Kami no Shizuku
The Drops of God

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I don't really have the opportunity to immerse myself in long manga anymore, due to lack of time and motivation. But when I do, I always try to select manga that I think are relevant and interesting to discover for my own culture. Les Gouttes de Dieu was in my little papers, so I decided to get into it. So what is this manga worth?
First of all, we have to put a point of honor on the author Shin Kibayashi, who knew perfectly how to transmit us his passion for wine through a really interesting story of heritage.
Overall the manga is a long ... family story around wine. In his last breath, the father of the protagonist decides to challenge him through a series of winetasting where the goal will be to find the submitted wines, all this with the ultimate goal of acquiring and deserving the complete wine collection of the deceased. The main antagonist of the story will be the adopted son of the deceased, who happens to be the greatest sommelier and critic in Japan today.
I personally enjoyed this story very much. Its main redflag is the length. Indeed it takes no less than 44 volumes to get to the end of the first part of the story, because there is a second one! For everything that is narrated inside, I think that we could have reduced the story's length to around thirty volumes. Nevertheless the story has also a lot of quality.
What impressed me the most was the huge number of references to different wines. The characters spend their time discovering different kinds of ends, and each time the situations are perfectly brought. This is a story that will suit the novice but also the experienced wine lover of all kinds.
Moreover the progression of the different characters is really appreciable throughout the volumes. Although the story is long, the authors have taken their time in the moments slices of life. They are essential and real engine in the progress of the events.
On the technical side, the manga is irreproachable. Although the ideas of cuttings are not revolutionary at all, we still have a very beautiful manga in terms of drawing. The graphic metaphors that the artist uses during the wine tastings are really top. It allows us to travel at the rhythm of the characters, and to be totally bewitched by different sensations.
It is also worth noting that the physical version of the manga contains a lot of additional information about wine, its references but also its harvesting techniques, how to choose and appreciate it. Most of the prefaces are written by great names of the wine industry and French gastronomy.
By the way... I think it's a manga worth reading especially if you are a young adult. But you have to take the time and mostly be interested in this kind of story. Without it I think you will quickly get bored.

[Spoiler Free]

Drops of God/Kami no Shizuku has always been on my reading list and I'm so glad I finally got around to reading and finishing it. I originally picked this up when it was being scanlated, but after the group got a C&D, I never got around to finding out what happens next. I tried to read the French version, but I missed a lot of the subtle nuances since I don't actually understand French well enough to make it worth the effort. I got interested in the series again after doing the MAL Rewrite synopsis for it and decided to pick it up again ... (depending on when you see this review, the MAL Rewrite synopsis may or may not be up on the page, but it's been written). It makes me so happy that the ENTIRE 44 volume series was officially translated and published into English by ComiXology on Amazon Prime Reading. If you have Amazon Prime already, pick up this series and give it a go because it's free with your membership (not spons, but hey it's a legal and "free" way to read it).

I thought the story would be your run-of-the-mill "protagonist and rival face off in an epic battle to determine who's superior" kind of affair and it was, to an extent. The story revolves around Shizuku Kanzaki; a kid who resents his father and wine for reasons explained within the first 5 chapters, and Issei Tomine; a famous wine critic with his own ulterior goals also explained within the first 5 chapters, duking it out over the estate and extremely priceless wine collection of Shizuku's recently deceased father: Yutaka Kanzaki. It is one extremely long and convoluted family argument that involves a lot of wine, near-death experiences, sexual encounters, broken hearts and the universe dragging everyone together through the power of fermented grape juice. I found that the situations portrayed throughout the series have a sense of realism to them and are situations I feel like I can find myself in (or have found myself in before).

What surprised me the most was how spicy it got. I know seinen manga is targeted towards older male audiences, but there were a lot more panels suggesting sexual acts in this series than out of all the other seinen series I have read combined. The series was serialized in Morning, so all of the stuff was just heavily implied and as SFW as the mangakas could draw it, but wine is considered a sexual drink at times, so it makes some sense. The characters are well developed up until a certain point. It's kind of obvious to me that the mangakas intended for new characters that were introduced later in the series to be just as important as the main cast, but they quickly disappear into obscurity until the last chapters, where they suddenly remember that they existed and drag them back into the story. The relationships portrayed in the series feel real, but they aren't the central focus of the story and mostly exist to develop the main characters.

