Amaama to Inazuma
Sweetness and Lightning

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The manga is about a single dad raising his daughter with the help of people around them, focusing mostly on the food and their daily lives. Each chapter includes a new recipe they learn together, there’s no weird relationships. Among other mangas, this one captured the daugher-father relationship really well. I found that as the story progresses, it gets better and better. The first thing that made me interested was the manga’s art and it never dissapointed me with various expressions and character designs. There’s so much improvement in each character, especially Tsumugi since she’s a child, both in appearance and behavior. The ... only thing I can complain is that sometimes it explained the cooking process in too much detail, more so in the earlier chapters.

Each of the characters were lovable. Especially Tsumugi, she is a literal angel. Her childness, imagination and way of dealing with problems were so cute.

If you’re looking for a heartwarming, cute and delicious manga, check it out! Make sure to read the special chapters too since they include the characters’ older selves.

tl;dr: A manga about beginners learning to cook that handles the relationship between a single father and daughter really well, but does a much worse job with the other main character.

This manga is primarily about three characters: a single father and high school teacher named Kouhei, ; Kouhei’s five year old daughter named Tsumugi,; and the daughter of a celebrity chef and one of Kouhei’s student named Kotori. The core of why they’re all together is that Kouhei and Kotori both aren’t really good at cooking but have a desire to learn, and thus they decide to do so together. The actual cooking isn’t just ... a backdrop as is the case with some manga, but rather is a very important aspect that a lot of detail and time is dedicated to. However, beyond that there is also a large emphasis on each of them just living their lives together alongside their family and friends, and thus a heavy dose of slice of life.

With Kouhei and Tsumugi the relationship is exactly what you would expect but written pretty well. Kouhei is a very straightforward and kind father doing his best to raise Tsumugi on his own, and though he feels inadequate at times he pushes through to be the best parent he can be. Tsumugi is an energetic tomboy that can act spoiled and even mean at times as kids often do, but is clearly genuinely very good at heart. The focus here is very much on Tsumugi with Kouhei essentially acting as a supporting role to her, but because Tsumugi is what Kouhei lives for and is involved with every aspect of her life as you would expect, it essentially feels like he’s getting focused on equally. There’s a lot of heartwarming and adorable moments with the two that are enjoyable to read. That Tsumugi also goes through so much character growth also feels really satisfying, and though it was definitely rushed the speed run at the end was also really appreciated and a great way to end the series.

How Kotori fits into things is a lot messier and in the end, I don’t feel it was handled all that well. Kotori has a light crush on Kouhei, who I will once again note is her teacher. Thus, she essentially decided she isn’t going to act on it and thus for the vast majority of the manga there is absolutely no progress in this regard at all. However, despite that she’s still heavily involved with both Kouhei and Tsumugi, and she ends up coming to care tremendously about Tsumugi as well. Thus, the bond between Kotori and Tsumugi was also pretty great, in that it has an older sister like dynamic to it with some really heartwarming moments too.

The problems arise from the final stretch around her graduation and beyond where it felt like the author wasn’t sure what she wanted to do with Kotori and her relationship with Kouhei and Tsumugi. At times it seems to emphasize her bond with Tsumugi and felt like it was trying to push that she wasn’t romantically in love with Kouhei, and both Kouhei and Tsumugi also wanted to remain close her in such a manner. But even after that she still seemed romantically interested at times and Tsumugi also seemed like she wanted for them to get together at points with even Kouhei showing some interest at the end, though ultimately the manga ends before things are made clear. If the author wanted the relationship to be romantic, it should have clearly been made romantic, and if the author wanted it to be non-romantic, it should have been clearly made non-romantic and emphasized the non-romantic parts. Doing things halfheartedly felt like it spends time doing nothing at all. Additionally, I don’t think the manga did a good job with her character arc or her relationship with her parents either with a lot of it feeling pretty rushed or sudden. Kotori felt like a key part of the manga early on and I think it managed to build up solid investment in her story, but then didn’t really deal with her all that well which I feel was unfair to her and was a major disappointment with the series as a whole.

I will also note that I’m not much of a fan of cooking in general, but the cooking aspect in the anime still managed to capture my interest due to the way things were presented, structured, and paced. Unfortunately, the manga doesn’t manage to capture that and the cooking portions in general weren’t interesting to me beyond the context of how they fit into the story. This is especially true of the later portions of the manga where it felt like it was dealing with more complicated dishes a lot more quickly.

The art was okay in terms of style and quality but never great, even on covers or color pages. The character designs were solid for a grounded manga like this.

Having tried to watch the anime and read the manga, I think I've had enough of this series in general. Not only are the characters shallow, the plot is monotonous and there is absolutely no important development. I've seen and read some decent (and good) slice of life manga and anime, and this just doesn't cut it for me.

Story: 5. It was cute and exciting at first, but it gets hard to keep up the antic for the series in general. Although it does teach about cooking, you'd be better off watching a Japanese cooking show (more detail and better commentary as well). Having ... such a monotonous plot even for a slice of life is a bit too much. It's not that hard not having just food be the center of every single chapter.

Art: 8. Undoubtedly the best part of this series. If you can read something just for the art, this series is for you. The artist has truly found a unique style which gives the whole atmosphere of the manga a lighthearted feel to it.

Characters: 4. Honestly, it could be lower because the characters scream one-dimensional which drives me insane. Sure, the author is trying to focus on the food, but the characters need some more love development and attention wise because that's where you really get the engagement from the audience.

Overall: 5. I enjoyed it in the beginning, but too much of a good thing is not a good thing. I'm honestly quite sad to leave such a negative review after such a promising exposition, but I really just could not stand the stale plot and characters by the end of it.