Spring 2021 First Impressions – Kiyo in Kyoto: From the Maiko House

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Story Summary: Kiyo and Sumire traveled to Kyoto after middle school to train as maiko, but Kiyo’s clumsiness meant that she wasn’t fit for the kind of graceful comportment required of the job. However, her talent for cooking has allowed her to stay on as the Maiko House’s live-in chef, where she still gets to support her friend Sumire as she furthers her training. Sumire’s talent and work ethic have caused people to start chattering – she may have the skills to become a once-a-century maiko. But Sumire’s work ethic has a downside – she’s been so busy with errands and practicing for her maiko debut that she hasn’t been eating well. Perhaps Kiyo’s squid mince, a dish from their days as natives of Aomori prefecture, will give Sumire the energy to keep up with her incredible drive to succeed.

Impressions: I think this was technically a Winter 2021 series (the first episode came out in late February), but it’s got a really odd release schedule and I didn’t notice it had appeared until very recently, so…

Anyway, as an anime fan, I’m personally drawn to series that are hyper-focused on Japanese culture, especially food culture. As someone who enjoys cooking and has the luxury of living in an urban area close to several places where I can buy Asian ingredients, I enjoy recreating my favorite foods from anime. Some of my favorite recent examples of this genre have been Restaurant to Another World (season 2 hype!) and Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family, which currently stands as the only entry in the vast Fate franchise I’ve been able to get into. Pretty images of delicious food is just kind of my thing. Another of my interests is Japanese culture in general, though; it was something I was interested in as a small child before I even knew what anime was, thanks to the Sesame Street “Big Bird in Japan” special that I saw when I was a teeny kid. The tradition and culture around maiko and geiko have especially fascinated me, primarily because it’s such a specific art form for which I can think of very few international equivalents. Additionally, since I’m also into Japanese kawaii fashion styles, the kimono that the maiko and geiko wear, especially all the different layers, really fascinate me. It’s like someone called me up and decided to make Kiyo in Kyoto just for me.

Well, not really, but I did enjoy the first episode quite a bit. The episode is broken up into three smaller parts, each with a focus on a specific dish (or a food concept, at least) and a particular aspect of maiko life. We learn about pudding (and how the Japanese interpretation of pudding differs somewhat from that in the West), “stamina foods,” which are, as you might expect, foods that pack a lot of energy-giving nutrients, and the aforementioned squid mince, which sounds like something I really want to go make now (I’m eating low-carb currently, but I could probably make an exception for the flour in what amounts to a fried squid and veggie fritter). It’s a low-key peek into what cooking for others can be like, and a window into the daily lives of maiko, which I find fascinating.

One other interesting point that this episode introduces has to do with hard work and sacrifice. Sumire is praised for her skill and the work ethic required to achieve it, but this attitude has a darker side. In the third part we see her skipping meals simply because she’s made herself so busy with practice and errands and such that she doesn’t have time to stop and eat. Speaking as someone with the penchant for hyper-focus, this hits close to home; if I’m really involved in a task I sometimes forget to eat lunch and then suffer the consequences for it later (headaches, bad mood, just being, you know, hungry). One of the older sisters mentions Sumire’s unintended weight loss, so this clearly isn’t a new issue for her. While the matter is addressed indirectly here – Kiyo vows to cook foods that are quick and filling so that Sumire doesn’t feel like she needs to skip eating to get everything done – it would be even better if the story got to the root of the problem and took some measurable stance on the topic of overwork. I’m not exactly sure that this is really the type of anime series and story that’s likely to do that, however.

Pros: What’s this? CG animation that does a good job of retaining the charms of 2D animation? It actually took me a hot minute to identify that the character animation in this series is mostly CG, because it manages to avoid many of the pitfalls that trip up so many other series incorporating this technology. It avoids hard cell-shading and seems to use hand drawn correction in order to ensure that facial expressions look “correct,” so the animation retains the appeal of the character designs and the softness of the rest of the visual presentation. The background art is also very rich and lends a sense of historical atmosphere to the area in which the story takes place.

I also like that this seems to be a story of friends being supportive rather than envious. Other characters seems surprised that Kiyo doesn’t appear to harbor any hard feelings toward Sumire, since they both came to Kyoto with the same goal but with a vastly different skill set from one-another. It’s nice that Kiyo seems to be fully supportive of her friend and is able to fill a crucial role at Maiko House. I’m curious whether this particular point will show up again at all, and whether Kiyo’s attitude is truly so unabashedly positive, but I suppose time will tell.

Cons: This show seems very specifically-focused and very low-key, which I know can probably read as boring to most viewers. I personally don’t find it boring, but for those folks who aren’t in the mood to learn about very specific Japanese cultural art forms I don’t think this would be very appealing.

Content Warnings: Disordered eating (unclear if inadvertent or otherwise).

Would I Watch More? – This was a very cute opening episode, and with such a chill release schedule (one episode a month, released on the fourth Thursday), it should be pretty easy to keep up with.