Meet Wada, who gives off an unapproachable vibe, and Yamamoto, who strikes fear into those around her because of her looks. Though the two girls attend separate high schools, they meet up at a shopping center’s food court almost every day. Take a little peek at the laid-back afternoons Wada and Yamamoto share as they reflect on the ups and downs of high school life together.

Food Court rarely shows locations outside the vicinity of the titular food court at the AEON Mall in Natori, a suburb of Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture. The level of reproduction is incredibly high, including genuine and unaltered brand placement for AEON, KFC, Baskin Robbins, Village Vanguard, Doutor, Dipper Dan, the Namco arcade (an easy ‘coincidence’ considering Kadokawa’s stake in Bamco), and the rest of the food court. A few promotional materials can be found in the mall, including some standees and promotional material for the manga and anime at Village Vanguard and another bookstore.

When exploring this mall in Google Earth, I was struck by how well-considered the land use was despite how much space is dedicated to surface parking. Particularly within the narrative, it’s noteworthy that our core cast arrives and leaves from a walkable train station from which the mall is right across a pedestrian bridge. The other side of the south-facing parking lot is all farms. This is right at the edge of town, and yet there’s a great multi-modal station here. Truly the perfect place to hang out after school.