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every week, Netflix drops a list of the top 10 movies and TV shows dominating the platform. while No one saw us leave One of the most popular shows globally this week is the Japanese romantic drama series Romantics Anonymous. If you’re looking for an antidote to the harsh realities of the world, this is it.
The Unknown Romantics is based on the 2010 French film by Jean-Pierre Améris. It has been made into an eight-episode series about two people with social anxieties who, when together, are able to block out the issues that consume them.
In the series, Han Hyo Joo plays Lee Hana, a brilliant chef who becomes known as the Anonymous Chocolatier. She makes her wonderful desserts at home and slyly delivers them to a famous dessert shop called Le Sauveur without letting anyone see them. Hanaa is unable to make eye contact with others, which is a side effect of the grief she experiences after losing her mother. The only person in her life who knows this about her is Kenji, the owner of Le Sauveur, who is also Hana’s mentor.
After Kenji’s death, Fujiwara Sousuke (Shun Oguri) takes charge of Le Sauveur. Sousuke is the heir to a huge candy company, and while he respects the work that Le Sauveur does, he is also an entrepreneur. His first order of business is to fire this unknown chocolatier.
Sousuke also suffers from some deep trauma caused by a death he believes he caused when he was a child, and thus refuses to make physical contact with anyone. It affects his daily life, causing a lack of close personal relationships. When Hana meets Sousuke for the first time, she is clumsily, literally, pushed into his arms and the two experience a moment of fate, or luck, if you will. They realize that in the presence of each other, all their social phobias fade away. They are immune to each other.
This moment is a bit of magical realism, but that initial spark they feel when they touch and make eye contact — the two things that terrify them the most — is also what every great love story is built on. A connection between two people who feel changed and energized when they are together.
The show never shies away from or downplays their consuming concerns. Hana and Sousuke are fully aware of the work they need to do to overcome their pain. They often suffer from the idea that they are preventing themselves from living a normal life. However, the mutual connection they feel allows them to tune it all out.
The show invites some obstacles along the path to happiness. Hana has a crush on the gorgeous bartender, Hiro, whom she only admires from a distance (and as it turns out, he and Sousuke are good friends). Additionally, as co-workers, things get complicated because, early on, Hannah does not reveal that she is the anonymous chocolatier.
Although the two main characters have their fears, the show itself is a beacon of gentle calm as they realize what life could be like if they could quiet their minds. It also helps that there are several exciting, but also meditative, scenes of Hannah making her chocolate creations, manipulating the melted chocolate, shaping it, and wrapping these little jewels perfect for delivery.
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As with most non-English shows, this one is best watched in Japanese with subtitles. I say this after only watching trailer in english, Which almost presents the show as a goofy rom-com. The series is a comedy in the same sense that The Bear is a comedy: the humor is there, but that’s not the point.
The show takes its time building the relationship between Hana and Sousuke, while also creating an entire world around them as they navigate each other’s professional and personal lives. Even with this deliberate pace, it’s easy, satisfying weekend fun.