This story is one of those highly technical types of manga due to the central plot device being wine. I'm a lightweight when it comes to any alcohol, so my understanding of wine going into this series was just bitter, alcoholic grape juice. Within the first few chapters, that perception I had about wine was immediately turned on its head and taught me a lot about the drink. There is a lot of wine-specific terminology the series throws around, like terroir, noble-rot, vintage, grand-cru and tannins to name a few. The terms get introduced the very first time they are used, but the mangakas assume you'll remember the meanings as you go along. I found myself looking up more information on all of the terminology because I found the explanation in the story to be somewhat lacking, but I'm not sure if that's due to things getting lost in translation or if I'm just extremely dumb (likely the latter). The story does an amazing job showcasing wine and food pairings (called "mariages"), as well as a lot of fascinating wines from all over the world (France, Italy, Spain, Chile, United States, Australia, Japan, etc.).

I found that the technicality of describing REAL WORLD WINES in a fictional story to be a breath of fresh air when all I have been reading lately are stories rooted in mild fantasy or just your average teenage angsty romance. I especially like how clueless Shizuku was about wine because it allowed for the other more knowledgeable characters to give Shizuku and myself the Robert E. O. Speedwagon explanation of what's going on. The art and imagery to describe all of the wines is so vivid and rich that I felt like I could taste it at times. There are a lot of visual metaphors used in this series to describe wine, such as saying that a wine tasted like the conception of a child or the wine evoked the imagery of two ex-lovers passing by each other on the streets in the rain, not stopping to look back and check to see if it really was them. There were a lot of really beautiful panels throughout the series, especially the ones involving imagery relating to the "Twelve Apostles".

Overall, Drops of God/Kami no Shizuku is a fantastic manga that's worthy of the "cult classic" title it gets in France and within the culinary world. It's just the right amount of technical that I learn something new while also not alienating me with terminology that I don't get. The story is surprisingly more mature than most other seinen I have read and it really felt like a story that was targeted towards adults. The art is breathtaking at times and really helps you understand what the wine is supposed to taste like without having to actually describe the taste of it. Hell, I might even start drinking more wine now that I'm emotionally invested in this series. It was a wild ride getting to learn about the Twelve Apostles and Drops of God and I'm excited to start reading the sequel (if I can even find it). A solid 10/10 for me.

Before reading this manga, I have never had interest in wine or whatsoever. But then I stumbled on this manga on accident and I enjoy it so much. I heard that this manga was quite popular in Japan that whenever they sell wine, they say "The wine that 'Kami no Shizuku' has". Isn't that just awesome? Anyways, I'm surprise that there isn't actually a review for this so here I am, making one. One more thing, I may be bias to this manga because I am a huge fan of whenever the main character finds that he has talent of something he was never interested ... in before. And his skills keeps growing and growing as the manga proceeds.

Story: 9/10
Like what was written up there.^ The main character, Shizuku Kanzaki, is a worker in the beer company. Shizuku was never interested in wine before because of his past with them until he heard that his father was dead. His father is a famous food and wine critic. In the story he meets Tomine Issie and they are to compete each other for his father's inheritance. During his struggles, he will notice that the things that his father made him do in the past will help him in the future.

Art: 10/10
I love the art in here. It has a realistic feeling to it and find it rare to see that in some mangas. The details in here are absolutely amazing. Because of the story, the art describes of the feelings they are having. Not like the type of feeling of sadness or happiness but the feelings like when they smell or taste the wine, what they are imagining. I also like how they make the main guy look so regular and a total amateur at wine, but as something is related to wine, his looks changes to show just how serious and passion he actually has for wine.


Character: 8/10

Shizuku Kanzaki- The main character who is just a regular beer company worker. He wants to live a regular life and wants nothing with wine. Like a company dog, whenever he meets someone he automatically brings out a company card. His actions toward wine is honest and cute.

Tomine Issie- The 'Prince of Wine' and of course, quite popular with the ladies. He is a genius at wine and is supposedly Shizuku's step brother a week before Shizuku's father's death. He competes with the protagonist to gain the inheritance. He's like a typical rival, but of course, we need someone in the story who is good at wine tasting to top it up.

Shinohara- We start the manga with her. She wants to become a sommelier. She is the one who helps out the main character since he is a complete amateur when it comes to wine knowledge. She is the first one to realize his talents.


Enjoyment: 9/10
It is very easy to read and also enjoyable. If you are into rivalry, and competition things,then this story just may be for you! You don't even need to know about wine because this story will tell.


Overall: 9/10
This sums it up. Everything is great. The flaws that I have to say in here is probably because there isn't something so great to make up attach to the main characters.