12/19 edit: oops, looks like my internet didn’t cooperate and publish this last night (12/18)! You get 2 for 1 today, folks.
My mom and I ate eggs (her), taquitos (me), and brussel sprouts (both) after we got home from picking her up from the Austin airport. She’s here for the week to spend Christmas and after falling back into old habits (blabbing about my life while watching her work in the kitchen) I turned on an odd mutual enjoyment we discovered a couple of years ago while we ate dinner: Japanese romance/slice of life dramas.
There must be a formal name for them but these are live-action high school romance dramas that are acted out like animes — overdramatic and hilarious. Good Morning Call is the one I started casually rewatching earlier this week and we jumped back into tonight.
We both watched it together for the first time a couple of years ago. A high school guy (popular, untouchable, kind of rude) and girl (plain jane, daydreamy, kind) accidentally end up living together (it’s a whole thing). And then they slow burn fall in love while other drama unfolds around them . . . usually, that other people fall in love with them.
It’s so simple and funny and while it’s not very progressive, it has these beautiful earnest moments.
And sometimes you just need something that’s a little like watching fanfiction: predictable and about love and with a happy ending.
There’s a lot of these types of shows — Mischievous Kiss is the other one that comes to mind.
They are definitely not for everybody. But I love that my mom laughs out loud during them as much as I do.
With Love,
Natalie