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Yakumo-san wa Edzuke ga Shitai. #1
Beauty and the Feast, Vol. 1
A boy with a bottomless stomach and a lonely widow with room at her dinner table serve up a heaping helping of secret happiness in this delightful foodie rom-com!
When her husband passed away, Shuko Yakumo lost her appetite for life, and with it, her love of cooking. But her neighbor Shohei Yamato brings an end to Shuko's solitary existence. A high school baseball player living on his own, Shohei has a seemingly bottomless stomach...and this presents a challenge that Shuko is only too happy to accept! As her days begin to revolve around her secret hobby of feeding Shohei, will Shuko rediscover the happiness life has to offer?
When her husband passed away, Shuko Yakumo lost her appetite for life, and with it, her love of cooking. But her neighbor Shohei Yamato brings an end to Shuko's solitary existence. A high school baseball player living on his own, Shohei has a seemingly bottomless stomach...and this presents a challenge that Shuko is only too happy to accept! As her days begin to revolve around her secret hobby of feeding Shohei, will Shuko rediscover the happiness life has to offer?
208 pages, ebook
First published September 24, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews
March 26, 2021
Yamato is a high school baseball player living on his own, but the plates he really enjoys stepping up to are those of Yakumo, his next door neighbour. She's a 28-year-old widow and it turns out that feeding Yamato is helping to put joy back in her life. Of course, if she's not careful it might bring a little more than that with it.
Nnnnnrgh. Okay, there are two stories going on at once here and I don't dislike either one of them, but one's definitely a lot easier to go with. Yes, there are some gentle hints of an age-inapproriate romance going on here. I don't find this half as unpalatable as, say, Daytime Shooting Star since Yakumo is not technically in a position of power, she should just know better. Also, yes, sorry, having a woman in the older role makes it easier to take for me.
The other story is one of a poor widow whose grief crushed her joy of both life and cooking, and the baseball prodigy who helps her out of her loneliness and back into the world. This one's quite delightful and revels in the delight of sharing food with somebody and the special charms of a good meal. It's very reminiscent of Sweetness & Lightning, but our characters are slightly less hapless.
And these two are very good characters. Yamato might seem like a typical athlete, but it becomes quite clear that he's not particularly fussed if he does anything with his talent for baseball. He's got the skills, but his passion still hasn't found what it wants to latch on to. Yakumo is, well, she's lonely and many of her actions are spurred by her wanting to maintain her connection to Yamato, who is the big bright spot in her world right now (I am really hoping we see more of rice cooker-kun).
I could certainly do without Yamato's childhood best friend, who has some okay moments but is particularly shrill and doesn't seem to see much benefit to Yamato beyond letting her be a trophy wife. She certainly gets the right/wrong idea about things and the way Yakumo derails her with pie is pretty funny, but a little of her goes a LOOOOOONG way.
Otherwise it's very sweet and while it's not overtly romantic yet, it definitely has some moments. I think Yakumo's biggest overture is the picnic, which reads as either a calculated move or a bit of desperation for company (I do think it comes across more as the latter). Still, the art sells these little moments very well - on two occasions characters have detritus removed from their hair and it's a quiet, intimate moment both times.
3.5 stars - I really liked this. I'm not rounding up for the simple fact that I'm not sure where this is going and I'm not sure where I want it to go. I'm not going to just poo-poo this out of the gate, but I am wary of it. Still, the chemistry and charm here is more than enough to win me over for a second volume.
Nnnnnrgh. Okay, there are two stories going on at once here and I don't dislike either one of them, but one's definitely a lot easier to go with. Yes, there are some gentle hints of an age-inapproriate romance going on here. I don't find this half as unpalatable as, say, Daytime Shooting Star since Yakumo is not technically in a position of power, she should just know better. Also, yes, sorry, having a woman in the older role makes it easier to take for me.
The other story is one of a poor widow whose grief crushed her joy of both life and cooking, and the baseball prodigy who helps her out of her loneliness and back into the world. This one's quite delightful and revels in the delight of sharing food with somebody and the special charms of a good meal. It's very reminiscent of Sweetness & Lightning, but our characters are slightly less hapless.
