Amaama to Inazuma

Sweetness & Lightning is an example of a very well made story about the difficulties, struggles, and even happiness through learning experiences in a single parent household. The relationship between a single father and his young daughter brought many emotions, albeit for good reasons.

Story 9/10: Firstly I would like to state that this anime can seem very episodic. There isn't a vast amount of detail invested into a big plot or anything of the sort. Even though this may seem like a negative aspect, Sweetness & Lightning's story had me intrigued. The father, Kouhei Inuzuka, is a high school teacher and single father to his ... daughter, Tsumugi. Together they find an interest in cooking different foods, some of which Tsumugi's mother had made before she passed away. An important part to my rating for the story is due to the age Tsumugi is, which is 5 or 6 years old. Around that age is very important in life due to new experiences such as school, beginning the process of growing up, and learning many new things. This anime showed what I would consider a very realistic depiction of how a 5 or 6 year old would act given the circumstances.


Art 8/10: I'm not a huge critic on art unless I'm being promised a phenomenal amount of detail and crazy effects, so my rating will be a standard 8 here. I would like to point out that although the art style is standard for todays production quality, specific detail was put into some of the foods created.


Sound 7/10: This is a very laid-back and relaxing anime, so there wasn't an immense amount of effort put into the soundtrack. The opening and ending songs were pretty good, and fit the emotion of the story for the most part. Pretty much your standard OP/ED. Background music was also pretty standard.


Character 9/10: I found the connection and relationship between Kouhei and Tsumugi very strong and particularly unique. Their bonding through cooking food seems mundane at first but both have fitting personalities for each other, and it was surprising to see the development between the two. Side characters all had their influences to the story overall and didn't feel like unnecessary "extras", except for two. Their brief involvement was forgettable up until this moment so I consider them irrelevant.


Enjoyment 9/10: Laid-back yet still entertaining? Check. Characters with good personal qualities and behaviors? Check. Honestly in a broader sense, there isn't anything spectacular about this anime, it's a pretty basic show. If that's something you're looking for, then consider my points above, and maybe you will find it enjoyable as well!


Overall 9/10: I feel like this show really only appeals to a niché of a niché, those who want a laid-back anime that requires almost no attention. But if you do pay attention, you'll find a truly appealing anime inside a seemingly mundane plotline.

Oh boy here we go. Hold on to your butts boys and girls this roller coaster is about to get emotional.

I think I'm more biased to liking this anime as I'm at that point in my life that I'm getting married and expecting my first child, so I'm more drawn towards Inuzuka, Kouhei (the father) as I understand his worries and fears about raising his child alone. Wanting to give her the discipline shes requires without driving her away and trying to find time to make her a proper meal. Then there is Inuzuka, Tsumugi (the daughter) who is always trying to have a ... happy face but is hurting inside a lot if she remembers not having her mother. Which in one episode drove me to tears, the only other anime which has made me cry was Full moon wa Sagashite so good job.

The story overall doesn't centre around food like what a lot of people think it does. A food anime goes into a lot about food with different cultures, umamai levels, ect but Amaama to Inazuma doesn't. It's not a food anime, it centres around the bond between father and daughter with the use of preparing food.

If you enjoy a very good story with great characters and a smile at the end of every episode, except one; you will cry at the end of one episode, then this anime is for you. No over baring plot, no mass evil that needs defeated. Just a simple story about a father and daughter.

Amaama to Inazuma is one of my favorites this season. The series is quite different from traditional anime. It's about a girl, her teacher and the teacher's daughter who through coincidences come together and start cooking things.
Although you don't see much of a character development in this anime but it is quite cheerful looking at the three working hard to cook good food and enjoy eating the same. It is quite lighthearted and easy on the eyes. I best prefer the anime because it's something that leaves you happy after watching. An anime that you would be satisfied even if it doesn't get a second ... season as the story is not exactly progressive like other anime.
It's is anime that is definitely worth watching without worrying what will you do if it doesn't get a continuation. I know this review is quite vague. Please feel free to comment if the review was helpful or not and suggestions are appreciated.

It's a slice of life! It explores the daily life of Tsumugi and her Dad, funny and adorable. They are always learning new things (especially when it comes to cooking). Also explores some parts of Tsumugi's past during the time of her mother prior to her death.

CHARACTERS
Kohei: High school teacher. He's not very good at cooking. He is a bit of a pushover but is always happy. Plus, as you can see... he is a widow.
Tsumugi: Preschool/Kindergarden who is full of life and cuteness.
Kotori: High school student. She is shy, novice in cooking and has bad knife skills.

OVERALL:
It's one of my favourite ... animes during the summer. There is a lot of smiles and heartbreak. I get to learn new recipes every week. Seeing Tsumugi growing up is just remarkable -- I feel connected to the character.

