Gimbap and Onigiri

nothingburger

For a show with food names+ food on the poster + a chef as the lead, this had too few cooking montages.

I went in kind of expecting a show about food, different culture and how ppl are different yet all the same, and this show did have the material for that. An animater fmc from korea who is living in japan and a chef mmc who was born and brought up in japan....the perfect ingredients to a dish that was never cooked.

The only cultural thing they touched was them having different expectations on how dating looks like, other than that they did not touch this topic at all.

Pretty much nothing happens in this show. We have one conflict which is quickly solved and then an abrupt ending.

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Left me speechless

Listen, this review will be heavily influenced by the ending. Major spoiler for ending at the end.

When i first watched this, i didn't have high expectations for the plot to be mind blowing or special cause of the title alone. It gives slice of life, simple and chill type of plot and so it was. I tuned in for Hyewon ofc.

I loved the warm aesthetics, pretty cinematography and the good chemistry between Taiga and Rin (they made me giggle of cuteness idc what anyone says). It was somewhat a healing show to me. The plot was light, predictable and easy to watch for me. Although, I lowkey didn't like that they jumped straight into a relationship because the potential to make it a cute fluff or a slow burn was there. I wish 'them starting to date', had more story/depth, but it was fine ig. Midway, the two characters started to become abit annoying but was still tolerable to me. Cultural differences, personality clashes which I wish they had more time to explore or resolve deeper.

It was not horrible but I stuck through cause i loved Rin and Taiga so much, idk a softer pair than these two. I personally adore Taiga's softness for Rin and how Rin gives Taiga confidence and brightness in his quite unsure, uncertain persona. Other good points of the drama that I loved, was how they changed each other from being stuck in a rut or being depressed about life, it was cute to see them motivate each other and slowly become more confident in their own dreams.

But then, the final episode came. It was the worst ending i've ever experienced. I've watched a gazillion of shows btw. I hated it not because of the sad ending. At least not entirely. But it was soooo abrupt i was taken aback. After all the happy ending baiting, of course i'd expect a happy ending. But they just hit me with a 40 second scene (which is extremely vague) that they broke up and that's the end??? Not a single explanation whatsoever. I'm upset and angry at the writer for ruining this show for me LOL. It left such a bitter feeling in me. I feel like some explanation of what happened would've made me less bitter but nah here's 'they broke up at last and a black screen'. It felt so anti climatic sigh. It feels like i wasted my time i don't know how to process the ending i wanna cry.

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When a Max-Level P2W Player Rage-Quits Over a Lv.2 Slime: The Absurdity of the Forced Separation

Just finished the finale, and I am left with nothing but question marks and utter frustration. I have to break down the underlying logic of this show. Is this supposed to be a "realistic romance," or did the writer just forcefully pull the plug on the female lead’s internet connection?
Let's treat this drama as an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game). The sheer comedy of the setup immediately becomes apparent:
1. The FL's Build: A Pure "Pay-to-Win (P2W)" Max-Level Account
What kind of starting stats does our Female Lead (FL) have?
Perk: Korean passport (built-in "visa-free/low-barrier" cross-server teleportation privilege to Japan).
Inventory (Endgame Gear): A wealthy mom acting as her safety net (ready to drop gold coins to renew her VIP status at any time—sure, she's controlling, but the funds are real); two years of playing on the "Japan Server" (Language skill at least Lv.5, map proficiency maxed out).
Early Main Quest: The FL finds a highly compatible co-op teammate (the ML) in the beginner village (the convenience store/izakaya). They grind levels together, build affinity, and the screen is full of romantic pink bubbles.
2. Big Words vs. Instant Rage-Quit
Here comes the funniest contrast. In the first half, the writer desperately builds up the FL as a fiercely "independent woman." She talks big to her best friend and defies her mom, expressing an intense desire to stay on the Japan server. She acts like she’s about to solo the final boss.
But then, the main quest presents a boss named "Securing a Visa/Job in Japan."
Anyone with common sense in the international student community knows that with the FL's stats, this is literally a Lv.2 Beginner Village Slime!
Failed interviews at top-tier corporate guilds? No problem! Just ask Mom for some gold to buy a "Revive Token"—enroll in grad school or a vocational school to extend the student visa for another year. There are a million legal ways to stay.
As long as she doesn't want to log off, for a player with her build, it’s just a matter of spending some gold to change classes.
3. The Foil Character's Reality Check: Noa is the Real Hardcore Solo Player
What's worse, the writer deliberately set up a foil character—Noa, the regular customer.
What’s Noa's build? A toxic, blood-sucking family (a massive debuff that lowers her max HP), and she just went through a bad breakup. Yet, she relies entirely on herself to grind gold, forces a cross-server transfer to the notoriously expensive NA/EU server, and solos a Lv.50 Epic Boss!
Compared to Noa, a "Free-to-Play Hardcore Gamer," the FL's excuse of "I can't find a job so I have to go back to Korea" instantly shifts from a "heartbreaking compromise with reality" to the behavior of a low-skill giant baby who's bad at the game but loves to play.
4. What is the Teammate (ML) Doing? Spamming Emotes on the Sidelines!
Facing this Lv.2 Slime, the FL's Sanity drops to zero. She cries, "Reality is too cruel, my sword can't break its defense, I have to delete my character and go back to my Korean hometown!"
And the ML, her co-op partner?
Not only does he fail to cast any buffs (like offering financial support or helping her find a backup job), he doesn't even dare to use the ultimate cheat code: "Let's get married so you get a spouse visa."
He just stands outside the boss room, watching his fully-geared FL get one-sidedly beaten by a Lv.2 Slime, while frantically spamming sad emotes: "Ah, this boss is truly too strong. I guess we can't cross the chasm of reality. This is our 'last' time partying up. I'll miss you."
Conclusion:
This isn't "a mature view of romance," nor is it "a helpless compromise with reality."
These are simply two players who lack the resolve to go All-In, and a FL with terrible survival skills. After weighing the pros and cons, the moment they faced a tiny bit of resistance, they took the easy way out.
To forcefully manufacture a so-called "high-art bittersweet ending" where "both shine brightly in their own countries," the writer hard-coded a script error, forcing a max-level FL to be killed by a Lv.2 Slime in a blatant forced scripted death!
That tear-jerking airport scene, full of beautiful promises but zero willingness to solve a simple practical visa issue together, can only be described in one word: Cringe.
If this drama were titled Diary of an Uncommitted Rage-Quitter, I’d give it a 10/10.