And these two are very good characters. Yamato might seem like a typical athlete, but it becomes quite clear that he's not particularly fussed if he does anything with his talent for baseball. He's got the skills, but his passion still hasn't found what it wants to latch on to. Yakumo is, well, she's lonely and many of her actions are spurred by her wanting to maintain her connection to Yamato, who is the big bright spot in her world right now (I am really hoping we see more of rice cooker-kun).
I could certainly do without Yamato's childhood best friend, who has some okay moments but is particularly shrill and doesn't seem to see much benefit to Yamato beyond letting her be a trophy wife. She certainly gets the right/wrong idea about things and the way Yakumo derails her with pie is pretty funny, but a little of her goes a LOOOOOONG way.
Otherwise it's very sweet and while it's not overtly romantic yet, it definitely has some moments. I think Yakumo's biggest overture is the picnic, which reads as either a calculated move or a bit of desperation for company (I do think it comes across more as the latter). Still, the art sells these little moments very well - on two occasions characters have detritus removed from their hair and it's a quiet, intimate moment both times.
3.5 stars - I really liked this. I'm not rounding up for the simple fact that I'm not sure where this is going and I'm not sure where I want it to go. I'm not going to just poo-poo this out of the gate, but I am wary of it. Still, the chemistry and charm here is more than enough to win me over for a second volume.
April 11, 2024
3.5 stars
This is kind of a tough one to rate. I went into this story knowing nothing about the series other than the fact that it had a cute cover and was a slice-of-life manga, which is my favorite type of manga. I enjoyed it quite a bit and originally was going to rate it 4 stars, but I kept wondering if there was going to be a romance between the two main characters later on, because I got that feeling a bit. I kept hoping that wasn't going to be the case, given that she's 28 and he's a high school freshman (not sure what that translates to exactly in Japan, but here in the US that's 14-15 years old). As a 31-year-old woman, the idea of dating a high schooler literally makes me queasy! 😅
But when I finished the manga and came on to Goodreads to mark it as 'read', I saw that it's marketed as a rom-com series, and then I looked at the covers for some of the later books in the series, and... yeah, idk. It was cute but I'm not sure if I'll continue the series or not. I don't mind age gaps when both parties are adults, even if one of them is young (like 18-20), but a high school freshman is a totally different ballgame! (heh see what I did there) So I think I might just let this one stand on its own and pretend they're always going to be just friends or a cute big-sister-little-brother dynamic. 😌 Let me enjoy my delulu okay?!
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bookstagram | booktok | blog | storygraph
This is kind of a tough one to rate. I went into this story knowing nothing about the series other than the fact that it had a cute cover and was a slice-of-life manga, which is my favorite type of manga. I enjoyed it quite a bit and originally was going to rate it 4 stars, but I kept wondering if there was going to be a romance between the two main characters later on, because I got that feeling a bit. I kept hoping that wasn't going to be the case, given that she's 28 and he's a high school freshman (not sure what that translates to exactly in Japan, but here in the US that's 14-15 years old). As a 31-year-old woman, the idea of dating a high schooler literally makes me queasy! 😅
But when I finished the manga and came on to Goodreads to mark it as 'read', I saw that it's marketed as a rom-com series, and then I looked at the covers for some of the later books in the series, and... yeah, idk. It was cute but I'm not sure if I'll continue the series or not. I don't mind age gaps when both parties are adults, even if one of them is young (like 18-20), but a high school freshman is a totally different ballgame! (heh see what I did there) So I think I might just let this one stand on its own and pretend they're always going to be just friends or a cute big-sister-little-brother dynamic. 😌 Let me enjoy my delulu okay?!
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bookstagram | booktok | blog | storygraph
August 31, 2021
I wanted to love this because the premise is so cute, but it's yet another age-gap romance, or at least hinting at it, where the younger is a minor (I think 14-15 years old). STOP WRITING AGE GAP ROMANCES WITH MINORS!!!!!!! JUST STOP.
May 6, 2021
I really appreciate that this isn't a romance (unless it's with food) and just about two lonely people feeling less lonely by eating together.
