, and in such a gentle way, is what I love so much about it. The show itself makes a safe space so that these subjects can come up and not feel overwhelming. 

And it's also really important to me that all of the characters get to have these moments. Sakae not only reflects on her insensitivity and the unfairness of Japan not having marriage equality, but she also reflects on the pressures on her to marry and whether she actually wants that for herself. Fujita not only helps Kasuga gain proxy acceptance for her choices but gets the same back for herself around her decision to divorce. All of these women live in ways that invoke social stigma, and the way this show gives explicit permission to these women to live their best lives is both cathartic and critical.

I can't end this disjointed ramble without talking about the character I most identified with this season, Yako. Yako is an older, self-actualized asexual lesbian who makes friends with Nomoto on the Internet, recommends lesbian films to her, and mostly listens and affirms as Nomoto goes through her own process of discovering herself. I ran a GSA and have been on the Internet a long time, I've been in Yako’s position a lot (though I can only aspire to be as kind and wise). She is so patient and so genuinely happy for Nomoto when she and Kasuga get together, and she seems so quietly thrilled to have more wonderful people in her life willing to indulge her random party ideas. Her sharing a connection to a LGBTQ+-friendly real estate agency while being angry on their behalf that she even has to was perfection. 

It's so important that these characters say the things they say aloud. I want to inscribe every sentence of this show into everyone's brains. This show is perfect, and lovely, and a warm bath, and a hug, and a cup of your favourite warm beverage perfectly fixed to your liking all in one. If you haven't done yourself the favour of watching yet, I highly recommend that you do so immediately. 

[not an ID: Real footage of the entire audience's satisfaction and catharsis after watching TsukuTabe S2. Actual ID in alt text].

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thank you for subtitling tsukutabe!!<3

always a pleasure ❤️

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You and the neighbour seem to get along really well.

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YES!!!!!

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Portion differences between Kasuga and Nomoto in season two. (Season one here).

Bonus:

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"Please take care of me from now on".

Kasuga and Nomoto in Tsukutabe.

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A love letter to TsukuTabe

I loved the first season of this drama, but this second season (really more of a straightforward continuation of the first season narrative, which ended unfinished) is a remarkable glow up for an already strong show. These creators did not come to play, and they had a lot to say about the experiences of women living in patriarchal cultures.

This drama tackled so many experiences that afab people go through as they try to build a life for themselves under pressure to conform to societal norms. We have so many different lived experiences of women in this show, all of whom are queer by way of falling outside the lines of what is expected of them:

Nomoto, who experiences a queer awakening, wrestles with the specifics of her sexual identity, and bravely forges ahead despite feeling pressure from her family to marry a man and procreate

Kasuga, who breaks with her family's expectations that she be a caretaker and insists on living her own life, even if she knows the culture she lives in will sometimes make it hard

Yako, who owns her asexual and lesbian identities, proudly forges a life for herself, builds community for herself and others, and advocates for that community both publicly and privately

Nagumo, who struggles to connect with others because of her eating disorder and mental health struggles and lives a solitary existence as a result, but through building bonds with other women finds the strength to begin healing

Sayama, who pushes herself to date around because she feels pressure to live up to expectations to marry, before reconsidering whether that is a goal she actually has for her life and realizing she is happy being unmarried

Fujita, who struggles through years of an unhappy marriage in which she is subjugated to her husband's family before breaking free and pursuing a divorce so she can live happily on her own

It means a lot to me to see a show that cares so deeply about these women and their stories, that gives them so much space to explore and think and communicate their feelings. And they do it all so naturally, by allowing them to form bonds with one another and figure out who they are and what they want through their relationships with each other. This story is all about how we can grow through kindness and compassion from others, and how important it is to pay that support back in kind. It's such a beautiful and unique and desperately needed message in the current media landscape.