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Interesting but a little let down by the finale

Gimbap and Onigiri is quietly beautiful in the way it captures emotion through subtlety rather than spectacle. What I loved most is how the series makes everyday moments feel meaningful the pauses, the small gestures, the unspoken glances. There’s a gentle, almost meditative rhythm that allows feelings to unfold naturally, which makes the experience feel intimate and real.

The performances are particularly compelling. The leads carry a sense of authenticity that makes their emotions feel lived in, not performed. Even supporting characters feel layered, adding to the sense that everyone on screen is quietly navigating their own struggles. The visual style reinforces this softness: muted cityscapes, warm interiors, and cozy dining scenes all contribute to a contemplative, reflective mood.

I appreciated how the series explores connection in a patient, understated way. It reminded me of how relationships romantic or otherwise often develop in small, tentative steps rather than sweeping gestures. The pacing is deliberately slow, which might feel unusual if you’re expecting high drama, but it works beautifully for those who enjoy immersive, emotionally honest storytelling.

My only minor quibble is that the ending felt a little rushed compared to the care taken throughout the series. Still, the choice to keep it open-ended feels consistent with its quiet, human tone. Overall, this show is less about dramatic plot twists and more about recognizing the universal nuances of longing, vulnerability, and connection. It’s the kind of series that leaves a lingering warmth, making you reflect on your own moments of closeness and hesitation in everyday life.

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Good start but bad oh so bad

It stared out all fun and interesting, a nice little window int japan meets Korea, food, insecurity, starting over there was so much potential to both the couple and the theme but then it took a turn that made the female lead copleatly toxic in a way that did not even have entertainment value. What made it even worse was that both the male lead and secound male lead kept buying in to her delusional world making me yet again role my eyes so many times that I wished I had dropped it or even better never started.

That said the chef and one of the side characters is pretty ice and the cooking was inspiring. .

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Strong Premise But Plays Very Safe

I really, *really* wanted to love this. It doesn't really pick up until Episode 8. The finale felt somewhat rushed or lazy. This is a cross cultural series that should work: gorgeous couple, strong supporting cast, award winning ML, and Korean FL with impressively learned  Japanese. All the right ingredients are there. It just feels built around safety. Maybe you will feel differently. There's a lot of box ticking going on, well worn tropes galore.
Akaso feels underused and very mature for this role. He works hard. If you’ve seen him in the film 366 Days, you know how compelling he can be. Here, it feels like a bankable name was chosen over best fit. Kang did her best with a one dimensional character that is melodramatic and constantly needy, and little nuance to explore.
Pacing and potential is the biggest issue. It probably would have been a great binge series, but drags as a weekly. The story arc  moves in slow circles. With sharper timing, fewer clichés and more creative courage, this could have been genuinely compelling. I watched to the end, but disappointed with the sluggish pace and characterisation.
The other thing that annoyed me, most of the key actors are playing almost a decade below their actual age and so there's several instances of super soft focus. If they hired age appropriate actors, instead of well known stars with guaranteed "bankability", this show might have been amazing for many reasons.