May 16, 2024
Creepy
May 15, 2021
If you're the kind of person who loves manga or anime where they literally just eat amazing looking food, this one's for you. Cute, wholesome, and made me hungry.
October 11, 2021
I don’t know, I just didn’t really vibe with this volume. I don’t know if I will continue with the series either.
February 14, 2023
This is cute enough, but it is ecchi in some areas without the actual romance so just be aware that it is very self-aware in that regard. I like the underlying story of her relearning her love of food and cooking for others while making sure this guy gets to eat every day, and her pulling out of her shell after her husband's death. But the humor keeps it of the lighter nature for 98% of it.
September 10, 2021
I can tell this book is aimed at older guys and I just wasn't living for it. There are a lot of food manga out there, many of which have this same sort of feel. It wasn't overtly fan service oriented it just felt a little creepy to me. I kind of want it to be a sweet slice of life about food and helping out ones community but there are some romance elements with a minor that just really unsettle me.
May 5, 2022
Cute, but concerned it may get into not cool age-gap territory, so will call it quits here. Very gentle storyline though and balanced well. 3, it could go wrong, stars.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 28, 2023
Strap in folks, this is gonna be a long one.
First and foremost, let's address the elephant in the room: the age gap romance. Is this problematic? Yes, I am not going to argue with anyone about that. Does it bother me? Honestly, no. In fact, I actually find them to be really cute together and I can already understand why these two are good for each other. Does that excuse the mangaka's decision to make this an age gap romance? No, they could have easily made either Shohei older or Shuko younger, but again this doesn't bother me. Why doesn't it bother me? Mostly because, at least to me, their budding relationship was treated with care and respect towards them. Any sexual or inappropriate implications were made by other people (who we will discuss later), but the actual interactions between Shuko and Shohei were genuinely sweet and wholesome. Also, as someone who genuinely loved Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight (another age gap romance, but with the genders reversed) it would be incredibly hypocritical of me to denounce this series and not that one when, again, Shohei's and Shuko's budding relationship is being handled with care (at least in my opinion and as of right now). All this being said, I can understand why this could and will bother some people and respect others' decisions to not continue the series because of it.
With all of that out of the way, let's talk about Rui and how conflicted I am about her character. First, the positives: I actually really like how honest and unabashed she is about her motivations for being with Shohei. It is genuinely refreshing to see a love interest be so upfront about their less than pure intentions and I found it refreshing. That being said, her character is very strong (not in a good way) and having a whole chapter of her was waaaaay too much. I get why, obviously we need an entire chapter dedicated to introducing the main love rival, but boy her character was grating after awhile. Though Shuko's response, "I just don't understand kids these days," struck me on a personal level. Same Shuko, same. Finally, I have mixed feelings about how quickly her thoughts lead to something dirty when thinking of romance. On one hand, I appreciate that the manga acknowledges how dirty-minded women/girls can be (since for some reason we're still operating under the delusion all women/girls are pure, virginal flowers), but on the other hand it bothers me that the only character that views Shohei's and Shuko's budding relationship in a sexual way is the female love rival. I dunno, it just rubbed me the wrong way, can't really explain why.
All of that ranting aside, I did have fun reading this. Fan service and age gap aside, this was a cute, wholesome start to the series. I have the rest of the current volumes, hopefully it'll keep this cuteness going. We shall see.
First and foremost, let's address the elephant in the room: the age gap romance. Is this problematic? Yes, I am not going to argue with anyone about that. Does it bother me? Honestly, no. In fact, I actually find them to be really cute together and I can already understand why these two are good for each other. Does that excuse the mangaka's decision to make this an age gap romance? No, they could have easily made either Shohei older or Shuko younger, but again this doesn't bother me. Why doesn't it bother me? Mostly because, at least to me, their budding relationship was treated with care and respect towards them. Any sexual or inappropriate implications were made by other people (who we will discuss later), but the actual interactions between Shuko and Shohei were genuinely sweet and wholesome. Also, as someone who genuinely loved Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight (another age gap romance, but with the genders reversed) it would be incredibly hypocritical of me to denounce this series and not that one when, again, Shohei's and Shuko's budding relationship is being handled with care (at least in my opinion and as of right now). All this being said, I can understand why this could and will bother some people and respect others' decisions to not continue the series because of it.
