Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hourou Meshi
Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill

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[More info about my review style can be found on my profile]

▶Summary and recommendation: -----------------------------------------------------------------
[Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill]

"I am a virgin" was the opening line in the translation I was initially reading (I have since found out that the official translation uses the word "Single"). Placing my expectations for this isekai at the rock bottom. Is his sexual experience going to be a focus of this manga? Is this the start of a harem isekai?

The answer was surprisingly "no". It is a fairly low stakes power fantasy isekai focused on a Japanese person being transported into a fantasy world, where ... he wows and awes the fantasy world inhabitants with his cooking.

This sort of premise are a dime a dozen, but this is not a bad example of it, and it features neither a harem nor any obstructive sexualization.

I recommend it to those looking for a low stakes slice of life food manga.


▶Story: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The introduction feels quite rushed, with only a few pages being dedicated to setting up the premise. I believe the manga expect readers to already be familiar with the isekai premise, so this might be confusing if you chose this as your first isekai manga.

The protagonist is summoned to a fantasy world by mistake. Unlike the heroes that they intended to summon, the protagonist is only equipped with seemingly useless skills that will only help him cook food. It is common in isekai for these seemingly low power skills to actually be extremely powerful, and this Manga is no exception. It only takes a few chapters for the protagonist to become one of the most powerful people in the fantasy world.

Asides from that, there is not much plot to speak of. The story does not have any set goal, and there is no overarching plot. Just a series of mostly independent story arcs as the protagonist travels around the world sightseeing while picking up animal companions.


▶Setting: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Much like the premise, the isekai does not spend much time on world building, and provides a run of the mill unremarkable fantasy world inspired by Medieval Europe. Much like other isekai, it has adventurer guilds, video game like stats and skills.

The setting also features a favourite of isekai authors. Slavery. Which the manga tackles as elegantly as most isekai do. Not very elegantly at all. It just sort of exists, and the protagonist thinks it is bad, but doesn't really do anything beyond that. This might come as a culture shock to many western readers.


▶Characters: -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The 27 year old, single, Japanese Salaryman protagonist's seem resourceful and quite headstrong at first, but you will quickly come to realise that the only defining trait the author intended for him to have, is that he is a coward. The author seem so insistent on him being a coward that it overrides all other quality he may have.

It breaks my immersion quite a bit when he has been granted limitless power, and he has shown to be intelligent enough in the past to understand what the phrase "limitless power" means, but he still wants to run away from even the smallest danger.

He is also very averse to character development, and does not seem to evolve in any way throughout the 63 chapters released as of me writing this review.

The other regulars of the manga are his pets, whose characterization is also fairly shallow. Other than being prideful and his desire to eat, there isn't much to say about the most prominent of his pets.
When the entire story is about the protagonist traveling the world with his pets, it is a shame that both are so unremarkeable.


▶Artwork: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The artwork is passable, but a bit below the standard of japanese comics.
It is a bit rough in some places, specifically the character art.

The backgrounds are hand drawn in a matching style with no use of 3D CGI.

As usual, japanese comics are not coloured.

▶In conclusion: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was better than my expectations, but my expectations were quite low. There are worse food themed isekai out there, but there are also better ones.

It was hard for me to get invested in any of the characters, as I found none of them particularly compelling. The protagonist in particular rubbed me the wrong way. It is a manga about going on an adventure, but the protagonist is averse to it. Even when he is blessed with the protection of the heavens themselves.

A few other things of note is that while the vast majority of female characters are drawn normally, the deities have very exaggerated features. Breasts the size of watermelons, and clothing that highlights those features.

I would also recommend the official translation if you are able, as unofficial translators seem to be translating it very poorly, injecting their own misogyny into the dialogue. As an example, one line of dialogue which in the official translation is translated as "Wow, she really looks annoyed" is translated by an unofficial translation as "She is at that time of the month for sure".

The perfect mix of close-up cooking, fantasy adventuring, and overpowered Isekai slop plot without overwhelming or ruining each other making it a perfect balance. It's also one of the best comfort reads you'll probably be able to do considering its usage of the tropes mentioned are well-balanced making it entertaining while insightful, its visuals or artstyle are above average may it be cooking or action sequences, its panelling is really good or not hard in the eyes making it easy to read, and its stereotypical plot is somehow refreshing given how its elements are simple and reused.

There's not much words to critique this other than ... what's been said. Its appeal mostly comes from the fact that it's so simple and refreshing yet it can also subtly add details and gimmicks without overwhelming you with content. The visuals are also there to make it better compared to other works with the same gimmicks that lack consistency.

If I wanted to rate this with a biased point of view, I'd easily rate this a 10/10, but considering how simple it actually is with its contents lacking due to a once in a blue moon chapter release, an 8/10 would be a fair rating!

Isekai and cooking manga in perfect balance, complimenting and driving each other. I would say this manga leans slightly more into comedy and slice-of-life than any other genre, but it's most certainly an adventure isekai. There's interesting encounters with various monsters, colorful characters, and new magic.The most isekai thing about this manga is how the characters are often shocked at how OP the MC is. This, however, is not overdone, as the protagonist actively avoids drawing attention. If you want a fun isekai adventure with likable characters, this would do the trick. It manages to avoid being generic by having the motivations and skills of ... the MC be different than most isekai. He just wants to travel, live an easy life, and cook. He, inevitably, attracts companions that want adventure as much as they do his cooking. This leads to many combat encounters with new monsters and is what drives the story forward. The MC is often practical and relatable. The cooking is relatively simple, but shows you the basic steps of cooking each respective dish, as well as them enjoying it. There's a bit of what makes Toriko fun in this manga, the exploration of new ingredients.

TL;DR A fun isekai manga that manages to avoid being generic by having a practical protagonist and plenty of cooking. It's more than the sum of its parts, however. 8/10