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Yakumo-san wa Edzuke ga Shitai. #11
Beauty and the Feast 11
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!
A humble dinner table brought a lonely widow and a hungry young baseball player together. But spring brings changes on the wind... Yamato, soon to be a second-year, will move from his apartment into the school dorms, a change that spells the end of his meal arrangement with Shuko.
One night in April, Shuko goes to visit the same blooming cherry blossom tree that she did the year before, only to find someone waiting for her...
In this shocking final volume, the tale of the beauty and the feast comes to a delicious and satisfying conclusion!
A humble dinner table brought a lonely widow and a hungry young baseball player together. But spring brings changes on the wind... Yamato, soon to be a second-year, will move from his apartment into the school dorms, a change that spells the end of his meal arrangement with Shuko.
One night in April, Shuko goes to visit the same blooming cherry blossom tree that she did the year before, only to find someone waiting for her...
In this shocking final volume, the tale of the beauty and the feast comes to a delicious and satisfying conclusion!
176 pages, Paperback
First published March 25, 2021
3 people are currently reading
34 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 22, 2023
I really don't know how to feel about this story. There is some self-awareness with Yakumo, but even though they all get older, I don't think anything actually changes for her. Also, it is pretty heavily implied that she and Yamato are now together... did we ever figure out her age? Also, how does she afford an apartment in Tokyo when she works part-time... like barely.
But it is sweet, the food looks yummy, and the sense of eating together giving people warmth and comfort transfers to the reader as well. So, I'm glad I read this series.
But it is sweet, the food looks yummy, and the sense of eating together giving people warmth and comfort transfers to the reader as well. So, I'm glad I read this series.
November 23, 2023
With Yamato moving to the dorms, its last orders for his cozy dinners with Shuko. Which will simmer faster as it all comes to a close - the stew or the tension? And will this volume end up last, but not feast?
So, it ends. Choices are made. By the mangaka. This story, by its nature and by the choices it previously made along the way, had truly backed itself right up against the wall of either doing nothing or totally acknowledging the age gap in the room.
Honestly, what we get is probably the best way that it could have been wrapped up, but it does it by trying to please everybody and doing a middling job of it, if you want my blunt opinion about it.
By not going there, you manage to make things a lot less unsavoury (unintended food pun, I swear), which is good. However, this has been teased out so much that it doesn’t provide much emotional closure by letting it drift in the wind.
We get some acknowledgment that the situation isn’t normal and they both get great joy out of sharing a meal together, which has been so huge for the two of them, but… that’s it. It’s something, I suppose.
Yamato gets more closure on his baseball aspirations, which is pretty cool, but everybody else gets basically preserved in amber. Shuko loses her job and promises to challenge herself, but we don’t really see it happen. Rui kind of moves on for about two seconds.
The last bit basically just goes back to the status quo even with the passage of time and is an excuse for a big old cast shot versus actual closure. It’s fine, there’s a tossed-in moment that suggests that our leads will be testing out Yamato’s newly legal status soon, but it’s not much.
Yes, there is a moment at the cherry blossoms that sort of addresses the issue head-on, but it swerves at the last minute and is more about Yamato not replacing Shuko’s husband than their romance, in my personal opinion.
Then again, if they’d made that the focus of the story, it wouldn’t have worked either. By going there at all it really ended up in a ‘damned if they do’ sort of scenario that wasn’t helped by the endless sexualization of Shuko at various points.
Honestly, the most interesting thing it has going for it as a final volume is the various sketches done by other mangaka. It was cool seeing these two in the style of My Dress-Up Darling and Teasing Master Takakgi-san.
This series was okay. It had its moments, especially at the start, but I wouldn’t rank it terribly high on my list of ‘enjoyed food/found family’ stories. I certainly don’t think I’d care enough to re-read it.
3 stars - the ride is over with a slow pull into the station. I’m mostly glad I took the trip, but I’m not particularly sad that it’s over with either.
So, it ends. Choices are made. By the mangaka. This story, by its nature and by the choices it previously made along the way, had truly backed itself right up against the wall of either doing nothing or totally acknowledging the age gap in the room.
Honestly, what we get is probably the best way that it could have been wrapped up, but it does it by trying to please everybody and doing a middling job of it, if you want my blunt opinion about it.
By not going there, you manage to make things a lot less unsavoury (unintended food pun, I swear), which is good. However, this has been teased out so much that it doesn’t provide much emotional closure by letting it drift in the wind.
We get some acknowledgment that the situation isn’t normal and they both get great joy out of sharing a meal together, which has been so huge for the two of them, but… that’s it. It’s something, I suppose.
Yamato gets more closure on his baseball aspirations, which is pretty cool, but everybody else gets basically preserved in amber. Shuko loses her job and promises to challenge herself, but we don’t really see it happen. Rui kind of moves on for about two seconds.