Amaama to Inazuma (Sweetness and Lightning)

Art/Characters: The art style in this show can really only be described in one word: Cute. There is just something about this show’s style that makes it blur the line between cute and serious. There are a few things that I am not a fan of in principle, such as the exaggerated hair on Tsumugi, but those things are pretty minuscule when it comes to the overall art of the show. One of the things that are really well done would be the way that the food is portrayed. Because this is a show about food it just goes to ... say that the food should look good enough to eat, and that is exactly what happened throughout this show, every episode ended with me hungry. As for the characters themselves, I felt that they had a healthy depth to them that made them easy to watch. There are a few things that don’t really makes sense, like how a grown man has trouble with a knife and what exactly is the backstory, but more on that later. Tsumugi is a cute and fun protagonist that showcases what it really means to discover and experience things for the first time. Her father, Kouhei, is a perfect portrayal of the loving father who just wants the best for his daughter. Kotori, the high school student of Kouhei’s, really is something out of left field for me. But her love of food is something that I can easily relate to.



Sound/Music: SO CATCHY. I love listening to these tracks time and time again because of how much fun I have just grooving to them. A good show knows when to be bubbly and happy, and in a show like this one, things can often get a little to over-bubbly and there is a loss of meaning in that joy. But not here, the sound director knew exactly what they were doing, and were able to create an atmosphere of joy, and importance in my heart. The music played in the background was even interesting and fun. The use of wind instruments along with a piano is a small change that gives a huge reaction. The sounds of the food as well! When there is meat going on the stove, we HEAR the sizzle. It looks great and it sounds great. And I am sure if I made it myself, it would be just as amazing. I was really brought into the restaurant as a welcomed guest with these sounds.



Story: Kouhei Inuzuka is in a pretty rough patch of his life. With his wife recently passing away and his young daughter, Tsumugi, is solely his responsibility. The main struggle so far has been food. He isn’t much of a cook and makes mostly TV dinners for Tsumugi. She eats them every night and doesn’t complain, but he can see it on her face that she wants something more. On the whim of a coworker, he takes Tsumugi to a restaurant that is a little off of the beaten path that is run by one of his student’s mother. Unfortunately the mother isn’t there, but Kotori does her best to feed them what they would like. Kouhei learns that Kotori’s mother isn’t there often and because of this she often eats alone. After some quick thinking, Kouhei and Kotori begin to learn to cook fun and delicious food for all three of them. As the show progresses the food gets more and more interesting and friends of both Kotori and Kouhei join the cooking party!



Personal Reflection: Call me crazy, but I am a sucker for stories about Dad’s beating the odds for their kids. That is the kind of dad that I want to be whenever I have kids. The Story of a father doing his absolute best that he knows how to make his daughter happy, and then choosing to cook with one of his students because he knows that it will make her happy just warms my heart. They cook a variety of meals that all look and sound delicious. I often want to make the meals that they make in the show, but often the recipes are missing something and I can’t. The characters are cute and fun to watch and it’s fun to experience things with them. There is an episode where Tsumugi runs into some trouble with her friend, but her dad is right there ready to help in any way possible, and the solution that he comes up with is just priceless. All that being said; there was a lack of true story. While episode by episode had a common theme, there was nothing overarching the entirety of the show to pull it all together. There was a main problem, food, and they solved it in each episode. While I love shows that are able to have this kind of “you-can-miss-an-episode” type of vibe, I really think they could have developed it better. If the source material provides it, I would love to see a second season. Maybe it is just me wanting to be a dad and seeing someone succeed so well makes me so happy, but the show left me wanting to watch these characters grow more. Amaama to Inazuma is a fun, lighthearted show about a dad just wanting his daughter to be happy.

Overall Rating: 8.5/10

~Story > 9

When you start watching this , you usally expect something typical for a slice-of-life . That's when the plot does magic and introduces yourself into an unexpected situation, from the point of view of a little girl and her father. It adds some extra characters during the episodes who add their point of view as well within a continuous story; and that's something really neat.

The story may not be complex, you could call some elements a "plot hole", but it makes you have a good time for sure. Perhaps, the ending will make you think "Oh, it looks familiar to something."

~Art > 9

About ... art, all I can say is nothing: It fits the story, nothing special around it. I don't mean it's fine neither amazing, but it deserves a "great" at least.

~Sound > 6

The sound is fair, it sounded poor in my opinion; this said, they should have added more fitting themes. The VAs are good.

~Character > 8

Now let me talk about the characters, you will propably fall in love with them; "why?" you say? Because seeing how they interact to each other and noticing the way they get closer also makes you closer to them. This kind of thing usually happens in slice-of-life series tho.

