Midnight Diner is a familiar franchise, and for good reason: its unique format of a tight-lipped izakaya proprietor who welcomes roving, melancholic souls into his nocturnal establishment has become an unlikely hit, with five seasons, two feature films, and Korean and Chinese remakes completed to date.
Seeking to replicate this success is
Izakaya Bottakuri, aired in 2018 by Japanese broadcaster BS12 and only recently made available on Netflix within Southeast Asia. There are many similarities with
Midnight Diner: based on a manga of the same name, the show centres around a homely izakaya where a regular host of characters from the neighbourhood stop by for dinner and a dose of community cue the requisite hijinks, tantalising shots of Japanese cuisine, and comically exaggerated proclamations of