Line #13 Series/TheMakanaiCookingForTheMaikoHouse


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/makanai_8.png]]
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3	''The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House'' is a nine-episode Japanese series that premiered on Creator/{{Netflix}} on January 12, 2023. Created by Creator/HirokazuKoreEda, it is an adaptation of the manga ''[[Manga/KiyoInKyotoFromTheMaikoHouse Kiyo in Kyoto: From the Maiko House]]''.
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6	Two childhood friends, Kiyo (Creator/NanaMori) and Sumire (Creator/NatsukiDeguchi), move from their childhood home of Aomori to Kyoto's Gion District, where they intend to become [[{{geisha}} maiko]] at Saku House. But while Sumire takes quickly to the training and customs, Kiyo is expelled from her clumsiness. But her talent in the kitchen quickly becomes apparent, and she is hired as the makanai (live-in cook) of the house. The show then follows Kiyo as she supports the women of the house with her cooking, and includes several subplots that explore the world of geiko.
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10	!!Tropes:
11	* AloofDarkHairedGirl: Momoko, to the T. It's a bit ambiguous how much of it is her geiko performance and persona (being simply the ideal of the trade), her own personality (especially since she's far more friendly and warm toward people in private), and just how much [[BecomingTheMask one bleeding over the other]].
12	* CallingParentsByTheirName: The aloof and rebellious Ryoko calls her mother by her name, Asuka. When they begin to reconcile near the end of the season, Ryoko calls her "Mom", to her surprise.
13	* CareerVsMan: Justified. It's customary for geiko to [[QuittingToGetMarried retire when they get married]]. Iwai asks Momoko for commitment in episode 4, and she's torn because it would mean giving up the job she's loved for so long, and frustrated because he assumed that she would follow him.
14	* CelebCrush: Mother Chiyo has a shrine in her room dedicated to Korean actor Creator/HyunBin. All while she could be his grandma.
15	* ChildhoodFriends: Kiyo and Sumire have been sisterlike friends since they were very young, and Kiyo despairs at the possibility of being separated from Sumire when she is expelled. They also have another childhood friend, Kenta, who goes to school in Aomori and worries after them.
16	* CoolBigSis: Momoko, the senior geiko who mentors Sumire. She gives the younger girl advice in beauty, career, and relationships. For her part, Sumire greatly admires Momoko and even decided to be a geiko to emulate her.
17	* CostumePorn: There's a lot of detail given to the ornate traditional dresses worn by the geiko and maiko.
18	* FantasyForbiddingFather: Sumire had initially wanted to be a doctor like her father, who now disapproves of her career pivot to becoming a geiko since he thinks it's sleazy. He begins to come around after visiting her in the fourth episode.
19	* FeminineMotherTomboyishDaughter: Mother Azusa, the proper but slightly airheaded former geiko and house manager, and her brusque teenage daughter Ryoko who has tomboyish fashion and manners and resents the lifestyle.
20	* FeminineWomenCanCook: Inverted. When the original makanai calls in sick, all the maiko are revealed as terrible cooks (in big part due to lack of any practice), while the tomboyish Kiyo turns out to be a SupremeChef - much to everyone confusion, as for past three months she was incredibly clumsy.
21	* FlowersOfFemininity: Flower decoration is one of the traditional skills the maiko need to master. A scene in the first episode shows Kiyo having trouble with it as part of the sequence that establishes her as a bad fit for the profession.
22	* {{Foil}}: The two senior geiko who are featured the most, Momoko and Yoshino, are a study in contrasts. Momoko is poised, aloof, and traditional; Yoshino is brash, unconventional and blithely charming.
23	* FoodPorn: A lot of emphasis is given to food preparation and cooking, and the camera often lovingly pans over the finished dishes.
24	* FourLeafClover: In episode 4 Sumire gets a four-leaf clover card from Momoko, which everybody extols as exceedingly lucky. But then her father arrives from Aomori to try and stop her from being a maiko, and the teens comment that it's not lucky at all.
25	* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Downplayed in case of Yoshino. She's very direct, self-centered, lies and confabulates almost non-stop, takes personal belongings (and food) of others without asking and has a NeverMyFault attitude. However, she is still helpful and supportive to the other girls and more than once saves their skin with her unrefined, brash mannerism.
26	* {{Geisha}}: The show is about two girls who are training to become geiko, and a lot of attention is given to the grace and skills needed to become one, along with portraying it as a down-to-earth, regular job.
27	* GirlishPigtails: Sumire, a teenage maiko trainee, wears her hair in two braids by the side of her head. In the sixth episode she sheds it to start wearing the traditional maiko hairstyle.
28	* GirlyGirlWithATomboyStreak: Momoko is an excellent geiko, fully dedicated to her craft and thus always carrying herself in a very feminine manner. She's also a big fan of zombie fiction, as evident by her personal belongings and movie preferences, creating a pretty strong contrast with everything else regarding her.