~Enjoyment > 8

I really enjoyed watching this , if you are looking to choose one in order to spend a bit of your time, I recommend you this. No regrets. It gets a "very good" (8) from my heart.

It feels like yesterday when I was a kid myself. There would be specific kinds of food that I really loved and I hated. Since I am from a Greek family, the one thing I hated when I was young was liver. Whenever I heard the word liver, my face would change into that of disgust. As a kid, I sometimes also said mean things that I did not actually understand that they affect the others around me. We all had moments as children when we were naughty and we did something so terrible that we got scolded by our parents. Let's be honest nobody ... likes to be scolded or even punished. Now that I have grown up, I understand that everything they do is for none else but us and they love us so much that they want to help us become good people in the future and that is why they can be very strict in order to make us understand where there is a limit.

Amaama to Inazuma reminded me a lot about my childhood memories and Tsumugi is for most of the time an example of how some of us were as kids. I love the fact that the show is not story-driven but character-driven since I have more time to grow with the characters and understand their thoughts. Although the show is fairly short (only 12 episodes), I really felt connected with the show and it managed to touch my heart. The story that Amaama to Inazuma wants to convey to the audience is not anything grandiose or pseudo-intellectual as many shows. But, it is fairly simple and direct. It is about a family of a widowed man and his daughter who cook together with one of his students and their daily lives. Cooking becomes actually a fundamental component of the series since most resolutions of any difficulties or problems in the show are found while cooking. The parenting aspect is there but also not there at the same time. It was not given as much focus as the cooking, but with 12 episodes it is to be expected. One particular scene that struck me was when Tsumugi wanted to play the role of Mr. Galigali and her friend was weirded out by her behaviour. It is such a common phenomenon today for kids to be excluded because they have different opinions or likings than most of the other kids. Our societal norms affect immediately kids more than anyone else. This kind of exclusion is becoming more common in early grades since kids are taught to think in one way and anything that goes against it they either find it weird or ignore it. As a kid I was different and that had also been a case of causing some kids to bully me or laugh at me. As a kid, I was very chubby and shorter than other kids and I was getting teased for being fat. Looking at that scene, it showed me that kids usually do that not clearly understanding that the things they do or say may hurt the others around them.

I could speak about this topic for ages but since I want not to tire anyone who reads this review I will move along. The characters in the show are all likable but the one that you could have guessed that he/she stood out was Tsumugi. She is a little kid that brings joy to everyone that watches her cute mannerisms. I felt like I was tasting white chocolate when I was watching Tsumugi. She is too sugary and sweet, but you cannot help but like her. At some point you may feel that the cuteness is wrapping completely your body but thankfully this has not happened to me. Unfortunately, there are not many things I can say about the other characters, except Tsumugi's dad. He reminds me of my father from his caring and loving nature, but also from his strictness. However, Tsumugi's dad's wife has died before the show started and he has to deal with all the parenting by himself. I supported him when he scolded Tsumugi for her behavior and I felt happy for him when everything went well and smoothly between him and Tsumugi. He shows what kind of parent I would want to be in the future and how I would grow up my kids. I would show them my love in any way I could, but when they act wrong, I will scold them and show them that their behavior is not appropriate.

As for the art and animation, it is good. It fits the show and makes food look delicious in a heartwarming way, in comparison to the over-the-top orgasmic look in Shokugeki no Souma, another cooking anime. It reminded me of having a family dinner with my own family.

The soundtrack overall was decent but unmemorable. It did not act against the show but it did not enhance the experience either. However, the ED song "Maybe" was the only track that stood out to me. It was warm and fuzzy just like the whole vibe of this show.

Overall, this show is very meditating and relaxing. It is exactly what I need after a hard day and it warms my heart in many ways and brings the feeling of nostalgia. I am very pleased that I finally watched this show to its end. I had it on-hold from last summer and I feel so happy and sad that it ended. If you want a show that is relaxing and touching, this is the show for you.

Overall Score: 7.12/10

Alternative Recommendations:
-Udon no Kuni no Kiniro Kemari for the heartwarming feeling although not to the extent of Amaama to Inazuma.
-Blind Recommendation: Usagi Drop

I'm very harsh on this show, only because a story that is frivolous but wants to justify itself as heartwarmingly poignant should not get a free pass just because "Kawaii".
I was never moved, never laughed, nor did I have a personal epiphany as to how to live my life, and, more importantly, I didn't enjoy this show.

