Manga Review: "She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat" vol. 2

Hungry for Volume 3

Sorry, I couldn't resist the urge to pun. But for real. When is volume 3 coming out, cus I need another serving of this pronto. (again, I apologize for the food jokes).

With that, my thoughts...   ...5/5 by the way. I'll say that up front. 

There's your TL;DR if you only wanted to see a score.

If you missed my review of volume 1, you can find it here.

Manga Review: "She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat" vol. 1 

Book 2 was great. Just great. There were a number of new and delicious looking dishes and each and every one of them made me hungry. Actually, physically hungry. This manga is a feast for the eyes. It's been years since I lived in Japan (I left in 2015 to return to the US for health reasons), but this has me hankering for Japanese cuisines I've not had in ages. Roll Cake, Character Bento, Stollen, Anko. Good lord I need to go order food.... 

Hopefully listing a bunch of the foods they eat in this volume didn't spoil anything, I'll talk some very spoilery things later, but i'll be sure to put a warning. In typical manga fashion, one of the characters gets sick in a chapter here (not really a spoiler, I promise! it's a regular occurance in all slice-of-life series); the other prepares a glorious bowl of kitsune udon. 

Oh. My. God. 

It really struck me, both in the heart and in the stomach. 

Having someone make you a big bowl of soup, when you’re too weak to do it yourself. It has a very comfy, healing warmth to it, even when you're just reading it happen to someone else. Almost makes me want to pull a Ferris Bueller and call out sick today (but who’d be there to make me Udon?).

 Beyond the food though, this volume really expanded on the relationship between Nomoto and Kasuga and cements the romance plot. In my mind, this volume moves it from the sub-plot to the main plot. I'll discuss more in length just after wrapping up the review portion here...

Lastly, I really appreciated learning more about each character’s backstory. They've definitely gotten more depth of character after this volume. This elevates the manga for me in a big way. I like three dimensional characters. Just like I'd like a third volume of this manga. Nowish. Sadly, there's no pre-order available yet, but hopefully we'll see an announcement of one soon.

I highly recommend this series, so, again, I don't get anything out of it, but here's the links to buy this book at your preferred place of book buying. "She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat" is published by Yen Press and has an MSRP of $15.00.

Barnes & Noble

Rightstuf

Amazon

.....

NOW

THIS IS WHERE I TALK SPOILERS

You've been warned...

A warning page from the editor. I feel like I've seen a couple pages like this in books before; one in 'Witch Hat Atelier' stands out in my mind. I'm on the fence about them, but I suppose it's a good thing. The way it's done here feels like they're protecting the publisher more than giving a trigger warning though. Still, I understand that I think this is done with good intentions. Probably.

FOR REAL THOUGH

HUGE

MEGA-SPOILERS

Don't blame me.

I warned you.

This page appears before a fairly poignant chapter featuring one of the main characters going through the realizaton process that she's a lesbian and in love with the other woman. It's a pretty dark awakening. I thought it was a very good chapter. Felt like a brick to the face a little bit, but It certainly moves the story forward in a very, very big way. In the first volume, there were hints of a romance subplot developing, but volume 2 makes it extremely clear where this series is headed.

I like this manga a lot. I appreciated that it took itself seriously, when needed, but didn't get stuck being a SERIOUS book. The manga was light-hearted, even if there's a chapter or two that really stand out as being tonally different; that's usually a big offender for me - when a book can't stick to a tone, I end up getting turned off because it puts me in a different mood when I finish it, then when I started. This one didn't. So, I'll take that as a good thing.

I'm eager to see how the romance plays out.