Beauty and the Feast, Vol. 1

Yakumo-san wa Edzuke ga Shitai. #1

by Satomi U

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?

Genres: Manga, Food, Slice Of Life, Contemporary, Romance, Graphic Novels, Fiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published September 24, 2016

About the author

Name (in Japanese): 里見Ｕ

Reviews

[destiny ♡ howling libraries · Rating 3 out of 5]

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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[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Kat · Rating 1 out of 5]

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.

[Jersy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Apart from some of the usual manga quirks I'm not a huge fan of, this was pretty wholesome and cute. A young widow finds a new porpuse in life by cooking for a high school boy. I liked their relationships, how the reader gets glimpses of both of their lives and what they're lacking and how quiet and slice-of-life this is, I didn't like the jealous wannabe girlfriend and that they are hints of a romance between the protagonists.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[GONZA · Rating 1 out of 5]

Creepy

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Liv · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Jillian -always aspiring- · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[Rereader · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Alexandria · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Mehsi · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Bentgaidin · Rating 4 out of 5]

'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. :)

[Marta Varela · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5*

[nush 𐔌՞ ܸ.ˬ.ܸ՞𐦯 · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 🤿

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slice of life that was a bit too slow for me.

[Shaked Reads · Rating 1 out of 5]

i regret my life choices

[Silvy Antonio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love it this cute story awww lovely times reading it thank you to Satomi U for this cute manga 😍 thanks a lot 💕

[ismahane ❖ · Rating 2 out of 5]

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!

[Erica Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

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!

[Selena Pigoni · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

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?

[Jurnee Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Snail · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[ju⛧ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dnf. It wasn’t interesting enough to keep me going.

[Lynzi Behrmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little too boring.

[Shivangi · Rating 2 out of 5]

like idk??? it felt quite disjointed and rushed. not to mention WEIRD.

[Yuna · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok, but nothing really grabbed me enough to make me want to keep reading past the first volume.

[Stas · Rating 2 out of 5]

PASS.