I don't like being deceived. This show wants to have its cake and eat it too; it dabbles in scarce poignant moments, but never incorporates them into the narrative directly, just as triggers for empathy (we don't see anyone dealing with the issues at hand, we simply see them ... in the background, as if to make the life of our characters noble).
The comedy is non-existent, literally, no jokes or gags other than over-the-top hacky cutesy behavior.
And last but not least, I don't see this being grounded in the reality it pretends to belong to, namely, non of the characters being anything more than one dimensional stock characters living in a world where nothing bad ever happens, never mind how many mistakes you make. It doesn't matter that you neglect your child's nutrition and non-school social life, she will be a happy-go-lucky soul; never mind that the situations you put yourself in is vastly open for cynical misinterpretation, such things don't happen.

I cannot shake off the suspicion that this show is being mendacious.
It seems to me that the director is perfectly aware of the blatantly shallow nature of the entire story, so resorting to gimmicks was all.

I don't think there's anything missing in your life if you haven't watched this.
Some people definitely enjoy it, but for the " upbeat cute kid" element, there's Naru from "Barakamon" and for the "single father" element, there's the great "Usagi Drop".

Ok, so another food porn anime has ended, and ah..........................:


Storywise, it was just your typical food porn anime , where the plot wasn't about the widowed dad struggling to take care of his spunky daughter, it was more of spoiling his daughter's appetite with the dishes that this anime presents in every episode, so yes, this category is a 5 over 10.

Art, pretty decent it I say so, there are no fanservices to speak off, none of that Zettai Ryouki thing, I mean there is really nothing for me to say about this anime's art, so for this category is a 4 over 10.

Sound, well ... every seiyuu who did the character's voice were ok, but my score is for the opening and Tsumugi's cute voice, it's a 7 over 10 here.

Character, I give this part a 3 over 10, due to the fact that the character's here are quite a dichotomy. Now , you have a dad who was seemly not looking for another love interest after his wife died were it could be filled up by Kotori Iida, his student. Now going back to the dad, Kōhei Inuzuka, he strikes me as a wimpy type who somehow spoils his daughter Tsumugi whereby he can seem to give her some spanking when she's in a tantrum, also even in the manga he has to play this typical guy character who is the quintessential oblivious to the girl's feelings towards him.... I guess blame it on writers, Gido Amagakure and Mitsutaka Hirota not making such arc possible , since Tsumugi seem get along with Kotori Iida. As for Kotori Iida, I kinda like that she has the potential to be a good step mom to Tsumugi, but alas his anime ended without such arc occurring, btw I kinda hate it that this anime ended where she's still afraid of using knives, you one episode would have made such impact if there is a situation where she struggle to overcome her fear of knives with help of her sensei and then succeeds, but no this anime was just to focus on food and not making any development. Tsumugi Inuzuka maybe a cute and smart kid at one point you might wanna adore her, but on the other hand there are situations that you just wanna give her some spanking cu'z of her tantrums, so one more reason for the low score, cu'z I kinda feel like going there and give her some spanking. Also as for Shinobu Kojika and Yūsuke Yagi, it was too bad that studio TMS Entertainment didn't even bother to give them their own arc and just limit them as supports...another reason for my low score for this category.

Enjoyment, well it was enjoyable to a certain degree, but one would start to get bore after episode 7 and just go for the final episode, in my case , I've skip ep 9, 10 and 11, before going for ep 12. So, it's a 6 over 10.

Overall, this anime is 3 over 10 since this anime's theme on food porn coincided with another anime with a food porn theme, Shokugeki no Soma: The Second Plate, where it has more to offer than this anime. Thought they were shown on different schedules , they both belong to the same season and frankly it's a bad idea for TMS Entertainment to pit this with the other anime, and that's that.

Souma OUT!

Talking about this title leaves me with mixed feelings, on one hand I am happy to finally write a review again after so much time but on the other hand it’s a bit sad that it has to be about a title that was well received at the time yet forgotten quickly, and that I never had a positive opinion about it.

To start with the positives, it’s easy to understand why people would enjoy the show as long as they like slice of life, first of all, for the genre it’s pretty well visually presented, even after half a decade I still remember it as ... a series with no major quality drops, well made backgrounds, vivid, expressive and fluid motions and facial expressions for its type of show, and with cooking anime levels of detailed and very well drawn food. The scene I remember the most and that I watched a couple times outside of the anime was about the little girl Tsumugi walking down the streets while avoiding imaginary sharks on an imaginary ocean in her mind, that particular scene had great special effects, but during the rest of the series there were pretty standard, and as the vast majority of slice of life shows, the character designs are simple, generic and forgettable, besides that the visuals are still a very solid department as a whole.