With all of that out of the way, let's talk about Rui and how conflicted I am about her character. First, the positives: I actually really like how honest and unabashed she is about her motivations for being with Shohei. It is genuinely refreshing to see a love interest be so upfront about their less than pure intentions and I found it refreshing. That being said, her character is very strong (not in a good way) and having a whole chapter of her was waaaaay too much. I get why, obviously we need an entire chapter dedicated to introducing the main love rival, but boy her character was grating after awhile. Though Shuko's response, "I just don't understand kids these days," struck me on a personal level. Same Shuko, same. Finally, I have mixed feelings about how quickly her thoughts lead to something dirty when thinking of romance. On one hand, I appreciate that the manga acknowledges how dirty-minded women/girls can be (since for some reason we're still operating under the delusion all women/girls are pure, virginal flowers), but on the other hand it bothers me that the only character that views Shohei's and Shuko's budding relationship in a sexual way is the female love rival. I dunno, it just rubbed me the wrong way, can't really explain why.
All of that ranting aside, I did have fun reading this. Fan service and age gap aside, this was a cute, wholesome start to the series. I have the rest of the current volumes, hopefully it'll keep this cuteness going. We shall see.
January 19, 2024
Yes, the age gap was a iffy, but so far I haven't really seen any romantic stuff happening, just a widowed woman aged 28 (poor woman) and a 16/17 year old boy who in the same apartment building and does sports eating together. She is just so happy to have someone in her home/being able to feed someone and make someone happy. That picnic scene, you can see it in two ways, I just saw a lonely woman who wanted to bring back some memories and enjoy the scenery after so many years of being alone. I do hope that it sticks to platonic and friendly and her just wanting the company. Not going for romance because then it will be a hard pass for me. Very hard pass. I loved reading about the food though and I loved how she kept thinking on what to make.
I wasn't a fan of the girl at school who proclaimed herself to be the love interest but was just annoying, a stalker, and hopefully won't get a lot of screentime.
I wasn't a fan of the girl at school who proclaimed herself to be the love interest but was just annoying, a stalker, and hopefully won't get a lot of screentime.
April 3, 2021
'Beauty and the Feast' is a manga I picked up because lately I've been enjoying things with a theme of cooking bringing people together -- in this case, a young widow and a high school athlete. It's cute and got good expressive art; I'm not thrilled about the way they keep slipping into drawing this as though it's going to be romantic between these two given that he's a first-year high school student and she's nearly a decade older, but when they're interacting most of the time it's more like she's adopted a young neighbor whose enthusiasm for her cooking delights her. It's pretty self indulgent; I'd love to be either side of this equation, either the person whose only responsibility is to cook something delicious for another to enjoy, or the person who gets handed new delicious food each day while they try their best; but I think this is pretty universally enjoyable because who _doesn't_ like good food? I'm going to check out the next volume as they've started introducing more characters; I'd like to see if she's going to start cooking for a whole group. :)
June 28, 2023
so cute🥰
yakumo reminds me of asako from sweat and soap (they look alike and their mannerisms are very similar) and i fucking love sweat and soap
excited to dive into the second volume 🤿
yakumo reminds me of asako from sweat and soap (they look alike and their mannerisms are very similar) and i fucking love sweat and soap
excited to dive into the second volume 🤿
September 4, 2024
i regret my life choices
October 7, 2023
Love it this cute story awww lovely times reading it thank you to Satomi U for this cute manga 😍 thanks a lot 💕
June 12, 2023
Rating: 2.5 🌟
i got this on a whim off of my library, cuz it had a cool cover art! i prolly shoulda read the synopsis or reviews tho, cuz i can’t for the life of me tell you what this is about. also the vibes it’s giving off are of the creepy-pedo variety, so i won’t be continuing with the future volumes. the art was really pretty tho, and the panels were pretty cool!
i got this on a whim off of my library, cuz it had a cool cover art! i prolly shoulda read the synopsis or reviews tho, cuz i can’t for the life of me tell you what this is about. also the vibes it’s giving off are of the creepy-pedo variety, so i won’t be continuing with the future volumes. the art was really pretty tho, and the panels were pretty cool!
