sucreslibrary's reviews
1109 reviews

it's been probably close to a decade since i saw the movie (rented from the local library!) and i received this gorgeous 30th anniversary edition as a present. the manga has just as much dynamism as the film did, and it's a joy just to be immersed in this world even with all the darkness around it.

i (mostly) get why a lot of ppl rated this lowly, but the sensuality + eroticism of food mixed with the often contradictory messages and ethics of the various women really worked for me! is it a little too long? yeah. is it very on-the-nose with its messaging? sure. there's a lot of times where the main character is very plainly spelling out her own musings on how the various women in the story are dealing with societal pressure + the unfairness of it all. but that didn't irk me as much in this book as it has in others, possibly because the way the character works on her own sense-of-self, with a big part of that untangling expectations of women and the country she lives in, made it feel more real.

there isn't anything truly radical in this book, but seeing how even in 2024 people will lose their minds when a person is accepting of or even desiring weight gain, it does feel a little subversive that the main character in this novel continues to seek out food (with lots of butter!) even when everyone around her is getting on her for her weight. i will say that ppl's weights are discussed a lot (complete with specific numbers brought up many times) and there is a lot of fatphobia bandied about, so if that's something that's triggering then ppl should sit it out.

weak writing really killed this one for me even if the idea is interesting. the way slang was used felt wrong and very much like a dad trying so hard to sound hip. the "humor" in this is really weak and feels stuck in the early 2000s despite it being set in 2012 - 2019, and the way women were written was pretty awful but that goes for all the characters. i can appreciate a good b-movie reading one, especially one with such weak writing, isn't as fun. i should probably swear off indie-published horror even if i'm just looking for a quick read when i can't sleep.

it's cute, but there is zero plot and the characters feel a little OOC to me in a fan service-y way. i think qifrey and olruggio are very cute together but parts of this just felt a little forced! not sure if i'll continue in the series just b/c these kinds of recipe-heavy manga aren't always my fave (i like manga where food and sharing meals is an important component, but the actual recipe parts tend to lose me and this manga is 85% recipes and 15% anything else)