As for the sound department, the sound effects were good and both the music and the voices did their job accordingly but nothing to write too much about besides Tsumugi, a five years old girl voiced by an, at the time, eleven years old girl, who despite being so young did a wonderful job. I have already talked about this on my Aishiteruze Baby review where Yuzuyu, also a five years old girl, was voiced by a little girl but with a much much worse performance, that is not the case here.

Tsumugi herself is adorable, as most protagonists in this type of shows are, and unlike Rin Kaga, for example, she’s not so mature for her age, in fact she is not mature in the least. She’s loud, energetic, innocent, and makes a big deal out of everything, in either a comedic or dramatic way. If you’re like me, it will get tiresome a bit to see and hear a character cry for unimportant stuff, but it’s easy to give that a pass when the character is so young, and when is all around very well characterized.

Sweetness and Lightning belongs in the iyashikei, or feel good, type of slice of life show, and as far as that goes, it manages to have a proper relaxing atmosphere, as long as you don’t get overwhelmed by how hiperactive Tsumugi can be at times.

But that’s as far as positives of this show go for me. One complain I have about Tsumugi is that she barely has any conflict with no having a mother, if at all. Yuzuyu from Aishiteruze Baby was a way better character in that regard. I mean I guess you could say that’s the reason why Tsumugi gets so close to Kotori so easily, but that’s it. Speaking of Kotori, her introduction in the show was very weak, crying because she was alone and couldn’t eat with her mom? You’re not a little girl anymore. Then there is the father and he…I don’t have anything to say about him, really. There are more side characters but they don’t offer anything, they are just comic reliefs and what they do is not funny, to me at least.

But what’s the real flaw of the show in my eyes is how it wastes its interesting premise of a widowed man taking care of his child all alone by basically having no plot nor theme exploration, and that’s precisely because it is a feel good type of show. With this premise you would expect drama, but there isn’t, or there is but it has to do with irrelevant stuff unrelated to the premise, which in turn is presented in an overblown way. Most of the series is just Tsumugi feeling hungry and the three main characters cooking and eating together. Slice of life shows are usually plotless and relaxing, but it is a problem here because the whole premise goes to waste. It also reduces parenting, something which I asume everyone would agree can be quite complex, to just feeding a kid, that’s as far as the show goes with it, like, come on. Again, Aishiteruze Baby features multiple characters dealing with parenting in their own ways, here is reduced to just that, so I say go watch that show instead, if you can deal with the bad visuals and weak sound.

And the nail in the coffin is how by the very end they hint that Kotori developed feelings for the father (her sensei), if that wasn’t the sole reason why she got closer to him in the first place, which not only means that later in the manga there’s probably some romance vibes between a teenage girl and a grown adult, it also would mean that her relationship with Tsumugi was a lie the whole show, at least to some point.

Needless to say, I don’t have a positive opinion of this show and I can’t recommend it, it’s as plotless and lighthearted with simple and forgettable characters as many slice of life series, but this one also wastes a very good premise and theme. Even its best points are done better somewhere else.

For something similar, the Usagi Drop anime and as I already said Aishiteruze Baby, both of which I already covered, give you whatever you could want from this show and are way better. If you don’t want to go that back to watch a good childcare show, for some reason, there’s also Koutarou wa Hitogurashi which aired this year and is also good, albeit more sad than the rest.

Well I will admit I now want to go into a food comma. This is a reason sometime why I like slice of life anime.

Story: So as for the story part of this anime, it was good. The main story follows around a father who is now raising his daughter after his wife dies. From this the story takes off. With this surrounding food, it is very hard not to get hungry from watching this, the story I give a 7.

Art: As for art, the animators had to give the food a strong look. You can't have an anime with food being ... it main focus, and not give it a great look. The art I give a 9.

Sound: As for sound, their is only a sub out right now, and I do not think a dub is planned anytime soon. But as for the actors they did theirs job well. Tasumgi was cute like her acting should been handled. The sound I give a 10.

Characters: As for characters I think in a slice of life anime, you really develop for characters. It light hearted so you feel for the characters at the end, I want a second season for this so much because I feel anime like this is too short. The characters I give an 8.

Enjoyment/Overall: The overall value is a 7, I feel like this is one of those anime you feel softly about in the end. As for enjoyment it is a 9 for me, when you have good food it always gets a really great feeling.

Story - There was not really a actual story however i thought it was decent. The dad trying to learn how to cook new foods for his daughter.

Art - I liked the art style in this show and the food looked pretty good so.

Sound - Voice acting was pretty good.

Character - If you asked me to tell me one of their names i wouldn't be able to do that. So clearly must not be very good.

Enjoyment - It was okay. However i dont really give a toss about cooking so it felt boring to me at times.

Overall - Overall it was okay and the intro ... is a banger however i wouldn't recommend watching this show to anyone and i would not be watching it again.

