Life is easy to get lost inside. The aspirations in our youth and the path we choose don’t always go hand in hand. And while walking those paths, it can be easy to lose sight of where we started.

The Japanese BL Naked Dining takes salaryman Ichijo Futo (Kondo Shori) back to his hometown to recapture moments lost with his grandmother. There, he falls in love with childhood friend and fruit stand worker Miki Mahiro (Yutaro) while realizing how much his busy life has changed him.

Naked Dining is a nostalgic story about recapturing the past and embracing who you are. It’s a poignant tale about a man who travels the world with his deceased grandmother by making the international foods in her food journal she could not finish creating—all with the help of a man who has been in love with him for years.

While Naked Dining did drag at times, becoming monotonous in its slow burn back and forth, the literal and figurative stripping oneself bare that the show does is beautiful, enlightening, and inspirational.

We all have ways of shaking off life or decompressing from the overwhelming pressures surrounding us. For Ichijo, dining naked is a freeing experience that allows him to enjoy the foods he eats while at his most vulnerable.

And that’s the entire theme of the series. Freedom. Connection. Being.

All while falling in love.

There isn’t much to write about Naked Dining in the action sense, but there is a lot of feeling behind every scene, every food eaten, and every emotional realization that Ichijo experiences.

For twelve episodes Ichijo, along with Mahiro, keeps a promise to Ichijo’s grandmother. All while falling in love with each other as Ichijo recaptures his dream of connecting Japan with the world.

Naked Dining felt like a vivid, breathtaking, romantic travel food vlog that entices viewers to visit Japan while also experiencing the rest of the world through Japan.

And it concludes with Ichijo and Mahiro stripping naked before sharing the final menu from the food journal that brought them back together.

For a drama full of nostalgic warmth that encourages its viewers to strip themselves bare figuratively, check out Naked Dining now on Gagaoolala.

Rating- 3.5 out of 5