fffriday | Entries tagged with manga

Happy Friday all!

I came across Run Away with Me, Girl (Kakeochi Girl) while browsing around pretty randomly and ended up quite enjoying it. It's a four-volume josei manga, with a refreshingly distinct and expressive artstyle, that I would describe as a bit of a subversion of the "S-class romance" trope: grad student Maki's childhood girlfriend Midori, who had seemed to move on as societally acceptable, shows back up in her life pregnant and engaged -- but all is not well in Midori's supposed paradise, and it's time for Maki to get serious about the title drop. The external obstacles are obvious, but I especially appreciated the depiction of their internal conflicts: each of the deuteragonists is at a different point in their journey to overcome the different ways they're inclined to acquiesce to expectations or individual pressures, and I enjoyed the difficult and imperfect ways in which they got in their own and each others' ways as they struggled with the cards they were dealt.

The first three volumes are officially available in English translation as ebooks only, but it looks like the publisher didn't pick up the fourth and final volume, which is of course where a lot of resolution happens. Unfortunate, although of course the fans picked up the slack in their own way. (See comments, I am misinformed!)

Despite the overall happy arc, the manga does cover some fairly heavy stuff and isn't a lighthearted read. ( Content notes: )

hebethen

Happy new year all! One of my last reads of 2023 was the English translation of the first volume of this cozy manga, starring an office lady who loves to cook and the tall, taciturn neighbor she meets who -- you guessed it -- loves to eat. Initially, their meeting is just a fortuitous bit of serendipity, but as they spend more time together, they start to grow fond of each other's company beyond the sharing of food.

While the story is a very mild slice-of-life, there's plenty of food porn, and even though our main character hasn't yet realized her feelings by the end of vol. 1, she's already head over heels (and indignantly defensive of her new friend). I finished it thinking it was way gayer than I expected and was delighted to see online that this was indeed followed up in future volumes -- which I will be acquiring posthaste!

(There's also apparently a live-action drama? I'm so pleased it was successful!)