Review in english!

Review in portuguese!

The plot: The anime revolves around the daily life of Tsugumi and his father, Kouhei.
After his wife's death, Kouhei has faced difficulties in maintaining a healthy diet for his daughter, while at the same time he cannot do "tasty things" for Tsumugi to feed herself with satisfaction.
For Kouhei's luck, one day they end up finding a quiet restaurant near his house and there they discover that the owner of the establishment is a very prestigious chef and also the mother of one of her students, Kotori Lida.
The Chef of this establishment,almost not there,due to her work on television and with that ... the place is all for Kotori.
And that's when she decides to ask her teacher to always come with Tsumugi to eat in her restaurant, since that way she could practice a little more cooking, besides having a company and at the same time that Kouhei would be learning how to cook better and making "tasty food" for her precious daughter.

Highlights/Singularities:
1°) The interaction of a father and his daughter -> Probably the best thing about anime is that you see the relationship between Kouhei and his daughter.
Whether it's when he manages to smile at her after making delicious food for Tsumugi, a gesture of affection from his daughter with him, moments that he ends up fighting with her and then come a very exciting reconciliation.
Anyway, the show of affection between the two is something very beautiful to see in the anime and certainly would be a great reason to give a chance to Amaama to Inazuma.
2°) Charismatic Characters -> Another factor very present in the anime, are his great characters.
Tsumugi is too cute,Kotori is fun,Kouhei is a nice guy and you are touched by his concern to always make your daughter happy ...
Anyway, it's a beautiful cast certainly and one of the highlights of the anime.

Animation/Entertainment: The animation of Amaama to Inazuma is very well done, although for animals of the genre, it is not so necessary to have a superb animation ... The art of anime is also very beautiful, so I think most of you will like it.
In Entertainment, anime also does well, whether in the funniest or most dramatic episodes, the work tends to keep you interested in it...
Of course, if that's the kind of anime you're looking for.

Personal Note: 8/10

Verdict: Amaama to Inazuma was an anime that I had a lot of pleasure in watching, due to its lightness and its simplicity, many times I caught myself watching the anime even in moments that I was very stressed or frustrated when things didn't go as you would like and soon after I was feeling good again lol.
And Amaama to Inazuma is this, a slice of life very well done and that can transmit positive feelings to those who watch it.
Anyway, if you like Barakamon and Usagi Drop works of the genre or animes, you can watch this anime quietly because it's very likely that you'll have a great experience with it, just like I did.

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Enredo: O anime gira em torno do cotidiano de Tsugumi e seu pai,Kouhei.
Após o falecimento de sua esposa,Kouhei têm enfrentado dificuldades para manter uma alimentação saudável para a sua filha,ao mesmo tempo que não consegue fazer "coisas gostosas" para que a Tsumugi se alimente com satisfação.
Para a sorte de Kouhei,um dia eles acabam encontrando um restaurante calmo e próximo a sua casa e lá eles descobrem que a dona do estabelecimento,é uma Chef bem prestigiada e também mãe de uma de suas alunas,a Kotori Lida.
A Chef desse estabelecimento,quase não se encontra por lá,devido aos seus trabalhos na televisão e com isso o lugar fica todo para a Kotori.
E é aí que ela resolve pedir para o seu professor que venha sempre com a Tsumugi para comerem em seu restaurante,já que dessa forma ela conseguiria praticar um pouco mais da culinária,além de ter uma companhia e ao mesmo tempo que o Kouhei,estaria aprendendo a cozinhar melhor e fazendo "comidas gostosas" para a sua preciosa filha.

Destaques/Singularidades:
1°) A interação de um pai e sua filha -> Provavelmente o melhor do anime é você ver o relacionamento do Kouhei e sua filha.
Seja quando ele consegue tirar um sorriso dela após fazer uma comida gostosa para a Tsumugi,um gesto de carinho de sua filha com ele,momentos que ele acaba brigando com ela e depois vêm uma reconciliação bem emocionante.
Enfim,a demonstração de afeto entre os dois é algo bem bonito de se ver no anime e certamente já seria um ótimo motivo para dar uma chance para Amaama to Inazuma.
2°) Personagens Carismáticos -> Outro fator bem presente no anime,são seus ótimos personagens.
A Tsumugi é fofa demais,a Kotori é divertida,o Kouhei é um cara bacana e você se sensibiliza com a preocupação dele em sempre deixar a sua filha feliz...
Enfim,é um belo elenco certamente e um dos destaques do anime.