April 10, 2023
Truly addicting! I love the plot and the characters chosen: a widow who is an amazing cook and a boy with a bottomless appetite! The drawings are super cute as well as the cover. I have four volumes now!
June 16, 2022
Okay, but not the feast I wanted
I'm a sucker for pun titles. Especially when those puns reference Beauty and the Beast.
Sadly, this has little to do with the fairy tale, but I knew that going in.
What I'd hoped for was a foodie manga like Sweetness and Lightning or Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu. You know, something where you get to see the cooking process and admire the delicious food once it's plated. This... didn't have that.
It's pretty much just a slice-of-life about a young widowed woman and the boy next door who she enjoys cooking for. It's fairly harmless (there doesn't seem to be any romantic tension as of volume1, thankfully), but there's not much to it. She does a thing, cooks, feeds the starving high school boy, ends of chapter. Repeat. It feels... hollow somehow.
They don't seem to build much of a relationship, they don't learn or grow, they don't even talk that much.
There are points that were amusing, but mostly, I was bored with this one. It's not bad, but it's not really worth the read either.
I'm a sucker for pun titles. Especially when those puns reference Beauty and the Beast.
Sadly, this has little to do with the fairy tale, but I knew that going in.
What I'd hoped for was a foodie manga like Sweetness and Lightning or Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu. You know, something where you get to see the cooking process and admire the delicious food once it's plated. This... didn't have that.
It's pretty much just a slice-of-life about a young widowed woman and the boy next door who she enjoys cooking for. It's fairly harmless (there doesn't seem to be any romantic tension as of volume1, thankfully), but there's not much to it. She does a thing, cooks, feeds the starving high school boy, ends of chapter. Repeat. It feels... hollow somehow.
They don't seem to build much of a relationship, they don't learn or grow, they don't even talk that much.
There are points that were amusing, but mostly, I was bored with this one. It's not bad, but it's not really worth the read either.
December 23, 2021
3.5 out of 5.0 stars.
Cute! But I'm bracing myself for possible uncomfortable situations in future volumes.
I think it's a little sad that we (the readers) are expecting an awkward age-inappropriate affair to happen between Shuko and Shohei is because, living in 2021, nobody can be innocent anymore. We're all thinking like Rui -- why would a beautiful twenty-eight year old woman use her time and resources feeding a teenage boy if she didn't have an ulterior sexual motive? And in his turn, how could a typical teen like Shohei resist the allure of the b00bs and the extra helpings of rice that Shuko is freely offering him? Can't Shuko just be the kind neighbor?
Cute! But I'm bracing myself for possible uncomfortable situations in future volumes.
I think it's a little sad that we (the readers) are expecting an awkward age-inappropriate affair to happen between Shuko and Shohei is because, living in 2021, nobody can be innocent anymore. We're all thinking like Rui -- why would a beautiful twenty-eight year old woman use her time and resources feeding a teenage boy if she didn't have an ulterior sexual motive? And in his turn, how could a typical teen like Shohei resist the allure of the b00bs and the extra helpings of rice that Shuko is freely offering him? Can't Shuko just be the kind neighbor?
November 25, 2023
Very cute!! I loved looking at the food lol. I am hoping this does not turn into an age gap relationship bc she’s 28 and he’s like 14/15? I hope it’s more like a mother/son, big sister/little brother type of relationship that is just sweet and wholesome. But if she goes an gets a bf her age, that would be fun too.
January 14, 2023
I like stories about people enjoying food, but the art in this manga was kind of all over the place, and the characters were shallow in a way that wasn’t really charming. Not planning to read any more of this.
December 31, 2021
Dnf. It wasn’t interesting enough to keep me going.
May 30, 2022
A little too boring.
July 25, 2022
like idk??? it felt quite disjointed and rushed. not to mention WEIRD.
September 9, 2022
It was ok, but nothing really grabbed me enough to make me want to keep reading past the first volume.
