"Madoromi Bartender" drama from 2019: Episode one recap

 

 Air Dates: July 14th until September 29, 2019 on BS Japan, TV-Tokyo and TV-Osaka for a total of twelve episodes

Subs were done by Gabriel F. at DA, shows are ~22 minutes in length

Theme song/intro for the drama

Main Cast: The three woman are housemates and all work as barmaids. None seem to have a last name and it doesn't really matter.

Arisa Yagi as Hiyoko.... Will hold off on her bio as through two episodes we haven't seen much of her nor the following character.

Hyunri as Kiho.... Barmaid at the exclusive Elysion Tokyo Hotel.

Mai Kiryuu as Yuki.... Owner of a 'pop up bar' named Satellite which she moves on a frequent basis and usually sets up shop in a park. Yuki's only been so-so successful with this unique bar and the main reason could be is because she moves the location so often. Prior to her own bar had worked as a barmaid at the same hotel as Kiho.

 Guest stars for this episode

Hazuki Shimizu as Saya Nanohara.... Freelance illustrator who is in her young twenties. She's been struggling with her work but was cheered up by two visits to Yuki's bar.

Kazuyuki Aijima as Torao Kendo.... Businessman about fifty in age and appears to be a hard boss to work for. He's quite knowledgeable about liquor but Yuki taught him a thing or two.

 

 Kind of an odd series for my next viewing but my top ones are late night shows that flew under the radar. Plus I don't know much about the three leads, did see Hyunri in the two seasons of 'Kimi to Sekai' but as far as the other two go know zilch and am looking forward to meeting new actresses. The subber Gabriel really loved this series and gave it a rating of 10/10, don't think I've ever rated a drama so high. This show won't be getting a ten from me but through two episodes have enjoyed the drama, would like to have three recaps for today but think there will just be two. EDIT: There will be three recaps for today, wrote this up two days ago.

 Though there's three lead characters in this drama we only saw the above pair for about two minutes in this first episode. Above is Kiho on the left and Hiyoko naturally is on the left, along with Yuki they work as barmaids and also share a house together. But those above two we learned so little about, figured the main focus would be on one of the three for each episode but that hasn't been the case as Yuki has been the main star in these first three shows. Let's get to her first episode happenings and as time goes on know the other two will be getting much screen time.

 Yuki owns a roving stall bar named Satellite, perhaps because she keeps changing the location? She appears to be about 25 in age and had worked prior to this stall bar at a hotel with her housemate Kiho.  We haven't learned about anyone's background such as why did Yuki leave her hotel bar job? Seems like a safer way to go for her and through two shows three people have made comments to Yuki about how does she expect to make a living with this very small stall bar? It only seats four at most and with her constantly moving around it means she can't attract regular customers. She may have had more but in these first two shows we've only seen three customers.

 The first was the woman above who is a freelance illustrator in her young twenties named Saya. It wasn't a cheerful day for her as some illustrations Saya had sent in were rejected by that company and she's perplexed on why as they were superb drawings, least to her they were. After getting that rejection message on her phone Saya stumbled across Yuki's very mini bar stall in a park. She thought it was a very odd place for a bar but didn't care as a drink is what Saya really needed at the moment. For only being 25 in age Yuki is truly a master at mixing and creating drinks. Saya was clueless on what to order but knew it had to be colorful. Yuki may be a master at mixing drinks but she does one major problem which others have commented on which is that she spends way too much time making them, what would happen if she had ten customers? But they are pieces of art and first off for Saya was a drink called Bartender, it was the first of a few colorful drinks she consumed.

 The next customer was a much more interesting one though Saya stuck around and did learn some things from the above man, in turn he learned some tricks from Yuki.. His name is Torao and he had first noticed the stall in the afternoon when dashing off to a meeting. He's a businessman and appears to be a hard person to work for, also a bit of a chauvinist as he had commented to himself 'what's a woman doing operating a bar?'. Many hours later it's evening time and Torao passed by once again, he needed a drink badly so decided to check Yuki's stall out even though it was run by a woman! Though Saya was still there don't think she had been drinking that whole time and was mainly keeping Yuki company.

 Torao is a hard man to please, not just in business but also when it comes to liquor as he considered himself to be an expert. Murasame was his drink of choice and you can see how it's made right above. But the way Yuki prepared it was different than what Torao was used to and he ordered her to prepare it again but in the old fashioned way. Which was how it was mixed and with one less ingredient, in a taste test Torao was shocked at how much better Yuki's new creation was and how could such a young woman know so much about liquor? In that Murasame drink unless it's shaken the sugar rises to the top and gives it too much of  a sweet taste, all these years Torao mused he had been drinking and making a less tasty version.

 There's also this unique flower called 'Queen of the Night', night because of that's when it blooms. The previous evening at 3:00 am Yuki had gone out to a friend's place to get the flower just as it bloomed. What you do is then put the flower in a bottle of Shochu which is a liquor in the Murasame drink, it's an original way to create it that was developed by Yuki. Torao was simply stunned and very impressed by Yuki's devotion to creating drinks and changed his mind about a woman operating a bar. Torao was so impressed with Yuki's drink the following evening he attempted to visit for another unique drink but to his disappointment the stall was gone, that happened during the closing credits which ended the episode.

 A show is just 22 minutes in length but that's enough time to tell a story or two, solid opening to this series. Have also viewed the second episode and it kind of reminds me of the 'Midnight Diner' drama which has had four(?) seasons. In that drama the diner is only opened during the night and most customers had problems which were solved just by telling them to the owner/chef. Yuki's customers also have many problems which they relate to her but it doesn't seem any have been solved by the end of an episode but granted have only watched two shows. Plenty more screenshots from this episode and after this is the recap for the second show.