The last bit basically just goes back to the status quo even with the passage of time and is an excuse for a big old cast shot versus actual closure. It’s fine, there’s a tossed-in moment that suggests that our leads will be testing out Yamato’s newly legal status soon, but it’s not much.
Yes, there is a moment at the cherry blossoms that sort of addresses the issue head-on, but it swerves at the last minute and is more about Yamato not replacing Shuko’s husband than their romance, in my personal opinion.
Then again, if they’d made that the focus of the story, it wouldn’t have worked either. By going there at all it really ended up in a ‘damned if they do’ sort of scenario that wasn’t helped by the endless sexualization of Shuko at various points.
Honestly, the most interesting thing it has going for it as a final volume is the various sketches done by other mangaka. It was cool seeing these two in the style of My Dress-Up Darling and Teasing Master Takakgi-san.
This series was okay. It had its moments, especially at the start, but I wouldn’t rank it terribly high on my list of ‘enjoyed food/found family’ stories. I certainly don’t think I’d care enough to re-read it.
3 stars - the ride is over with a slow pull into the station. I’m mostly glad I took the trip, but I’m not particularly sad that it’s over with either.
June 9, 2024
I'm surprised by how much I liked this ending. Certainly the writing was on the wall, but Satomi U managed to make it palatable by keeping the emphasis on the quieter aspects of the romance, namely how comfortable they feel around each other. Had it leaned into lust or fanservice more, it might have felt tawdry, but the emphasis was in the right place to make this work.
January 15, 2024
The open-endedness of this final volume disappointed me, but I still enjoyed the tasty food and characters in the series as a whole.
March 18, 2024
The ending definitely felt rushed. I didn’t love this series just for the fact that it is very gross to have theirs weird implied romance between a kid and a grown woman. I at least appreciate that it never really came to fruition and only was sort of implied that they got together in the end. Yet the overly suggestive moments were way too much. I’m not sure why a lot of manga/anime has to have weird romantic relationships between adults and kids. Why is this normalized in the culture???
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 13, 2024
You ever read a cozy series and think, "I would be so happy ending things if I could be assured everyone continues on this way forever"? It's perfect
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 23, 2023
With Yamato moving to the dorms, its last orders for his cozy dinners with Shuko. Which will simmer faster as it all comes to a close - the stew or the tension? And will this volume end up last, but not feast?
So, it ends. Choices are made. By the mangaka. This story, by its nature and by the choices it previously made along the way, had truly backed itself right up against the wall of either doing nothing or totally acknowledging the age gap in the room.
Honestly, what we get is probably the best way that it could have been wrapped up, but it does it by trying to please everybody and doing a middling job of it, if you want my blunt opinion about it.
By not going there, you manage to make things a lot less unsavoury (unintended food pun, I swear), which is good. However, this has been teased out so much that it doesn’t provide much emotional closure by letting it drift in the wind.
We get some acknowledgment that the situation isn’t normal and they both get great joy out of sharing a meal together, which has been so huge for the two of them, but… that’s it. It’s something, I suppose.
Yamato gets more closure on his baseball aspirations, which is pretty cool, but everybody else gets basically preserved in amber. Shuko loses her job and promises to challenge herself, but we don’t really see it happen. Rui kind of moves on for about two seconds.
The last bit basically just goes back to the status quo even with the passage of time and is an excuse for a big old cast shot versus actual closure. It’s fine, there’s a tossed-in moment that suggests that our leads will be testing out Yamato’s newly legal status soon, but it’s not much.
Yes, there is a moment at the cherry blossoms that sort of addresses the issue head-on, but it swerves at the last minute and is more about Yamato not replacing Shuko’s husband than their romance, in my personal opinion.
Then again, if they’d made that the focus of the story, it wouldn’t have worked either. By going there at all it really ended up in a ‘damned if they do’ sort of scenario that wasn’t helped by the endless sexualization of Shuko at various points.
Honestly, the most interesting thing it has going for it as a final volume is the various sketches done by other mangaka. It was cool seeing these two in the style of My Dress-Up Darling and Teasing Master Takakgi-san.
This series was okay. It had its moments, especially at the start, but I wouldn’t rank it terribly high on my list of ‘enjoyed food/found family’ stories. I certainly don’t think I’d care enough to re-read it.
3 stars - the ride is over with a slow pull into the station. I’m mostly glad I took the trip, but I’m not particularly sad that it’s over with either.
So, it ends. Choices are made. By the mangaka. This story, by its nature and by the choices it previously made along the way, had truly backed itself right up against the wall of either doing nothing or totally acknowledging the age gap in the room.
Honestly, what we get is probably the best way that it could have been wrapped up, but it does it by trying to please everybody and doing a middling job of it, if you want my blunt opinion about it.
By not going there, you manage to make things a lot less unsavoury (unintended food pun, I swear), which is good. However, this has been teased out so much that it doesn’t provide much emotional closure by letting it drift in the wind.