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Good potential but mixed execution

To sum up, this drama felt like someone had a pretty good idea but didn't completely know how to execute it.

Surprisingly, I actually really disliked the first episode. It was full of cliches that made me think "oh the whole drama's gonna be like this," and it was hard to read the actors' emotions. At certain points it felt like Taiga hated her lmao! But the 2nd episode immediately picked it back up, it was great. Every episode after that was considerably interesting until the last one.

The last one the drama treats her returning to Korea as if she's moving across the world. Korea is quite literally a 2 hour flight from Japan AND in the same time zone. The distance was completely manageable in my opinion. There are domestic US flights that take twice, three times as long, and are much more annoying to deal with. Traveling to and from airports in Japan are definitely not as intense as traveling to US ones. But for obvious reasons, they really punched this up. Very tearful goodbyes, almost depressing moments between the characters, as if Rin was never gonna be seen again. To be fair, LDRs are not for everyone, and them transitioning from being able to see each other so often to suddenly being unable to is a significant change. But this distance was completely doable imo.

What I did like was some of the external plot writing, more specifically things that happened to the characters, not necessarily because of the characters' actions. They both strive very hard to soul search and find their paths. This was amazing. These characters aren't 18, they were full-on adults in their 20's, Taiga was even 27 (I believe). As someone of similar age, I'm touched that many people my age are still lost like me. Even if you don't relate to that, seeing the characters feeling so lost and trying very hard to find what they want to do, is very endearing. These characters' successes and happy endings don't get handed to them; Rin fails to find a job in Japan (in order to stay longer) and doesn't even get hired at an animation studio, but gets hired at a korean advertising company. Taiga was much luckier in his endeavors, he applies to a culinary program, gets in, and eventually gets his dietician license, and is working at a company he wants to work at.

I did find it strange he still wanted to do something related to athletes considering his trauma. It feels akin to cooking for your ab*ser or something LOL. But maybe they tried to mean it in a way like "he still gets to fulfil his love for sports" or something, but I didn't sense that. Why don't you just make him a regular cook? He quite literally showed no other signs of caring about nutrition or diet the entire series. A regular cook is commendable. He should have ended up opening his own restaurant or taking over Tanomi (which they hinted at, destroyed the chance, then revived it). Although that's predictable, I feel it still would have been satisfying to see as an audience member. Seeing him go from being so hurt and unsure of himself, to running his own place where many people enjoy his food would be amazing. Another thing I wish happened was that at least one person thought his food was bad, every character loved his food. I think he would have improved as a chef and as a person if he actually met people that didn't think his food would good; it would push him to study food properly and learn how to directly improve it. It would also teach him how to deal with adversity; which was a major theme in his backstory to begin with. Almost everyone around him told him he wasn't gonna make it anywhere; but every person loved his food. He never had an initial passion for food, it felt like he settled for it. But now, it's his career. Mixed messages lmao.

As for Rin, I am a little saddened seeing her fail at her goal. The thing is, I actually was going through the same thing she was going through. I graduated from an animation college, and felt very lost on what path I should choose, and I am technically still in that stage. Seeing Rin try and try and try only to not really end up where she wants to be is a bit saddening. While Taiga succeeded, it teaches us that Rin was doomed to never succeed. It's really bad news after bad news, then she gets a mediocre job offer that she's not particularly passionate about but goes for anyway. For Rin, it just feels a little too...tragic. Is the message artists don't succeed? Rin doesn't even look happy in Korea 😭. I didn't want her to succeed just because I related to her, but because I saw her trying so damn hard and getting so depressed at failing. She deserved at least one glimmer of success, it would have showed us that "you'll get somewhere if you try hard enough." But instead, it taught us "some people just aren't meant to succeed." She had a successful classmate, but that sub plot didn't go anywhere. It really felt like the writers didn't want to be typical, but the alternate route they chose was worse anyway LMAO.

I LOVE the sub plot with Noa and her worthless boyfriend. I was waiting for the fallout every episode. Then we got it, and it wasn't really...satisfying. Noa pulls the plug (which is awesome) but it wasn't a build up, it was more like "this is the straw that broke the camel's back," its not the years of her bf using her for money and gambling, not caring about her, etc etc. She clearly wasn't happy, but she stayed with him. Why wasn't the fallout more emotional? I wanted her to get angry and throw hands. He's a guy that's been asking for hundreds of dollars, maybe weekly, and kind of forgets about the relationship part. When he does get money, he does show some sweetness to her, but the truth gets revealed and it all crumbles. I love Noa as a character, she was awesome. Her career path felt a little shoehorned though. She didn't show much interest in traveling before (just one line of dialogue at episode 5 or something), and starts to change her life after 2 separate experiences. It just feels a little...forced.

