(12 episodes)
What’s it about ?
Adaptation of a food porn manga.
Characters
Ryou, our protagonist, is living mostly alone (with her aunt barely having time to check on her from time to time) as she prepares for her high school entrance exams. Her parents are working abroad, and her grandmother, with whom she lived and who taught her all her cooking recipes, died a bit ago. Understandably, she’s a bit depressed (although she puts on a brave face), and feels like she’s losing her cooking talent due to having nobody to cook for and eat with.
Kirin, her cousin “from the same grade” (but two heads smaller), who’s suddenly been “invited” to visit on weekends so she can attend cram school and prepare for Ryou’s art high school’s entrance exams. That didn’t go too well with Kirin’s parents, especially as she insulted her mom’s cooking in passing. (Sure, it’s poorly presented and generic, but still.) Conversely, she loves Ryou’s elaborate cooking, and Ryou enjoys the audience.
Presumably the cast’s size will increase later on, for example featuring Ryou’s classmates ; but for now, we’re focused on Ryou and Kirin getting to know each other.
Production Values
Despite “Chief Director” Akiyuki Shinbo and studio Shaft’s names being on the credits, this barely features any of their usual quirks. It just looks very good, with maybe some artful shot composition at times. Also, Ryou has a very erotic way of eating, for no discernible reason.
Overall Impression
That was… okay, I guess ? It’s not really what I wanted out of a Shaft series ; instead, it’s some gentle comfort food, appropriately enough. Nothing wrong with it, as slice-of-life series go, and at least I didn’t fall asleep watching it ; but there’s little here to really go out of your way for.
I’m giving it another episode, but it’s on the bubble.
