Reaching sweet paradise! note
Kantaro: the Sweet Tooth Salaryman (さぼリーマン甘太朗 Saboriman Kantarou) is a live-action adaption of a manga of the same name done by Netflix and TV Tokyo.
It stars a man by the name of Kantaro Ametani, who does sales for a publishing company. At work, he is seen as cool and collected, a master salesman who is very serious and dedicated to his work. However, what they don't know is that Kantaro spends his time in between sales visits to go to restaurants and indulge in sweets, which he writes about in the popular blog "Ameblo" under the name "Sweets Knight". His double-life as a sweets blogger must be kept under wraps, or else he could risk losing his job, and thus his access to sweets.
This show provides examples of:
- Advertised Extra: Taiyaki features in the opening and a lot of the advertisement materials, but does not have its own episode dedicated to it.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Happens occasionally, with Kantaro looking at the camera.
- Catchphrase: "Only sweet heaven knows"! Usually said at the end of each episode.
- Consummate Professional: Even though his sole motivation of his line of work is to play hooky and eat sweets during work hours, that doesn't stop him from actually doing his job as well. The only thing keeping him from being a Bunny-Ears Lawyer is that he makes sure none of his co-workers even know about his sweets habit, yet he still manages to be one of the best salesmen at his company, using the chance to reward himself with some sweets as an excuse to do his job as efficiently as possible to create the spare time to do so.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Kantaro expression when he's able to win his Superior's son's heart with Ohagi in episode 8. His expression, his gesture with "This secret is just between us" and how he manages to take the kid "virginity taste" for tasting the ambiguity of adult flavor tells it all.
- Fantasy Sequence: Any time Kantaro eats sweets, he seems to be taken to an alternate universe, usually involving the ingredients of the food in question talking to him.
- Freudian Excuse: His mother is a Dentist who strictly forbade all sweets consumption, which has led to Kantaro growing up treating sweets like an illicit drug, which enhances his enjoyment of them.
- Food Porn: All sweets are lovingly portrayed throughout their preparation shown and described in detail. Often Kantaro seems like he really is turned on by all this.
- Non-Human Head: Oftentimes appears in the fantasy sequences mentioned above. Kantaro, his coworkers, and sometimes the chef appear with food for heads.
- Product Placement: All the places Kantaro goes to to eat sweets are real restaurants in Japan, and the dishes he orders are real menu items, although some of them are seasonal offerings so one might not be able to get exactly what Kantaro gets at any time.
- Salary Man: Kantaro himself, as well as many of his colleagues.
- Shout-Out: The giant Kanten block in the third Fantasy Sequence of Episode 3 transforms very much like Ramiel from Rebuild of Evangelion.
- Sweet Tooth: Kantaro definitely fits the bill. Eating sweets brings him into a state of ecstasy. He quits his job as a computer programmer and becomes a traveling salseman solely in a plot to get a chance to eat sweets during work days as well as during his time off.
- "Is this the end of the trope page? Only sweet heaven knows!"