We get some acknowledgment that the situation isn’t normal and they both get great joy out of sharing a meal together, which has been so huge for the two of them, but… that’s it. It’s something, I suppose.
Yamato gets more closure on his baseball aspirations, which is pretty cool, but everybody else gets basically preserved in amber. Shuko loses her job and promises to challenge herself, but we don’t really see it happen. Rui kind of moves on for about two seconds.
The last bit basically just goes back to the status quo even with the passage of time and is an excuse for a big old cast shot versus actual closure. It’s fine, there’s a tossed-in moment that suggests that our leads will be testing out Yamato’s newly legal status soon, but it’s not much.
Yes, there is a moment at the cherry blossoms that sort of addresses the issue head-on, but it swerves at the last minute and is more about Yamato not replacing Shuko’s husband than their romance, in my personal opinion.
Then again, if they’d made that the focus of the story, it wouldn’t have worked either. By going there at all it really ended up in a ‘damned if they do’ sort of scenario that wasn’t helped by the endless sexualization of Shuko at various points.
Honestly, the most interesting thing it has going for it as a final volume is the various sketches done by other mangaka. It was cool seeing these two in the style of My Dress-Up Darling and Teasing Master Takakgi-san.
This series was okay. It had its moments, especially at the start, but I wouldn’t rank it terribly high on my list of ‘enjoyed food/found family’ stories. I certainly don’t think I’d care enough to re-read it.
3 stars - the ride is over with a slow pull into the station. I’m mostly glad I took the trip, but I’m not particularly sad that it’s over with either.
December 17, 2023
Damn, this final volume bricked me in the face HARD with the feels.
Okay, final thoughts on the series:
This was a surprisingly wholesome and emotional series. While the beginning was a rollercoaster thanks to the unfortunate insistence on unnecessary and frankly creepy fanservice, once the wholesomeness and more emotional moments took over this series really shone. The discussions on grief were well thought out and didn't feel shoehorned in or preachy. Overall, if you can look past some of the more questionable aspects of the series, this was a fun, sweet, wholesome, and lovely read. Give it a chance, I recommend it.
Okay, final thoughts on the series:
This was a surprisingly wholesome and emotional series. While the beginning was a rollercoaster thanks to the unfortunate insistence on unnecessary and frankly creepy fanservice, once the wholesomeness and more emotional moments took over this series really shone. The discussions on grief were well thought out and didn't feel shoehorned in or preachy. Overall, if you can look past some of the more questionable aspects of the series, this was a fun, sweet, wholesome, and lovely read. Give it a chance, I recommend it.
December 27, 2024
Not a strong finish, but ok. It’s hinting they might end up a couple, but at the same time it’s ambiguous. I would much rather think she stays a family friend, and moves on from her husband with someone closer in age. It was just weird that there was this big dramatic thing about him sneaking out of the dorm to talk to her, but it just limped into her remembering her husband.
Why was the kid staring at her after she gave the ball back to him? His friend asked if she was ugly and he said no, but the nothing. It just left it hanging 😓
It’s nice that he went pro, I guess. I hope she was able to find a job, since that was left unspoken as well…
Why was the kid staring at her after she gave the ball back to him? His friend asked if she was ugly and he said no, but the nothing. It just left it hanging 😓
It’s nice that he went pro, I guess. I hope she was able to find a job, since that was left unspoken as well…
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 13, 2024
This was a decent conclusion to the series. It was difficult because of the age gap but what we get is some closure but also the sense that things are left unfinished. I did enjoy the main characters and how sweet this story was at times. I am glad to have read it but was left feeling a little empty and wanting more. The illustrations by other mangaka at the end were awesome. I also always looked forward to the author's section at the end of the books. They had so much personality and charm to them.
August 1, 2024
What a wholesome and satisfying way to end an overall wholesome series 😭 I’m glad a lot of that weirdness in the 1st and 9th volumes didn’t last all the way through and instead the series just focused on how two people can help each other grow through the power of food and cooking 😭
I got to see Yamato and Sakura grow into well rounded characters and see Yakumo regain a sense of self and family after her husband died. I forgive the weirdness just because this ended up being one of the sweetest series ever 😭
I got to see Yamato and Sakura grow into well rounded characters and see Yakumo regain a sense of self and family after her husband died. I forgive the weirdness just because this ended up being one of the sweetest series ever 😭
July 12, 2025
I'm just a bit astounded at how sweet and heartfelt the ending ended up being. This one really drills down into the emotional core of this mostly fluffy series with a kinda-sus main pairing, and that core ends up being really, really touching! I'd hesitate to give the series as a whole more than 3 stars, but this was a 5-star ending for sure.
October 10, 2023
I just loved this manga......It was such acute & lovable bond that is forged between a 28 year old woman & 17 year old boy through food. I know it should have irked me but both of them were so naïve & sweet. Their love is something I would root for if it happens.
July 10, 2024
3.5/5
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May 3, 2025幸せになってくれてよかった。
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews