She loves to cook, she also loves to confess in the moment too. Yes, things are shifting for our leads and they’re tilting in the direction of cohabitation. But, a crash course in the Japanese rental market shows that it might not be as easy as all that.
This is not my favourite series, I think it’s a little too sedate, but I have all the respect for what it’s actually doing and the amount of work that went into it. The slew of cited sources shows that this story cares to get the details right.
We get a deep dive into the perils of coming out, the rental system’s typical erasure of homosexual couples in Japan (this is mind-blowingly regressive and a reminder that manga and anime seldom reflect society), and lots of family trauma.
It’s all very real, possibly a little too research-oriented (I prefer Even Though We’re Adults, which better splits the difference between entertainment and realism), and has one of the best representations of gal pals that I’ve seen. These four get along so well, it’s often enough just watching them hang out.
Even more importantly, we get an asexual character, Yuki, who identifies as such and see her background and eventual acceptance of self. It’s always nice to have strong ace representation in stories now and then and this one is real good.
Elsewhere, Nomoto and Kasuga’s acknowledgment of their feelings is quite adorable. Nomoto having just sorted out her sexual orientation means the awkward stepping around everything and slow speed she moves at is well supported by the narrative, which is a nice touch.
Kasuga continues to have her family lurking in the background, which precipitates the need to move when they learn her address. It’s wild how incredibly awful they all are to her, really, and you can see why she wants to completely cut ties with them (Kasuga’s anxiety over expressing this to Nomoto is very culturally based, it feels).
Nagumo explores her eating disorder further and this is one particular story that I find fascinating, but also very superfluous. If it vanished from the series I don’t think I would miss it, even if blending it with the food scenes is a smart play. It’s well done, but would arguably do better in its own series.
As far as the food goes, it’s okay, but not remarkable. There are definitely better manga out there with a food focus for my money, but this gets the job done. It’s fine, but never sets things off like you want great manga food to do.
But that’s very secondary to how good the writing is with expressing the trials and triumphs of these characters. They’re all distinct and make for a great quartet of people to follow. Even things that I don’t love I acknowledge the skill behind.
5 stars - probably a four, personally, but I recognize that this is unquestionably well done and takes a far more realistic approach to things than most yuri. Actual representation handled with care deserves a big thumbs up.