And there's more story yet to tell! I have no idea if they will get a third season, but I will be seated for as much of this story as the creators want to make. I would love to see them tackle Nomoto and Kasuga's life as a committed couple, their coming out to their families, and the ongoing lives of the community of queer women around them, which will only continue to broaden and deepen. Like What Did You Eat Yesterday? this show could go on and on forever, and I hope it does. I have so much gratitude for all the people involved in making this show, and to @furritsubs for translating the English subtitles so that international fans could also enjoy it. And if you're seeing this and haven't watched it yet, I am telling you, it is so worth your time.

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Goodbye and thanks for all the love ｡o○♡

So here we are. After five fantastic weeks, it's time to say goodbye to Nomoto, Kasuga, Yako and Nagumo. I miss them already, even though I don't think any of them will truly leave me for a good, long while.

This show is just beautiful. It may seem unassuming, quiet and more leisurely than a lot of other shows but it's worth the watch. I can only recommend it - I said it before, but do yourself this favor. I think everyone can find something healing and comforting in this story of gentle, caring people being kind to each other. In the messages it shares with you with a tenderness and reassurance that made me soft.

Watch the show for how it tells you that not following the expected path society and family have for you may come with struggles but it's still worth it, that you need to go after your happiness and that there will be people here for you through it. That it's never too late to do those things that will make you happy.

For the way it gently takes your hand and tells you that yes, there are challenges, and hard times, and difficult emotions, and pain, but that there is kindness and there is love, too - and that will help. For how it reminds you that you have to be a little selfish to sustain love, be it platonic or romantic, accepting help and voicing your need and reaching out to hang out. And yet, that you are not a burden. That the people who love you want to spend time with you, to do things you will love, to cook for you and share a meal.

Watch it for so many more reason, because I honestly think everyone will find something in there that resonate with them and their experience, that may even help them feel seen.

On a more personal note, as someone who lives far away from their family and doesn't have a lot of people around them IRL (let alone other queer people), it felt so healing to see Nomoto and Kasuga, who are about my age, have those realizations a little later in life, and find those connections anyway. To follow Nomoto discovering herself and to see her be assured that there is not right or wrong way to be who she is and that she knows what label fits her. To see Kasuga slowly opening herself to new experiences. To watch them fall in love and make new friends and build their life and their family the way that makes them happy and fulfilled. All of this brought me such comfort and gave me so much hope that things will be ok.

So goodbye ladies, but hopefully not farewell. I hope we get to see more of you, of your little family and your friends, of that new start we are ending this part of the story on. Thank you @furritsubs for making this available to those of us who don't speak Japanese (and for all the little cultural and culinary notes along the way, they truly enhanced the experience!~♡).

And to the show itself and everyone who made it... Thank you for those stories, thank you for the kindness with which everyone is treated, thank you for the warmth, the gentleness, the ever present love.

And most of all, thank you for the hope.

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hi, just wanted to send you the biggest thanks for taking the time to translate tsukutabe and making it accessible to so many people. this show is so important and so kind and seriously thank you for spreading kindness into the world!

This is deeply appreciated. Thank you so much for the kind words. It's always such a delight for me to share many of these works to a wider audience so I'm glad you have been enjoying it!

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🙄 ppl who can't accept when you want to cut someone out of your life. "Just talk to them" ignoring the fact that you're never listened to when you do try to talk to them

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oh her gay ass is NOT gonna survive kasuga's directness

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Food truly brings the Japanese queer folk together

During the entirity of last week i have binge watched gays being in love and making food together

Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna s1 and s2 i weeped when kasuga said 'i do like you romantically' I will be very very sad when s2 ends next week!!! gimme me more of my fave lesbians thank you!!! (thank you @furritsubs for blessing us with the [confirmed] lesbians)

lets eat together Aki and Haru: giving up an entire internship overseas just to keep hanging out with my bestie is def me and I would do the same tbh

Zenra Meshi: i was a bit baffled when souta said yes when yuki asked if they could date for real because he was clearly falling in love with mahiro and then I read this post by nini clocking his struggle with feelings and demisexuality and kinda better understand where they are coming from (I guess)

i have also previously watched Kinou nani tabetai s1,s2 and the movie and old fashioned cupcake... all this to say japan really loves feeding its queer folk

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Portion differences between Kasuga and Nomoto in season one.