Dipping my fingers into the slice of life genre, this story does the non-fresh aspect of the story, with slivers of a better story lying behind. The simple dynamic right on the synopsis, unchanging, unmoving, and all about looking at the slowest progression of the bonds we make from the smallest of coincidences. Everything that happens around the story centers around the food that's presented by Yakumo, a widow that's reminded of her husband by the very person eating her meals, a neighbor.
The story's as simple as that, days starts, both have problems around that day that stresses them out, they meet, eat a warm meal while bonding, rinse and repeat. The repetitiveness did start to grind at me. This is a series that works as a weekly watch, but not as a read from beginning to end. A pallet cleanser, but not a full course. Maybe the mistake was watching it constantly instead of alternating, but if it fails as a straight watch, it speaks volumes about how it doesn't work on some levels. I was bored constantly at the beginning of the midpoint. I couldn't bare again the same thing again and again without change or interesting moment. Sadly, there were parts that explored the grief, and the concept of toxic replacement, including that age gap the characters share, but it didn't lead anywhere. The great didn't try, and the normal stayed for far too long.
The characters had to be great for this to work, and even with them, the story needs compelling aspects. Only our protagonist shows the layers necessary to carry the story. A widow that longs for connection, and finds it in the people around her neighbor. She's the star, but we required something to foil her dynamic, and it didn't work for me. The minor characters had way better moments than the ones we spend most time in. I wish we had something more to cling to, since the great moments are far in between.
However, the art felt very cozy. Not a perfect feel, not an extremely polished nature, but diverse enough to keep my eyes on the pages. It manages to capture angles, expressions, focusing on the eyes and how they communicate feelings. I enjoyed it, as well as how the expressions on characters spoke more about them than the text itself. Again, there was care put into the ideas, but not enough interest and focus for the rest.
This manga had it all to be an extremely memorable Slice of life. It wasted its potential by focusing on the extremely mundane aspects of the story, and the last conflict wasn't even that interesting, except for the very end. I liked the ending it got, but it wasn't entirely worth it.
6/10, I wish it wasn't that long.
