“Tokyo Crush,” a pioneering France-Japan comedy romance, won the Series Mania Forum Best Project Award, awarded for best title at the French TV festival’s hugely popular Co-Pro Pitching Sessions.

One of Series Mania’s industry centerpieces, the Pitching Sessions saw 15 projects presented to an industry audience on Tuesday at Series Mania in Lille, northern France. 

Carrying a €50,000 ($54,000) cash prize, the award was announced by Laurence Herszberg, Series Mania founder and general director, and the Co-Pro Pitching Sessions jury president, M.K. Kennedy, Studiocanal executive managing director of TV Series.

Written by Clémence Dargent and produced by Jonas Ben Haiem and Jean-Félix Dealberto for France’s Salle Commune and Japan’s Hiroko Oda for Flag Inc., “Tokyo Crush” turns on Mona, a wildly creative Parisian sous-chef, who thinks she’s hit the jackpot when she’s hired to turn a struggling Tokyo izakaya into the city’s next hot spot. 

But upon landing in Japan, she realizes there’s a catch: she has to team up with the existing staff — including Toshiro, the fiercely talented (and annoyingly handsome) grandson of the founder.

“This series is a rich blend of food, self-discovery, and romance, centered around a dysfunctional yet endearing work family,” Dealberto told Variety. “At its core are French and Japanese cuisines: instantly recognizable, beloved worldwide, and visually stunning. ‘Tokyo Crush’ marks the first solo creation of Clémence Dargent, one of France’s top film and TV writers,” he added.

“After a good amount of debate, we chose ‘Tokyo Crush’ because we loved the potential we saw for the story in and out of the kitchen,” said Kennedy. “It felt fresh like a series with multiple points of entry for audiences. Featuring an ensemble of characters and conflicts that are ripe for great comedy: clash of cultures, tradition versus modernity, competition and will-they/won’t-they romance. All of which made it singular,” she added.

Salle Commune is a Paris-based independent production company launched in 2022 by Jonas Ben Haiem et Jean-Felix Dealberto with the financial backing of Charades. 

Along with Kennedy, the jury included André Béraud, head of scripted, programs and feature films, ICI Radio-Canada Télé (Canada); Henriette Marienlund, head of drama, DR Drama (Denmark); José Pastor, head of drama and fiction, RTVE (Spain) and Frank Seyberth, head of co-production, international fiction, ZDF (Germany).

“The Co-Pro Pitching Sessions are one of the most anticipated parts of the Series Mania Forum and we are delighted to be giving the €50,000 prize to Tokyo Crush. In the difficulties of today’s world, I’m delighted to see that a romance comedy took the top prize.  This is just what the audience needs during this time,” added Herszberg.