29	* GenkiGirl: Yoshino is hyperactive to a fault. To make it all that weirder, she's an adult woman who managed to reach the status of a geiko, married someone, and then returned years later - yet she's as giddy as a pre-teen girl and the least mature of the cast.
30	* TheGlassesGottaGo: Enforced. Maiko and geiko are not allowed to be seen in various "non-traditional" activities. Including wearing glasses - while Tsurukoma has to.
31	* HeterosexualLifePartners: Kiyo and Sumire are childhood friends with a pure, sisterly devotion to each other. Their relationship is likened to a long-married couple.
32	* ICouldaBeenAContender: Yoshino brags that she was TheRival for Momoko during her geiko days. When Mother Azusa comments on it, she compares Yoshino to the person who managed to come last in the ''second'' marathon (after Momoko won the first) and being a lousy geiko in general.
33	* JobTitle: The Makanai in the title refers to the live-in chef of a maiko house, a position the protagonist takes up in the second episode. A lot of focus is given to the meals she prepares for the residents.
34	* {{Meganekko}}: Tsurukoma is wearing a pair of old-fashion glasses that are just too big for her. When on duty, she has to [[TheGlassesGottaGo take them off]].
35	* MonoNoAware: One of Momoko's mottos is the saying "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichi-go_ichi-e ichi-go ichi-e]]", literally "one time, one meeting". No matter how many times she practices the same dance routine, each performance will end up different, and she says goodbye at the end of every dance. She's surprised when Kiyo displays a complementary philosophy to her cooking: so many factors might affect the dish no matter how familiar it is, and so she says hello before every meal preparation.
36	* ParentalAbandonment: Ryoko's father abandoned her and Mother Azusa, just to start a new family. In one of the episodes, Ryoko accidentally spots him in a crowd, now with a much younger wife and a pre-teen daughter, clearly dotting on them both.
37	* PluckyGirl: Kiyo, the teenage protagonist. In the second episode Sumire describes her as not particularly talented in school, but very determined to see things through.
38	* QuittingToGetMarried: Yoshino did this a few years ago per the custom, but shows up in the house, claiming she divorced her husband and should be allowed to come back. It turns out she simply ''left him'' without any paperwork or even a word exchanged, and he shows up to try to reconcile.
39	* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Even though Ryoko claims Mother Azusa to be an uncaring slavedriver, she cares deeply about the girls in her employ. Even though she knows she has to expel Kiyo, she's reluctant to do so and instantly hires her as makanai when it becomes apparent that she's a good fit for the position. In the third episode, when she suspects the maiko of hiding a cellphone, she prefaces her speech by saying she's not going to say anything strict and instead reminds them of the customs they uphold.
40	* RaisedByGrandparents: Kiyo was rised and living with her grandma prior to her departure to Kyoto. The narration is in form of {{Voiceover Letter}}s she sends to her grandma.
41	* ShoutOut: TheBartender encourages Tanabe to confess his feelings to Azusa by evoking the film ''Film/NottingHill''.
42	* SouthpawAdvantage: Inverted. Kiyo in the series is left-handed (she's right-handed in both manga and anime adaptation), which is a ''living hell'' when it comes to using Japanese cooking utensil. Against all odds she handles them with great expertise - which is part of what impresses everyone witnessing her cooking.
43	* SupremeChef: It's discussed that being a makanai is more complex than it seems because the maiko are from all over Japan, and the recipes must satisfy everyone. Kiyo's cooking, however, is praised by everyone who eats it, and her food prep in each episode is framed as FoodPorn. In the fourth episode, her cooking is enough to drive a grown man to tears.
44	* TalentedButTrained: Sumire takes quickly to the maiko training and customs, and is described as a generational talent. However, she still works very hard to hone this talent, even getting up early every day to practice her mai. Tsurukoma [[spoiler:realizes that she doesn't have the same passion as Sumire despite being senior, and decides to quit to find her real calling.]]
45	* TitleOfTheDead: Momoko puts together a Creator/GeorgeARomero-inspired performance with the maiko and titles it ''Maiko of the Living Dead''.
46	* TomboyWithAGirlyStreak: Ryoko absolutely loaths everything related with geiko, dresses like a boy, is brash and aloof, while almost always replying in a deadpan manner - ''sharply'' contrasting with the feminine maiko. She still dreams about becoming a KoreanDrama actress, meaning she enjoys watching them.
47	* VisualPun: In the second episode, Kiyo and Sumire literally walk down opposite roads at a crossroads to signify their diverging paths.
48	* WriterOnBoard: Creator/HirokazuKoreEda openly stated that his main desire to work on the series was to dispel all the misconceptions ''Film/MemoirsOfAGeisha'' (re)introduced into the pop-culture. Every episode has at least one scene dedicated entirely to some trivia regarding maiko and geiko, on top of being as a whole about their regular, day-to-day life.

Context Series / TheMakanaiCookingForTheMaikoHouse