January 4, 2024
This started off charmingly; our heroine Shuko loves to cook and she wants someone to eat her food, and she has a neighbour (Shohei) who is a high school athlete living by himself with no time to cook even if he wanted to, so why not feed him? Shohei has a huge appetite due to the combination of being a teenage boy + houts of daily baseball practise, and she enjoys trying to figure out what foods he'll enjoy and how to make enough quantity that he'll be satisfied.
My first hint of a red flag is that she never eats with him -- she cooks and then just sits there watching him eat and occasionally jumps up to get him more rice. Why wouldn't she enjoy a meal with him? Does she like food or just being of service? And then the next red flag hit -- there's a nice sequence of her doing her everyday chores, and then her breasts sit down to have tea. No, I didn't typo there, we don't see her face as she relaxes after working, we see *her breasts* by the teacup -- at which point it was VERY clear what genre we're in! Yes, this is the fantasy world in which huge-breasted women want nothing more than to be of service to teenage boys, making them vast quantities of delicious food, waiting on them hand and foot, and eventually, one assumes, offering other services as well...
I get it as a fantasy, but it's misogynstic as heck, and it's made even worse by the fact that Shuko is 28 and Shohei is 16. There's nothing inherently suspicious about an older woman making dinner for a lonely teenage boy, and the book could've been a sweet-natured story about found family and an adult finding some meaning after tragedy by helping out a kid, but the breasts-and-butt art choices make it very clear it's not going to be that kind of story. At the point that she's waiting outside of his school to take him on a cherry blossom viewng picnic, and at the end of the evening confesses that she really was waiting *for him* because she wanted to see the cherry blossoms *with him* I was -- disgusted. She is an adult person and he is a child; there is a huge power imbalanace here and to pretend that somehow he has the advantage because he's male is the sort of patriarchal nonsense that leads to child abuse. I am sure that over the course of the story they will fall for each other and it will be played as a peer relationship even though 28 and 16 are not actually peers, and the fact that this is grooming is going to be ignored because, you know, fantasy, but UGH. Why not put him in his first year of college? Everything else could stay the same, there could even be the age gap for those that like that sort of thing, but at least he'd be legally an adult!
If anyone reading this had a similar reaction to this, may I recommend She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat, Vol. 1 (Volume 1) instead? That's a manga about two adult women making food FOR EACH OTHER and developing a relationship as they do so. It has the same kind of lovingly drawn meals and shopping for cheap meat and buying bigger rice cookers that this one offers, but without the misogyny and pedophilia!
My first hint of a red flag is that she never eats with him -- she cooks and then just sits there watching him eat and occasionally jumps up to get him more rice. Why wouldn't she enjoy a meal with him? Does she like food or just being of service? And then the next red flag hit -- there's a nice sequence of her doing her everyday chores, and then her breasts sit down to have tea. No, I didn't typo there, we don't see her face as she relaxes after working, we see *her breasts* by the teacup -- at which point it was VERY clear what genre we're in! Yes, this is the fantasy world in which huge-breasted women want nothing more than to be of service to teenage boys, making them vast quantities of delicious food, waiting on them hand and foot, and eventually, one assumes, offering other services as well...
I get it as a fantasy, but it's misogynstic as heck, and it's made even worse by the fact that Shuko is 28 and Shohei is 16. There's nothing inherently suspicious about an older woman making dinner for a lonely teenage boy, and the book could've been a sweet-natured story about found family and an adult finding some meaning after tragedy by helping out a kid, but the breasts-and-butt art choices make it very clear it's not going to be that kind of story. At the point that she's waiting outside of his school to take him on a cherry blossom viewng picnic, and at the end of the evening confesses that she really was waiting *for him* because she wanted to see the cherry blossoms *with him* I was -- disgusted. She is an adult person and he is a child; there is a huge power imbalanace here and to pretend that somehow he has the advantage because he's male is the sort of patriarchal nonsense that leads to child abuse. I am sure that over the course of the story they will fall for each other and it will be played as a peer relationship even though 28 and 16 are not actually peers, and the fact that this is grooming is going to be ignored because, you know, fantasy, but UGH. Why not put him in his first year of college? Everything else could stay the same, there could even be the age gap for those that like that sort of thing, but at least he'd be legally an adult!
