This is a cooking slice of life that revolves around a middle-aged gay couple. The first volume is mainly focused on Shiro as he works as a lawyer, shops for groceries, and prepares elaborate meals for his live-in partner, Kenji. There are also scenes of Kenji working as a hairstylist. Chapters usually end with the couple eating together.
The shopping/cooking scenes are by far the best parts, and there are some interesting meals and cooking tips. This reads like a healthy, practical Japanese cooking blog at times. It could be fun to try out some of the recipes, but to be honest there weren't many in the chapters I read that blew me away or inspired me (especially when compared to other, more creative cooking manga...but I realize this is also a matter of taste). To get an idea of the types of foods cooked, recipes include: strawberry jam, sardines simmered in pickled plums, stewed eggplant and tomatoes, oven-roasted chicken, chestnut rice, etc. etc.
The art style is clean and simple with a pleasant softness. The cooking scenes look impressive sometimes. The characters look fine, but there's not much about their designs, facial expressions, wardrobes, posing/positioning etc. that really stands out. Backgrounds are sometimes detailed (e.g. in shopping and cooking scenes), but more often they're lackluster or blank. The physical copy is cute enough with good-sized pages and a comfortably flexible spine that made reading this volume easy and speedy.
So, for a cooking slice of life with serviceable-but-uninspired cooking scenes, pleasing-but-plain art, and little-to-no world-building, the characters and dialogue should be high quality to make up for it - but, here's where I was really disappointed.
The characters were a huge letdown. I didn't gravitate towards any of them. There were no exciting, funny, or alluring characters to keep the pages turning. I wasn't super enthusiastic about spending time with them. None of the secondary characters were memorable. There was hardly anything fun, compelling, charming, or intriguing about the conversations, interactions, and dynamics between the characters.
Apart from Shiro's cooking talents, he is so unlikeable. He's arrogant, cold, rude...and not much else. He's mean to Kenji and sometimes seems to loathe him.
Kenji is...? He's...more "flamboyant"? He's...into Shiro more than Shiro's into him? He's...a little jealous and possessive? He's...not a particularly well-rounded or developed character (not that Shiro is all that well-rounded but at least he's more developed since more time is spent with him).
There are a lot of homophobic assumptions and stereotypes woven into the storyline and dialogue, and they spill over into the ways the two leads interact with their friends/co-workers and with each other.
There is no love or affection shown *at all* between Shiro and Kenji. Other than living together and stating that they are in a relationship, there is no other indication that these two characters have any sort of chemistry or special bond. No hugs or hand-holding. No sweet words or phrases. No thoughtful or romantic gestures (other than Shiro cooking for Kenji and Kenji being grateful that he has a hot partner that cooks for him). No vulnerable moments together, no intimate conversations, no "weight" from their supposed shared history...
This is apparently a long-term romantic couple living together and there's just...nothing! They don't even seem like friends. They are more like bickering roommates who eat together but otherwise barely tolerate one another. Shiro shows more affection and kindness towards a married woman he met at the supermarket that he occasionally cooks with than his own partner.
I dunno, it kinda depressed me. I felt sad for them both. They seem unhappy, maybe even a little bitter. At the very least, they're in a rut. I think media can explore relationships like that in fascinating ways, but that kind of thing is really not the focus for this story...so, for a simple cooking slice of life manga to center a couple that acts like this towards one another? It was just odd and unpleasant. There were moments I felt like stopping but I wanted to finish the volume I purchased. In the end, I didn't care to learn more about these characters or the world they live in.
There's a lot of appeal for a slice of life about a middle-aged gay couple (bonus points for the culinary angle), so I understand why plenty of people seem to enjoy this. Stories like that are few and far between. Perhaps later chapters are better than the ones I read, so if it still piques someone's interest I say give it a shot. Maybe certain things about this will resonate with others in ways that simply didn't with me. But anyway, this was my underwhelming experience.
Story: Average (5/10)
Art: Fine (6/10)
Character: Very Bad (3/10)
Enjoyment: Bad (4/10)
Overall: Average (4.5/10 rounded up to 5/10)
Status: Dropped after one volume