Animação/Entretenimento: A animação de Amaama to Inazuma é bem feitinha,apesar que para animes do gênero,não é tão necessário assim você ter uma soberba animação... A arte do anime também está bem bonita,então acredito que a maioria irá gostar.
No Entretenimento o anime também se sai bem,seja nos episódios mais divertidos ou mais dramáticos,a obra tende a manter você interessado nela...
Isso claro,se é esse o tipo de anime que você está procurando.

Nota Pessoal: 8/10

Veredito: Amaama to Inazuma foi um anime que eu tive muito prazer em assistir,devido a sua leveza e sua simplicidade,muita das vezes eu me peguei assistindo o anime até em momentos que eu estava muito estressado ou frustado quando as coisas não saíam como você gostaria e logo depois eu já me sentia bem novamente haha.
E Amaama to Inazuma é isso,um slice of life muito bem feito e que consegue transmitir sentimentos positivos para quem o assiste.
Enfim,se você gosta de obras do gênero ou animes semelhantes a Barakamon e Usagi Drop,pode assistir esse anime tranquilamente porque é bem provável que você tenha uma ótima experiência com o mesmo,assim como foi o meu caso.

It's fun and light slice of life. As someone who loves food and loves to eat i really enjoyed it. I also love that it's not only about food but show some other aspect of life.
It can also get really sad, i almost cried many times.
The characters are nice and the soundtracks are average. The animation can get bad sometime but the food always look really good since its the main element of the story.
Overall it was a nice slice of life with nothing much happening.
Watch it if you are looking for something to chill and pass time.

Recommended: Yes! This is perfect for every age!
Spoiler Free?: Going through EP 1 and small spoilers throughout though this anime hardly has ay spoilers.
Read Manga: Yes (Because some things are resolved or explained)
Best Character: Kouhei Inuzuka (And low key- Mikio )
Pros: Depression healer and.. if you need to smile... Also they represented what being a kid was like very well.
Cons: Unsatisfying ending
♥
Have you ever wanted to be a kid again? Or have you ever wanted to know what it feels like to be an adult? Well this anime goes through both of those.
The anime shows the struggles of being a single father ... doing his best to make his kid happy.
Through the first episodes it made me smile ear to ear remembering how I was like when I was a kid. Tsumugi's was really well written out and it gave me a new age for a character. Tsumugi's character almost seemed like a father or a kid wrote this while adding details on what their kid would do or what they would do. Literally, this is the most purest character I've ever witnessed. When being a kid you can go through emotions faster than shuffling through a deck of cards and some pepole got annoyed on how bratty she seemed like. She is a kid and I'm sure every kid was somehow bratty.
Inuzuka's character was really interesting to watch and since I'm an empathetic person I would randomly break down only thinking about what he's going through. He is being a strong father for his daughter. 6 months ago he lost his beloved wife and he decided he would be #BestDad for his daughter. He started connecting to his daughter through one things she loves, Food.

Passing that, I loved seen the characters bond over something we all like (I think? I mean if you don't like it.. er.. sorry?) Food. Watching Inuzuka as a father and watching him improve to make his daughter happy is so fricking pure to my dark soul. When making the food it isn't really interesting to watch but it showed the basics of cooking. Food Wars made the cooking very interesting.
The voice acting was really good to! Like damn!

There is somethings I want to happen:
Tsumugi to understand that her mom is never coming back.
Inuzuka to marry Kotori's mother because why not?
I need to see Tsumugi grown up.
Kotori to become a master chef.

This anime is surely something you need to watch and really get into it.

Sweetness & Lightning (Amaama to Inazuma) is mediocre on the surface. Despite the simplicity of it's plot and animation, it remains an experience that I would easily recommend to anyone - especially those who enjoy slice of life series. It is an interesting take on the genre as a whole and remains very grounded to reality; as a result, the atmosphere of the series is very close to the real world. It truly encapsulates the essence of familial interactions wonderfully.

The story revolves around a father and his daughter (aged anywhere from 3 to 6 years old - it is never directly specified), named Kohei (who ... happens to be a high school teacher) and Tsumugi respectively. Kohei is burdened with raising the child by himself as his wife's death had occurred 6 months chronologically before the beginning of the series - the foundation for the series is laid when he stumbles upon a student of his; this student's mother is incidentally a semi-acclaimed chef who owns her own restaurant. After this is all explained, the remaining episodes follow a basic core plot - Tsumugi wants to eat something after a certain event has occurred that makes her want to do so (i.e, a fishing trip leads to her wanting to eat fish), and then the main cast prepares this certain food. It is very basic in it's premise, but never does it feel repetitive.

The art in the series is riddled with mediocrity in many instances, but is generally consistent in quality that manages to stay up to par with other modern anime series. The series suffers from a bad case of static backgrounds with some motion in the foreground, so often times, when characters are drawn in the background, it often feels less lively as they tend to remain static most of the time. Regardless, it always manages to look nice, despite the simplicity of the character designs.

