I sort of gained a love for reading manga back in my uni days when I was typically bored and whilst I was waiting for anime episodes to be released on a weekly basis, I lost my patience to actually watch anime and found out that the storylines in manga were a lot faster and I could read a whole lot of them within a short period of time.
With that I started trolling the internet finding for more sites which offered scanlations (translated manga) and when Apple released the iPad especially with 3G connectivity, it was a perfect combination. Now my iPad has become a fantastic manga viewer and with dedicated apps available, reading manga couldn’t be any easier.
Personally, I use the app MangaStorm and it is a paid version which allows me to favourite a unlimited number of manga to follow on a weekly basis (new chapters are release each week on average). It is simple to use and easy for my to track whenever a Manga gets updated.
Anyhow, lately I have been reading several mangas and I thought I would give some reviews about some of them. This time it is based on the cooking genre.
Yakitake!! Japan – Rating 3.5/5
This is a manga about a young baker who aims to create a bread which is worthy to be praised worldwide and would be the pride of Japan. Basically his goal is to create a bread so synonymous with Japan that it becomes famous (think french bread). The story starts off with the boy going for tryouts to join a famous bakery and pits him up against other bakers in a bake-off style challenge (think MasterChef and IronChef). But as the story evolves, I feel that it has become overly weird hence as an overall manga, I give this 3 out of 5.
Bambino! & Bambino!! Seconde – Rating 5/5
Bambino! is the first of the series and has been completed. It talks about a young chef who lived in a small town in Japan and helped out at a small italian restaurant. His mentor chef then asks him to try working in a popular italian restaurant in the city and when the chef reaches there, he has the shock of his life because being a chef wasn’t easy. He started off with the basics and even had to work at both the back of house and front of house in order to garner enough experience in order to be a better chef. The story revolves around him and the restaurant he works at, Trattoria Baccanale, where he has to learn how to speak a little italian as well as get experience from the people around him as well as a trip overseas to garner more experience. The storyline is really interesting and it keeps you in suspense.
Addicted to Curry – Rating 3/5
The story goes about a guy who has the passion and the skills to create curry. He helps out a girl whose father left her in charge of a curry house whilst she is still in high school and thanks to the mysterious chef, Makito, who is a curry expert, together they go about trying to keep the business afloat as well as find ways to help others by the use of curry dishes. The storyline seems a little too predictable for me but they do give a lot of curry recipes in there which I doubt that I will ever use them to cook curry.
Hells Kitchen – Rating 3/5
The story revolves around a young boy named Satoru who was approached by the Earl of Poor Eating from hell and Satoru has been selected by this demon to be his next meal. In order for Satoru to be completely delicious, he has to undergo a lot of training to become a proper chef in order for his soul to taste any good. The story can go a little bizarre at times and the cooking techniques can be a little out of this world. Updates for this manga is pretty slow as it is currently on chapter 29 at this point.
Nobunaga no Chef – Rating 4.5/5
One of my favourite mangas which is still ongoing. The story is about a modern day chef who managed to go back in time in war-torn 16th Century Japan where he meets historical figures of past. In this situation he still shows his skill as a chef and ends up helping out the local warlords through his food and knowledge. The story does touch on history as well as how the chef, Ken, manages to make delicacies based on what is available in the 16th century.
Shokugeki No Sama – Rating 4/5
A young boy’s dream is to inherit his father’s restaurant which is a special of the day type and at the same time surpass his father’s culinary skills. But in order to do that, his father sends him to a top notch cooking school where he expands his horizon in the world of cooking and learning about other cooking techniques. It does have the trends of Yakitake Japan where the boy’s skills come from his experience of trial and error. Updates are frequent for this manga (weekly basis) and the storyline does get pretty exciting.
