This manga tells the story of the daily life of a Japanese manga artist. But not the stressful, deadline focused and nerve wrecking creative aspect! Instead the premise of this manga is the end of the workday where manga artist Hama Kenji has finished his daily dose of manga producing and is headed out for dinner with his assistants, editors or other peers. Better not read this manga, when you are hungry, because like many other food-related manga it has the strength to make food look absolutely delicious! And the people are just not stopping to shove all these tasty meals in their mouths. Each chapter I was amazed by how many these people were able to eat!
Takahiro Seguchi is the creator of this manga and I have to say that I haven’t heard of him before. Checking out his other works, the one catching my eye is his illustration work on Girly Air Force, which received an anime adaptation recently. Mangaka Settai Gohan was serialized in Shounen Ace, which also was home for popular manga series like NHK ni Youkoso, Mirrai Nikki and Nichijou.
On MAL (and in the title of the manga Magazine it was serialized in) it hints towards a Shounen demographic. However, in my opinion it could very well be a Seinen-story instead. This is because of the absence of crazy action or other interesting aspects, which are popular for readers in the Shounen demographic. I would even go so far and say, that a usual Shounen reader would find this manga boring, because “nothing much is happening”.
The chapters are mostly in episodic format. The overarching story is very minimal and the chapters are basically good to read on their own. Regarding the plot… Similar to other Slice of Life stories there is not really big of a plot. The characters are visiting different restaurants, bars and Izakayas.
While reading, I had the impression, that this could very well be some kind of auto-biography kind of work. However it just focuses on the different dishes the main character is enjoying. There is also no real ending in the sense of a “finished story” or a goal to achieve. Since every chapter is basically stand-alone, the manga could also end after volume 1 or go on for 15 more volumes. Is it boring because of this? Not necessarily, if you are used to and appreciative of Slice of Life manga.
The art style was nothing out of the world special masterpiece. But it also wasn’t bad. It wasn’t super memorable but it looked good. I liked the design of the protagonist. There was also one female character which I thought to be very attractive looking! The backgrounds actually look pretty nice as well! But what stands out the most is the unbelievable visual representation of food. I can’t believe how they can draw food this good in manga! Especially the individual sticky rice corns are looking super tasty!
The first thing I noticed when ordering the volumes is the beautiful cover design. The backgrounds on the covers look really nice and have a slight blurred effect. I could easily see myself hanging a cover artwork like this on my wall.
BUT. The covers of the volumes actually feel kind of cheap in the hand. I noticed it a lot while reading and it was my biggest negative remark while receiving the shipment. Compared to slick and smooth covers of other manga, these feel a lot “rougher” like made of a recycled or lower quality material. I haven't read unbelievable amounts of manga yet, and I will not say that this is the only manga, that has this "problem" (its not really a problem). But it was the first one I noticed it to this extent. Even other manga of the same publishing company (for example Summer Wars, also published by Kadokawa Comis A) have regular covers. That is in no way related to the art of the story of course, but the presentation of the books is something I wanted to mention.
The characters have little progression but you can see how their relationship with each other develops. If you are looking for a character-driven story, this might not be the correct choice. Because the characters are just average people straight out of real life, they are very relatable. Its easy to see yourself in the situations they end up in, because the characters are realistic like the settings and everything else. For me, average characters end up being not that memorable though and aside of the main character, I can’t recall any of the other supporting characters from the top of my head without checking the volumes.
This manga is a nice and short read. Its especially suited for people, who enjoy looking at beautiful images of food and who are not looking for an in-depth story with crazy twists or character development.
