It's sometimes easy to forget, as an American, that the different regions in Japan are comparable to different states for all the differences you might find between them. Then I remember that my own state could fit the entirety of Japan inside it's borders and I'm conflicted again on exactly how much a small change in geography can affect culture. I know people see LA and San Francisco as practically different planets despite both being California, but it's hard to imagine Sacramento and Folsom being treated much differently from each other. Yet on another weird level I get it. I totally get the disdain for beinglumped in with a larger city just because it's close by. In general if I tell people I'm from California they assume one of the population centers, and I have a similar reaction to the people in this show who didn't want to be associated with Tokyo. The more I think about it the more I realize that these tiny cultural differences that can be so specific as to be not just a country a state or even a single town, are just another way that all human life manages to be identical in it's uniqueness. We crave the sense of community that comes with belonging somewhere, identifying with foods or activities that can only be found right where we live, yet we're also constantly being thrown into situations where we want to fit in even if it means giving up some of that unique identity. Kind of like when you're watching a show with hyper specific references to a particular region of Japan when you've never lived there yourself, you end up trying to learn as much about it as you can so you can attempt to blend in with the locals. Like, yeah I got all those jokes. Nagoya, am I right?

There are jokes that you can appreciate without having to know anything about Nagoya before-hand, but for the most part this is like going to open mic night at a local bar and listening to one guy's hyper specific standup routine that he's basically just delivering to the one or two other people in the audience that he came with. Nothing but in-jokes that will leave everyone else wondering what the heck they're watching.

7/10