You could watch season 2 without watching season 1, but I think season 2 may not be as good if you don't experience the connection that develops through season 1.
It follows the same formula as the first season. The story centers around a cafe/diner that is only open from midnight to until breakfast. Each episode focuses on the experiences of an individual patron and can be watched independently. However, the episodes in season 2 are slightly more connected than season 1 (just barely).
The mood is similar to season 1: melancholy and bittersweet.
Season 2 really feels like it may be the end of this drama, which kinda brought tears to my eyes.
It's quiet and reflective, so you have to be a person who likes that sort of thing and in the right mood to watch it.
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It's season 2 and even better
The acting and characterization of each character are even deeper and better. The transition between the different seasons is quite smooth. Some stories are even darker and also interesting.The main character, the Master is still the same as ever. Coming into season 2, I feel that I get to know his character much more. He is a very sympathetic person. Sometimes in the borderline between being too involved or just watching by the side. Both mostly he always listen to all his customer's problems.
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This review may contain spoilers
Well rounded, better food, more serious (deeper) social problems explored.
The continuation of Shinya Sukudo, Season 2 follows the Season 1 Midnight diner formula as an easy way to watch people interacting over food, except they seem to have increased the stakes as far as social commentary is concerned! The goal of this series is still make me cry every episode, and for the most part, it succeeded.This time around, we get the continuation of a gangster's story and how he went from potential baseball star to gangster just because he cost his high school team the national championships - they got disqualified because the manager went out on a date with him, got harrassed by gangsters so he got into a fight defending her. For this one action - his team is disqualified, he gets a record and basically ends up turning to crime for ONE small mistake. The show doesn't make you judge the unfairness of Japan's system, it just lays out the consequences. That was a sad way to begin the series.
From there we get the policeman's poor sister who is working herself to the bone to support her "scrub/moocher" boy friend who is trying to make it big in comedy. The struggling food store owner who bonds with a girl who HAD to work as a prostitute, to pay off her parents debts. What?? Are Japanese daughters this filial? Wow. There's a "ghost story" episode! A man who has walked out on his family with huge consequences on his daughter. The screenwriter adultery story AND someone who fell in love with a man accused of manslaughter. Then the saddest story of all.
This was the subtle mystery in season 1, when he kept on lining up peanut shells only to reveal a peanut abacus in the final episode. In season 2, he was lining up egg shells. I was WAITING to see what he would make, but alas. He had a girl in his past, got caught and tried to go back to the past. In one of the most moving scenes, Master tells him to give it up. Then the rest happens and well, tissues are in order. I enjoyed this just as much as season 1.
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The comfort food
The concept remains the same: a mysterious late night restaurant owner everyone calls Masters, behind his counter, either cooks or listens to his customers while smoking. Each episode is a complete story about a customer and those stories are all about daily life struggles: family, friends, relationships, work. There are some recurring characters who just sit there and give their opinions about the story being told.I love this type of series which manages through a simple short story to teach us universal lessons about love, friendship, honesty and sincerity. All through food, the feeling those dishes provoke, the memories they evoke, and the solutions they bring. The food is comfort, the dishes are home where the characters feel at ease and happy. When they have problems, that dish helps them focus and find a solution to move forward.
I love the unusual (for me!) music. Nice touch were those alley musicians telling the episode's story through song.
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This review may contain spoilers
To be honest, I wanted to watch this show/series because Odagiri Joe is in it and I had just finished watching "River’s Edge Okawabata Tanteisha" so I wanted to see more of him, and (again - honestly) I was in no way enticed by its popularity from Netflix, but I am so amazed by this magical show that really seems to have a life of its own; and season 2 of "Shinya Shokudo" is magic as well!I'm amazed by each character's story, the different personalities of everyone in this series are so honest, genuine, unique, and very relatable. Not to mention, each character carries over well, if not tens of times better, from the first season as well! The cast is soothing to watch; though nothing was too dramatic or scary, I was mesmerized by this show's amazing cast of talented individuals! Each moment was filled with suspense at "what would happen next" within the separate stories, and towards the end you gradually became to understand just how everything connects.
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Comfort series
It’s still a heart-warming series with a lot of good food and different bittersweet stories from different patrons at the midnight diner. I think the characters' backstories in the second season were much deeper than in the first season.Although I didn’t empathize with some patrons, I guess those types of people do exist in real life. I think ‘Master’ did a good job as a sincere listener and witness without interfering deeply into his patrons' personal issues. I think it would be nice if there were a midnight diner like that in real life. I would love to become a regular patron as well, even though I can't even drink.
I don’t remember clearly every patron’s story now, but Ryu-chan’s backstory in the first episode made me cry a lot. I also cried in a few other episodes. I’m also glad that I got to see most of the regular patrons from the first season. I loved those people very much.
It's a drama that I enjoyed watching slowly. I sometimes picked one or two episodes to watch before bed. I have to say I was surprised every time, about how the stories turned out. Wow. What is life? Even Odagiri Joe's character, who always had some iconic lines about life in a lot of episodes from the first season, became speechless for once in episode 9. I was also speechless in that case.
As I just mentioned about Odagiri Joe’s character, I felt so sorry for him, after seeing his backstory in the last episode. It was so bitter and painful to watch. I wanted to root for him, but I guess the other ending was pretty impossible in that case. His old life was already lost and he couldn’t just take it back. Once again, he took a lonely path for himself and left the diner again, without anyone noticing, just like in the first season…
Although I watched this series on Netflix, I never skipped the opening song and intro and the ending song in every episode. My heart felt so warm every time I heard the opening and ending song.
One more thing I love about this series is that the regular patrons always gathered at the diner in the last episode, and ‘Master’ cooked them a lot of fancy food, like they were celebrating a special event together.
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