Lunch Queen (ランチの女王)

Finally I get my Christmas and Year-end holiday even only for three days but at least I have time to finish watching my dorama and update this blog. I am not sure how I could come to watch this dorama but if you a fan of Japanese food and Yuko Takeuchi, it is worth watching it. For your information, this dorama was produced in 2002. Somehow it is quite a mystery that I have never heard of it till I read it on someone’s comment on Jdorama.com.

The Story

A waitress and a stalker

Mugita Natsumi (age 23 actress: Takeuchi Yuko) was being scolded by a customer at a cafe where she was working. The angry customer could not be satisfied until he made Natsumi cried. In fact it was fake tears of her (of course the customer did not know) and she was waiting excitedly for her lunch time. However there was a guy named Kenichiro watched the whole scene and followed Natsumi around when she was surveying places to have lunch. Just at the time Natsumi finished her first bite at a restaurant of her choice, the stalker guy grabbed her hand, pulled her away out of the restaurant while she was still holding a spoon, and brought her with force to a empty construction yard.

Kenichiro explained that he was a regular customer at the cafe where Natsumi worked and he needed her to act as his fiancee because his father has been collapsed and he had been away from home since two years ago. Natsumi at first, she did not care at all until Kenichiro promised to treat her the most delicious omurice that she has never tasted before.

Omurice is fried rice with chicken and a layer of omelet covered and poured with demiglace sauce around it.
Back to the story, Kenichiro brought Natsumi to his family who is running a Japanese-western restaurant called Kitchen Macaroni and told her briefly about his father and brothers and other who helped in the kitchen. That’s how Natsumi got in touch for the first time with Nabeshima family (this family name has never been mentioned until episode 6). This is not really a story of Japanese food more a simple story of family and friendship within four brothers and a girl with mysterious background who likes eating lunch especially with omurice menu.

Kitchen Macaroni

Kitchen Macaroni is a restaurant run by Nabeshimas that serves mainly lunch and also dinner. It is well-known for its inexpensive super-oishii food and especially its special demiglace sauce made by the head of the family, Nabeshima Kenzo (Oya-ji). The sauce is not only used for omurice but it is also nice to be poured above the hamburger.

Kenzo has four sons,

The first one is Kenichiro (age unknown) aka Ken-nii (actor: Tsutsumi Shinichi who played in Good Luck as captain Kouda and in Yamato Nadeshiko as Osuke the math genius) who runs away from home with the family’s money. At the time he is back home after two years in running, apparently he runs out his money and comes home to take more. Apart from his bad attitudes, Kenichiro actually has a good-side and he knows well his brothers’ characteristics one by one.

The second son is Yujiro (age 33) aka Yu-nii (actor:Eguchi Yosuke-I just realize that he was played as Mikami in Tokyo love Story) , the head chef of Kitchen Macaroni. He always appears with no-smile face and dislikes his big brother very much since now he has been taking over the responsibility of Kenichiro as the first son of Nabeshima. Moreover since the last visit of Ken-nii who brought Natsumi, introduced her as his fiancee, and then just left her as he ran away again. Yujiro actually had a plan to not to continue running the restaurant and move on with his own life because he was thinking that no profit could be made from Kitchen macaroni since the money has always been stolen by his onii-chan, twice in a row.

At the first time, Yujiro does not want to have Natsumi working at the restaurant and he seems despise her very much by acting cruel towards her. As the story develops, the viewers starts seeing his kind and caring side behind his tough attitude. I wonder when he starts having a crush on Natsumi since more than half of the story, he has an secret affair with someone’s wife named Hidemi.

The third son is called Junzaburo (age 23) (actor: Tsumabuki Satoshi-honestly this is the first time I see this person playing in a dorama) who is very honest, sweet and kind-hearted (looks like he’s the perfect guy here). By his youngest brother, Jun is called late-bloomer boy since he has no experience with a girl. This happens because he is too busy running the restaurant and the fact that he is the one who defends the business from closing. That’s why Kenzo at the end hands over the demiglace sauce recipe to Junzaburo instead of Yujiro.

Since the beginning, Jun shows his affection towards Natsumi even he knows that Natsumi is Ken-nii no konyaku (fiancee). But then Natsumi only confessed to Jun that her relationship with Ken-nii is a lie and this made Jun becomes braver to run after her. However due to his nature, Jun has never been succeed in confessing his love; the first time he kissed Natsumi forcibly and ended up with his rib being kicked, the second one he tried to confess at the beach but suddenly Koshiro came and confessed his feeling before him, third one when Natsumi was making food clipping in Jun’s room and when he was about doing it, Yujiro came without knowing that Natsumi was preparing to launch her deathly kick to Jun (for the second time). In spite of his efforts on Natsumi, actually there are lots of girls who like to be treated by Jun just like what he does to Natsumi. Because of this, Natsumi instantly has become the girls’ enemy in the story.

The forth son and the youngest one is Koshiro (age 18 and played by Yamashita Tomohisa-everyone knows that this guy now is in the big 10 famous dorama artises, I know him as Ken-ken in Stand-up). Koshiro is potrayed as a handsome smart high school boy who does not like to help in the kitchen instead he likes playing around, skipping class, and dating girls. Yujiro comments that Koshiro is just like their oldest brother, Ken-nii, who is known also as womanizer while Jun is more like him who focuses on work. Koshiro participated in running after Natsumi’s heart in the middle of the story, he was the first who kissed Natsumi without being kicked by her. This has made Jun quite jealous and accused Natsumi for being nicer to his brothers than to himself.

kisssuuu…chuuu

Besides Nabeshima family there are also two important persons playing part in the story, Shiomi Tomato aka Toma-chan (actrees: Itoh Misaki-Suzuka sensei in Gokusen and Kabe Onna in Yama Onna Kabe Onna) the girl next door who is selling grocery and has a crush on Jun and Ushijima Minoru (actor: Yamada Takayuki-who played as Saku in Sekai no chuushin de, ai wo sakebu), the sleep-in intern at Kitchen Macaroni who knows all about Natsumi’s past.

Impression (containing spoilers!!)

Well, this might be not the best dorama I have ever watched but I had many enjoyments while watching it especially when my stomach was empty and looking at those cuisines did make me hungry most of the times. Moreover, some scenes have made me quite emotional. I would say Takeuchi Yuko and Nabeshima brothers did a very good job. They are really connected to each other in the whole story. Unfortunately at the end no one is ended up with Natsumi except that they are still living together.

I read in Jdorama’s comments, that this was actually one of the first doramas that Yuko Takeuchi has ever played, she was only 22 when playing in Lunch Queen. It was also the first time I watched her act as an energetic person who could do  martial art and did lots of running scenes. In most of Yuko Takeuchi’s doramas and film that I have watched, I always have impression that she frequently portrays soft, kind-hearted, yet fragile female characters as the ones she played in Pride and Ima ai ni Yukimasu.