The soundtrack is not memorable - it's very simple and quite common relative to other slice of life shows. The openings and endings are distinct and don't suffer from the generic openings that clout the genre. That being said - there is not much else to say on the topic. The soundtrack is consistently bland, and it doesn't add nor does it take away to the show.

The characters, though few in numbers, are very memorable and distinctive in their own right - they are all enjoyable and work to benefit the series as a whole, as they are the main draw to it. The relationships between the characters are realistic, but what blew me away was how well the series managed to encapsulate children - notably, Tsumugui. The show is extremely heart-warming and is definitely recommendable.

I can't say this anime did anything particularly wrong or misrepresented its source material, but it still feels like a textbook example of 'just OK'.

STORY

The plot follows several stories taken from the first few volumes of the manga. There are few changes beyond occasionally combining two storylines into one. A good job was done in picking a fitting last episode for this show so it still feels like there is a climax and wrap-up, even with the episodic story structure.

ANIMATION & SOUND

There may not have been any significant slip-ups, but this animation looks very basic for a 2016 show. Backgrounds look minimum standard at times, ... and while it's nice to see the characters from the manga move around, I think a bit of detail was lost. Sound is fine with solid voice acting. The happy sounding ED 'Maybe' by Brian The Sun has been running through my head these last few days.

CHARACTERS

The cast is basically the same as it is in the original manga. Kohei is designed to be an everyman with the broadest possible appeal, but he manages to have just enough of a personality to avoid being entirely generic. Tsumugi's little kiddie songs get more attention- usually at points where the anime needs to pad out the length of an episode just a little. Kotori is still a gold-tier Best Girl.

OVERALL

When I rate a show as a '5' it means one of two things: 1) Major pros and cons cancel each other out, 2) It's very middle-of-road without significant strengths or weaknesses. The Sweetness and Lightning anime is an example of case 2.

To put it shortly, this anime is definitely heartwarming, but not amazing. Should you watch it? Probably go through the first few episodes and see for yourself, because the way this anime will end up sitting in your mind depends largely on your personal opinion.

To start off, I enjoyed this anime not in its entirety, but mostly in the heartwarming and somewhat familiar situation it presented me in. I was at first apprehensive on whether or not to get on board with this anime, because objectively it was not something I found to be that great. However, not because of the premise, but the backstory ... of the characters, I found myself empathizing and eventually endearing the characters. Soon enough, the quick glimpses of dark past each character had became something I could relate to, and soon enough I found myself enjoying this anime more than I should.

Why I say this anime depends largely on personal opinion is because of how I ended up interpreting it myself. As a person not from a family with a great background, it was easy to relate to the situation of the protagonists, and the main hook of the anime for me was how everyone was able to innocently and earnestly enjoy themselves despite all the family related adversity each character had to face, and somehow eventually forming familial like ties with one another. Indeed, this anime captured my heart, and the food looks good too... :p

To summarize, you may not like this anime for what it will present you, but you will probably enjoy the first few episodes as they carry more emotional weight. Objectively, this anime is average, but in a good way. You do not need to finish this anime to grasp its beauty, so do not worry about that. Just enjoy it while you can.

Lets be honest the plot was original enough to have a lot of good potential. A single father who is a math teacher. Trying to get over the sadness of losing his wife while trying to take care of his child. Sounds great doesn't it ?

Well it did. But then it became a cooking show... Yeah f*ck all the quality drama and tragedy that could have been the main focus we should instead focus on a father that tries to cook for his daughter with his student helping him. Oh jolly !

I wouldn't be this salty if the cooking was implemented nicely to the story ... while still retaining it's original slice of lifey feeling. But cooking is like a bored and horny old man that tries exhibitionism for the first time. It's just a sorry and revolting sight. If I wanted to watch a cooking show I would. But this anime is so poorly written except it's setting that it can't progress the story and cooking at the same time. So it just goes with cooking that repeats episode after episode. If you want a cooking anime go watch Shougeki no soma that still can progress the story instead of repeating episode after episode. I can't even watch this anime for their seiyuus like Rina Endou and her adorable voice (Hina from barakamon)

Should you watch sweetness and lightning? YES! It is the nicest and sweetest anime i have watched.

In my opinion, it is a masterpiece. The art is beautiful, the characters are amazing, the story is great and everythinng about it is simply fantastic. If you are only into to mecha, then you probably wont enjoy this at all, but honestly i think anyone should give it a shot if they have even the slightest bit of curiosity about the show.

It is seriously a masterpiece and is definitely worth your time. It is a really beautiful anime. It is very enjoyable and in my opinion irt ... deserves a ten!