Recently, the Japanese drama ‘Alice in Wonderful Kitchen‘ has sparked plagiarism suspicions in connection with the Korean drama ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo.’
Local Japanese media, pointed out resemblances between the newly aired Japanese NTV drama ‘Alice in Wonderful Kitchen‘ and the concluded ENA drama ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo‘ from August 2022. They presented five pieces of evidence to back their claims.
‘Alice in Wonderful Kitchen‘ follows the story of a talented chef with autism who often says, “Cooking is chemistry,” navigating through life challenges, creating a heartwarming narrative. The cast includes Kadowaki Mugi, Nagase Ren, and Maeda Atsuko.
Shortly after the first episode aired, the said Japanese media highlighted similarities between the main character Alice (Kadowaki Mugi) in ‘Alice in Wonderful Kitchen’ and Woo Young Woo (Park Eun Bin) in ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo,’ both dealing with autism.
The character development of both Alice and Woo Young Woo is said to be alike. Both grew up with a ‘single father,’ and the close friends of the protagonists had troubled pasts but formed strong bonds by supporting them.
Additional evidence included both protagonists and their colleagues becoming romantic partners, and a character who knows the protagonist’s past being the daughter of a large company.
Quoting a broadcast official, the local Japanese media commented, “There is no doubt that NTV wanted to create the Japanese version of ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo,‘” suggesting that they might have thought they could borrow some elements without being noticed.
Upon hearing this news, local netizens shared reactions like “You’ll understand if you watch the drama yourself,” “It’s really similar, not just the profession,” and “It’s too identical.”
Meanwhile, ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo‘ achieved a peak viewership of 17.5% (based on Nielsen Korea nationwide paid households) and concluded on August 18, 2022.
The series gained popularity on Netflix globally, topping categories in both non-English and English languages, and also reached the top in Japanese Netflix.
The first episode of ‘Alice in Wonderful Kitchen‘ recorded an average household viewership rating of 6.2% (Video Research, Kanto region).
Source[1]
