Haru to Ao no Obento Bako (2020)

Lovely story about self-love and friendship

I started watching this drama cause a friend of mine said the female lead Haru-chan reminded him of me.
After watching I can tell where he's coming from, but I can assure you I am quite different from her.

Enough about personal matters. :D This is a good in between watch if you need something lighthearted and maybe want to learn some nice receipes for Japanese bento. But most importantly this is a story about self-love and accepting other lifestyles aswell as accepting oneself.

Despite the typical Japanese overacting "Oishiiii" and the short episodes (about 20 min. long) this drama manages to make you feel the actions of and relationships between the characters are portrayed in an authentic way. I am always amazed at how quick some Japanese drama suck you right into the story and give you a warm fuzzy family vibe.

As their friendship progresses, and Haru and Ao learn more about each other, they also help each other to love themselves more. While both of them feel pressure of how their way of living differs from what's "normal", they constantly reassure each other that they are okay the way they are. I would tag the content LGBTQ+ although the focus isn't put on this issue too much.

Since this is a short drama I won't go more into detail, I just want to tell you the final message:

"Any colour is fine as long as we are living together happily. It's okay that there are many colours. That makes it more exciting somehow."

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