If anyone reading this had a similar reaction to this, may I recommend She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat, Vol. 1 (Volume 1) instead? That's a manga about two adult women making food FOR EACH OTHER and developing a relationship as they do so. It has the same kind of lovingly drawn meals and shopping for cheap meat and buying bigger rice cookers that this one offers, but without the misogyny and pedophilia!
April 10, 2024
"Cooking done with care is an act of love." - Craig Claiborne
Beauty and the Feast (title localized from 八雲さんは餌づけがしたい, which roughly translates to Yakumo-san wants to feed.) tells the story of the Shuko Yakumo, who has lost her appetite for life and her love of cooking since the death of her husband.
Enter Yakumo's new neighbour, highschool baseball player, Shohei Yamato. Shohei is a growing young man with a large appetite, and when Yakumo brings over some riceballs in a spur of the moment act of kindness, their interaction rekindles Yakumo's love of cooking for another person. The manga follows their deepening relationship through sharing meals together, and how they grow from each other.
But, what about the IMPLICATIONS of an INAPPROPRIATE AGE-GAP ROMANCE?
If age-gap relationships bother you, this manga isn't for you. This is a manga, it isn't real life. However if you need your fictional media to parallel and reflect your real world values, then this isn't for you. There are small but perceptible hints at a potential romance, and if that makes you uncomfortable, give this one a miss.
Beauty and the Feast is incredibly cute, even wholesome. Yakumo and Shouhei are both very cute. It's rare to pick up a first volume and so quickly feel fond of the characters, but Beauty and the Feast has done it. The characters are fun in a simple way, including the extended cast, who we get to meet a little in this first volume, and even though not a lot happens plotwise, it's a healing read.
I'm going to guess the over-arching "drama" of the series is Yakumo/Shouhei hiding their dinner-rendezvous from others (eg. Shouhei's classmates, who already are spreading rumours about it somehow), and potentially things going in a more romantic direction between Yakumo/Shouhei? I'm interested to see where the series progresses, and how the characters develop.
The food is also quite nicely drawn, and reading this might make you hungry (or want to buy a better rice cooker).
★★★★☆ 4/5. More please! With a liiiiiittle bit more plot on top, that'd be perfect!
Thank you ImCaek for gifting this manga via my Throne wishlist!
Beauty and the Feast (title localized from 八雲さんは餌づけがしたい, which roughly translates to Yakumo-san wants to feed.) tells the story of the Shuko Yakumo, who has lost her appetite for life and her love of cooking since the death of her husband.
Enter Yakumo's new neighbour, highschool baseball player, Shohei Yamato. Shohei is a growing young man with a large appetite, and when Yakumo brings over some riceballs in a spur of the moment act of kindness, their interaction rekindles Yakumo's love of cooking for another person. The manga follows their deepening relationship through sharing meals together, and how they grow from each other.
But, what about the IMPLICATIONS of an INAPPROPRIATE AGE-GAP ROMANCE?
If age-gap relationships bother you, this manga isn't for you. This is a manga, it isn't real life. However if you need your fictional media to parallel and reflect your real world values, then this isn't for you. There are small but perceptible hints at a potential romance, and if that makes you uncomfortable, give this one a miss.
Beauty and the Feast is incredibly cute, even wholesome. Yakumo and Shouhei are both very cute. It's rare to pick up a first volume and so quickly feel fond of the characters, but Beauty and the Feast has done it. The characters are fun in a simple way, including the extended cast, who we get to meet a little in this first volume, and even though not a lot happens plotwise, it's a healing read.
I'm going to guess the over-arching "drama" of the series is Yakumo/Shouhei hiding their dinner-rendezvous from others (eg. Shouhei's classmates, who already are spreading rumours about it somehow), and potentially things going in a more romantic direction between Yakumo/Shouhei? I'm interested to see where the series progresses, and how the characters develop.
The food is also quite nicely drawn, and reading this might make you hungry (or want to buy a better rice cooker).
★★★★☆ 4/5. More please! With a liiiiiittle bit more plot on top, that'd be perfect!
Thank you ImCaek for gifting this manga via my Throne wishlist!
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