AND THEN, THE ENDING.
I didn't think they would throw us a twist at the end, because this entire series was really about them working through their cultural differences, and there's a montage at the end of them dealing with being long distance, making trips to each other. It's actually very sweet, and doesn't feel sad at all. They almost needed this distance to be themselves and go on with their own lives. And then the twist. We find out they've broke up. No reason or context is given, but that they're both still happy and remain to have an appreciation for the food and culture they've shared between each other.

Oh...okay?!? Are we...supposed to feel sad? Happy? I'm confused! What's the point? Life moves on? People from different cultures can't be together? LMAO. You can't give us a drama where a couple gets over EVERY hurdle, forms a seemingly unbreakable strong bond (they're literally crying leaving each other at the airport, constantly thinking about each other during the breakup) only to permanently break them up and say theyre happy anyway?!

In the montage they showed their relationship looked strong. There was maybe ONE indication the distance wasn't working (Taiga not reading messages yet) but they kept showing them swapping pictures and stuff. She visits him, and I believe they were even together for 2 years?! At some point one of em's gonna run to the other and propose. But no. They weren't as special to each other after all. The montage shows no solid indication their relationship was going bad, and I'm assuming that's on purpose because then it'd hint at the ending.

The best theory I can assume is they were going for a "life goes on" type of ending. But that theme was never present in the rest of the story. The entire point of the show was to overcome cultural differences, and THEY DID, but don't end up together anyway. It really feels like they wanted to use the premise but really wanted to veer off being unpredictable, but to the point it kind of made it a worse story.

The conflicts the writers used was misunderstandings--maybe once did a character explain "in my culture this is bad." They made up by saying they'll try to understand each other, but where are those moments? Where are those moments they ask about each others' cultures related to dating. The misunderstandings also seem to originate with Rin; both times it was her that became upset with Taiga, and Taiga being kind of oblivious why until there's a fallout and she leaves. It paints her as overly emotional and thick-headed. Yes she's young, but she never tried to explain or try to understand Taiga. She just jumped to conclusions. While I actually genuinely appreciate her shutting the door/not being afraid to voice her thoughts to her partner, the writing made the conflicts a little one-dimensional, and Rin just kind of wearing the pants in the relationship. I like Rin as a character, it's refreshing to have an outspoken female character that's so herself, but why did they write her like she wasn't capable to considering Taiga's side?

TLDR
Anyway! This is an okay drama, great potential, but the writing dropped the ball. There are a handful of refreshing developments and characters (they actually do feel quite real like real Japanese and Korean adults), but the overall writing for the romance could have been improved. I wish they had more input from a Korean perspective, they are much more open about dating, while Japanese people aren't. I wanted to see Taiga dealing with the little things, not just the medium things (yes medium). I won't lie, there are times I cried, both tears of sadness and of joy. It wasn't horrible, but I wish this was better. Does feel more dynamic than most dramas just regarding the writing. There are so many I've seen I've stopped watching because they were cliche or unrealistic, but this one was very refreshing. It did feel different. The writers just needed a bit longer for the idea to ruminate. If anything, watch the first 3 episodes and decide how you feel.

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Pointless story…

I never felt so angry watching a drama before and this definitely hits the marks in all things bad. I was actually excited when Eiji Akaso had a new drama because I really like his performance in Inheritance Detective. But the plot in this show is absolutely waste of my time as there were no depth at all. It tries to show how different culture can come into conflict in a relationship but it was cleared very quickly. Most of the time it was lovey dovey between the couple. And given how they were really loving throughout, it’s hard to imagine they break up in the end because of long distance.

Most of the growth in this show also doesn’t make sense too as I don’t see how the two lead became better persons through their relationship. It felt really forced. It also doesn’t make sense that Noa put up with his bf for so long too when he is such a shit of a person. It also doesn’t help that the FL is annoying as hell because she is quite selfish plus her acting was stale making it so hard to watch her. Eiji performance was also hampered because his character is also kinda flat.

Overall the best thing is probably the music and ost. There’s nothing redeemable about this show and a waste of cast from both countries.

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A Beautiful Story That Deserved a Better Ending

I think it was a really well-made series. The chemistry between the characters felt very natural, and the emotional moments between them were portrayed in a beautiful and subtle way. The story slowly builds their connection, and that made it very engaging to watch. I really enjoyed the small interactions and the way the series focused on feelings rather then just dramatic events.

However, the ending disappointed me a lot. It felt unfinished, almost like the story suddenly stopped instead of reaching a real conclusion. After all the buildup between the characters, I was hoping to see them finally come together and spend more time as a couple. Seeing more moments of them actually being together would have made the ending much more satisfying.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable and touching series with great chemistry between the leads. I just wish the ending had given the story a proper conclusion instead of leaving it feeling incomplete.

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