A fun yuri manga centered around a cooking enthusiast who forms a connection with her neighbor, who just happens to be a big lady with a big appetite. Fans who want a slow-moving romance between two adult women, and fans who love stories about people connecting over food will certainly enjoy this one. The first volume gently touches on the misogyny and erasure the POV character, Nomoto, encounters as a woman with a feminine hobby encounters – and her frustration that everyone assumes things in her life must be all about men.

Kasuga is a bit more of a mystery, though how she moves through the world as a very tall, large-framed woman who loves food is also somewhat mentioned.

The panel layouts are creative and the character writing is strong, and the food, of course, looks really delicious. Special attention is paid to the fact that Kasuga in particular clearly enjoys her food, taking huge bites and not worrying about appearances. It’s wonderful to see a woman who is not concerned with being graceful, and this, paired with the commentary on Nomoto’s experiences, hints toward real love for women and woman-loving experiences that aren’t always found in mainstream yuri manga. However, this paired with the general stiffness in character expressions does emphasize something that may be in the back of more worldly readers’ minds, and certainly always is in mine as a lover of food and cooking manga: the specter of feeding fetish. The fact that Yuzaki namedrops Comiket also suggests a formal knowledge of the world of doujinshi, aka indie/fanart manga, which is quite a no-man’s-land of all kinds of content.

To make absolutely clear, I’m neutral in general on what other people are into so this is said without judgment, without me believing it’s gross in any way. It lacks other hallmarks of that subset of kinks that would push it into uncomfortable territory to me. However, I think it’s worth mentioning that these scenes of eating are a not-unsubstantial part of this manga. This is Fanservice About Eating, more so than some similar manga I’ve read. Eating is not cute, it’s almost brutal, how Kasuga eats, and that in itself is a fascinating thing to watch. Making a manga in a space that often values softness and cuteness and femininity about a woman who just goes to town on all her food is very satisfying in its own way. But it’s still a fanservice of its own kind with the amount of pages and panels dedicated to it.

Sit with it. Make your peace with it. Because loving to gift someone else you made – loving to watch them enjoy it – loving abundance, loving an uninhibited enjoyment of it – and what thrills we get from that – is a lovely thing, in my opinion.

I’m hoping that Yuzaki’s character art continues to improve, because I like the character designs, character writing, story and layout thus far, I do just feel character expressions and movement are lacking during the moments not involving eating the food.

Even as the slow-burn build-through-food wears on somewhat familiar territory to me, I find myself invested on the journey of this women and will continue reading.

I did not like this book. Not because it covered dark or upsetting themes or because it depicted an abusive relationship, but because the development of the characters and their relationship happened completely out of my view. When the relationship between the two main characters veered into romantic and sexual, it felt like it happened completely out of the blue. The author describes how the characters feel magnetized to each other but no part of the book demonstrates how this came to be. Somewhere off screen, between Chapters 3 and 4, the relationship between these characters suddenly becomes more intense and intimate. Why didn't I get access to that development? I could maybe overlook this if it was a small aspect of the story, but the relationship between these two is the story.

Not only is the relationship between these characters unrealistic, but the characters themselves are not believable either. They are stereotypical sadboys from any run-of-the-mill dark drama tv show. They lack the complexity or depth or nuance that real people have. The violence and abuse does not feel realistic either, it feels like the author just threw it in for shock value. I've read many stories that depict abuse and violence in ways that are true to how it happens in real life. This was completely the opposite of that.

The more I read this book, the more I felt that it was trying to romanticize this kind of relationship in a way that was really uncomfortable. It almost read like the author was trying to make their love sound beautiful and poetic. I'm sorry, nothing is beautiful or poetic about abuse. Again, I've read plenty of books that represent the pain and anguish that abuse creates in poetic and moving ways. This felt more like it was trying to make the abuse itself seem artistic. It really rubbed me the wrong way.

I'm saddened by how much I disliked this because I truly believe that this story could be so much better. It was not a bad story on its face, and that's what makes it all the more disappointing. The author is clearly skilled at writing, their prose is unique and pleasing to read, and they use artful language that I was impressed by. They really just missed the mark on the composition of the story's narrative development, character development, relationship development, and making it all feel real.

Also... can we please stop calling something dark academia just because the main protagonists are in school 😭😭😭

I really like Bradbury's approach to books, not blind reverence but taking books as the first step towards critical thinking, and other parts required for reading to actually be valuable. This is a lot more relevant to modern life than I expected it to be. I found the ending to be a bit lackluster, and a bit too passive to my liking. Montag wants to be an active person, but he's being hampered by cautious academics. I understand we need both types, but we can't just wait around for the current regime to destroy itself before we act.

Anyway alexa play fuck me ray bradbury by rachel bloom