Gentle family moments with lots of cooking. The mild adventures include taking in a stray cat, going camping with friends, and being separated as teacher dad chaperones a class trip while his daughter stays with grandparents.
A crush is finally admitted, indirectly, to a third party, but it is handled well, and my initial fears about the direction of the series seem to be wrong, which is a relief.
Having reached the halfway point, I'm going to continue on through to the end.
FOR REFERENCE:
Contents: Chapter 26. A Cat, Tsumugi, and Corn Soup -- Chapter 27. Camping Bread and the Magical Girls -- Chapter 28. Uncle and Sanma -- Chapter 29. Rice Balls and a School Trip -- Chapter 30. Welcome Home and Chicken Cream Stew -- How Can You Hate It If You've Never Tried It? -- Afterword -- Translation Notes -- Next Volume
Tsumugi finds a lost cat near her home and quickly bonds with it and she and her father go on a camping trip with friends where she learns that one of them will be going to another school. Later Kouhei’s brother, a stressed workaholic visits and they have a grand fish dinner and he goes on a class trip with his students where Kotori bonds with a distant peer. Tsumugi, on the other hand, has a wonderful stay with her grandmother and when our trio reunite, they have a unique chicken dinner. A (100%/Outstanding)
Not me crying when the little girl visits her dad’s family in the country and has a wonderful time, plus an emotional connection with great grandma… nope, these are not tears!
And the other chapters are good too. Dad had a funny moment realizing his little girl is growing up, and the third main character, teen girl, has some nice conversations with her friends about likes, loves, friendships, and putting them in the same space. Even if interests and life don’t always align.
This is the best volume of the series so far. The parts with Tsumugi's great grandmother were incredible, and I loved Kotori's confession in the stairwell. Her friend had good advice. It's really an awesome series.
There’s a lot that happened here, the school trip was fun, still hate they’re trying to low key push a romance between student and teacher but looks like it’s very minor now. The grandparents are what make this volume tho, the love and interaction they have with Tsumugi is so nice, being real with her. Some touching moments here, I’m used to getting contents like this like once a volume but to have it all back to back essentially was big
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This volume seemed a lot more focused on the lives of the characters than just cooking. It was refreshing to see them in different locations and incorporating food into their activities and not just cooking for the heck of it. The book also delved into a few sad topics but it was written in a way that over me feeling hopeful and warm. Good volume!
I didn't really know what to expect going into this manga. It's a cute story about a widower single father learning to cook for his daughter. The meals sound very tasty and I've definitely jotted down a couple recipes to try for myself.
It's a little one note but it's cute for what it is and enjoyable. I plan on watching the anime as well
3.5 Stars Halfway through this manga series now and not much has changed, and I think that’s my big problem with slice of life manga/animes is that nothing really changes. It’s just mundane day to day, which is fine just not enough to ever really get me to fully love it. Will be finishing this series though, as it’s really cute and enjoyable just nothing spectacular.
Another adorable installment. I particularly enjoyed Tsumugi’s interactions with her great grandma. Both the scene where she said “the demon is gone” when her uncle left, and the panel where’s she’s watching the cat poop made me laugh.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
A cut story about a single father and his little daughter and how they find balance in their lives through the (food and) relationships they build around themselves.
So a while back, I decided to start reading 'Sweetness and Lightning' because it seemed cute and I liked the art, plus I knew it involved cooking and I like stories about food. But I mean it wholeheartedly when I say this was one of the most boring manga series I have ever read.
This series introduced me to one of the most annoying tropes to ever appear in manga: cooking monologues. It basically just serves the place of a recipe. A character will describe the steps aloud in painful detail, and there will be a couple vaguely interesting shots where you get to sort of see what they're doing. And inevitably, the food always turns out perfect. It never needs a bit more salt, it's never a bit undercooked, it is ALWAYS perfect. Which is another thing that bothers me so much about this series. They're supposed to be amateur cooks, right? So there's supposed to be these stakes because they never know if the dish is going to turn out okay. BUT THEY NEVER MESS UP. NEVER. Not ONCE in this series have I seen them mess up. Their dishes always turn out perfect, and it gets so boring to watch the author attempt to create tension because oh noes!!! The c-c-cookies m-m-might come out... b-bad!!! But of course, they NEVER turn out bad. There are a few other things that happen, like a character getting sick, but it's never intense or interesting and then it gets right back to reading what is essentially a manga cookbook.
They also tried to whip up some romance between the high-school age girl (she's about... maybe sixteen?) and the main character, who is her MATH TEACHER, and is about 22-26 years old. Yikes. I think it was one-sided (the girl crushing on the teacher) but... still.
We're nearing the end of summer! Tsumugi gets a pet, performs some magic, and goes on a trip to great-grannie's house.
In the meantime, we meet Kohei's brother and the girls discuss romance vs. food. Sadly, Kotori is confirmed to like her teacher. But hopefully the rationalization of those feelings will turn them platonic.
Honestly I don't have much to say about this volume other than it was super cute (mainly because I got distracted after finishing and didn't write the review right away). I like the way some of the characters were developing in this volume, and it was interesting seeing Inuzuka's family.