See You Tomorrow at the Food Court – Episode 1

What’s it about? Wada looks like a straight-laced teacher’s pet, and Yamamoto’s classmates see her as a standoffish gyaru. But appearances can be deceiving: Wada is a mobile gamer who loves trash talking online, Yamamoto spends her time learning languages and thinking deeply about the universe, and the two of them are best friends who meet at the food court every day after school.

Food Court takes us truly back to basics for a “girls doing stuff” anime: no club setting, no central hobby or special interest, just girls hanging out and shootin’ the breeze. It’s a very minimalist comedy that relies on Wada and Yamamoto’s personalities and relationship dynamic to carry it. While I think this premiere is successful—it’s got everything I enjoyed about the original one-shot manga with some added color and flair—I feel like this definitely won’t be for everyone.

My usual caveat with slice-of-life shows is that while some viewers may find them relaxing, some may find them simply boring. That applies double here, since Food Court is literally just teen girls sitting around and chatting. There are some visual flourishes to break up the scenery (for example, the girls floating off into space when Yamamoto waxes poetic about the possibility of extraterrestrial life) but they are Just Sitting There for the entire episode. Personally, I found that the premiere went by in a flash, but I do wonder if the format can possibly stay fresh for a whole season. 

Again, your investment will rely on how much Wada and Yamamoto hook you. I think they’ve got potential: the “more than meets the eye” premise is fun, and their unlikely friendship and contrasting personalities allow the characters to bounce off each other in an entertaining way without it being too over-the-top. They seem self-aware about the stereotypes they embody and the expectations people have of them, and carry varying degrees of internal conflict about this. 

The girls are caught between playing into these archetypes to avoid trouble (which seems to be Wada’s strategy), or expressing themselves more freely at the risk of social consequences (e.g. Yamamoto’s dyed hair rendering her “unemployable” to many so-called respectable part-time jobs). Nothing super deep at this stage, but it’s cool to see the show address social stigmas about things like outdated beauty standards. 

Most importantly for the slice-of-life premise, it’s cool to see that there two have a space where they can goof around and be themselves—even if those selves are sometimes a bit odd or a bit “annoying” by traditional standards. Wada is a gamer gremlin who comes out of her good student shell to get into noxious fandom discourse about gacha characters; meanwhile Yamamoto slips into fascinated ramblings about cryptids and aliens. They don’t quite get the other’s special interests, but they rag on each other in an affectionate way that makes for good comedy and feels true to many friendships. Wada, I feel, will be a good source of goofy screencaps and relatable reaction images this season, and Yamamoto will vibe with anyone who’s had (or is still in the throes of) a cryptozoology phase. 

The things I want to flag are relatively minor. There’s a bit of storyboarding emphasis on Yamamoto’s bust, though not overt fan service. Wada jokes about being haunted by “a shady Indian guy” but it’s largely at the expense of the over-the-top curry advertisement in the mall rather than a racial joke. Wada also rags on some other women for their inane chatter about cooking and boyfriends, which skews towards “not like other girls”-ism but, honestly, felt pretty true to how teen girls bicker, complain, and grasp for self-importance. A joke about Yamamoto wanting to move to America also felt… a bit misplaced, but that’s the fault of, er, current events, not the show’s writing.

Food Court is a very chill time, grounded in mundane reality that might vibe with audiences or might bore them to tears. If it follows the manga directly, there’s no greater narrative that’s going to emerge, so ultimately, we’ll have to wait and see how this series sustains itself on its shopping mall vignettes. I’m definitely going to follow these kids and their shenanigans for a couple more episodes, but take a look and see how you go.