Oishii Kankei (A Delicious Relationship) by Makimura Satoru || Manga Review

So it was probably unhealthy for me to marathon-read 10 volumes in one day BUT Oishii Kankei (or in English, A Delicious Relationship) was just THAT good. I kept telling myself to pause and save reading for another day but I just HAD to know the ending, and I wasn't about to skip to the end and spoil myself.
Before I get into explaining what this amazing manga is about, I just wanna gush a little bit about this manga. I might say that a certain manga is great or one of the best I've ever read, but I think Oishii Kankei is a little different than other manga that I compliment so heavily. Not only is it a very enjoyable read, but also I finished the story feeling uplifted and motivated to work hard on my own life, and that's a sign of fantastic storytelling. Of course, there are other elements involved in storytelling but to me, I think the most important part is using your own thoughts and experiences and conveying them in a way to the reader that makes he/she/they see something in a new light. And Makimura does this by introducing characters of varying backgrounds, make them struggle and emerge stronger, and with a more resilient will to live life their own way.

Without further ado, here's an introduction to the series:

Title: [おいしい関係 ] - Oishii Kankei (A Delicious Relationship) by Makimura Satoru
Status: Completed;  10 volumes (started in 1993)
Genres/Elements: Cooking, Josei, Romance, Comedy, Drama
Summary: Momoe, ever since she was small, accompanied her father, a gourmet, to eat a variety of high-class dishes. Because of this, she developed very sharp taste buds, and unparalleled ability to discern ingredients and critique food. Everything in Momoe's sparkly, sheltered life started to crash when her beloved father dies. Instead of attending college, she decides to find a job. Eventually, Momoe ends up at a French bistro called Petit Lapin, where she encounters a very familiar taste in the dishes she eats, and asked to be employed there. From there, Momoe starts her journey to become a cook, and discover her own dreams...

Additional Comments:

• Kind of an FYI thing: Josei, literally means "woman" in Japanese, but it is also a category for manga aimed towards an older female audience. There are a lot of different types of stories within the josei category, but josei typically means there will be some adult topics involved(like marriage, sex, work, the harsh reality of life, and other things adults are concerned about).

In-depth (spoiler-free woo-hoo!) review:

• Characters: As I've mentioned before, the characters are flawed, so you might not like some of them, but by the end, you can see that they have grown as people, and are trying to become better versions of themselves. I especially liked how Momoe, the heroine, grew because during her struggles, you can see how she tries to think of a solution and tackle the problem head-on. Even though she is introduced as a rich, pampered girl, Momoe clearly becomes capable of taking care of herself, and dealing with difficulties whether in her love life or her profession. Just overall, she demonstrated a tough mentality (kind of reminds me of Maya from Glass Mask) that I don't really see in many manga with a female main character, or in stories in general. Her optimism and bright personality were other aspects that I admired about her as well, and I think we could all learn from her simplicity and straightforwardness. :) Also, I was genuinely surprised at the development of Oda, the male lead. He seems like another one of those straight-laced, stoic characters, but he really opens up and becomes really sweet towards the end (like a human bean).  
• Romance: So if you want a whole series dedicated to romance, look elsewhere because this one mainly focuses on a woman's effort to become recognized as a cook. Jk, but seriously...the romance really starts in the later part of the story. I don't know what you would call it...a slow-burner, I guess? But I think it's sweet nonetheless.
• Setting: The settings do shift quite a bit throughout the story, but in general the main setting is just a restaurant...lol, or a kitchen. Oh, and this isn't just some street-vendor-type of cooking, but French cuisine lol. Very high-class and fancy~ Later in the story, it embodies this feeling, although in the beginning it was just at a bistro (very casual-feeling).
• Story/Writing/Pace: For a decently long series, I don't think I felt bored with the story at all. Maybe the occasional food explanations and workplace drama made me skim pages, but for the most part, I was hooked! I also thought the pacing was really good; I felt time was passing as I was reading this (since the characters age as well), and the development of Momoe's skills were at a reasonable pace. The interactions between the characters were natural, and the background stories for some of them made me feel very compassionate for them. I want to add that being able to peek in on Momoe's thought process really made me appreciate her as a character even more.
• Art: The art was very cute! It's easy to read, and easy to recognize what is drawn (instead of like, "is that supposed to be an arm or what?"). The characters look very lovely, and there is quite a bit of cute fashion in this as well (I've just found out the author also wrote Real Clothes, which I suppose is like a fashion version of Oishii Kankei lol)! The food also looked pretty good as well!
• Cooking: Not a cook or food enthusiast at all, but I think I learned a few things about French cuisine after reading this lol. This series made me really appreciate the effort put into cooking. Of course, I don't know how accurate any of the information about the food or cooking techniques are, but I can assure you that the main focus of this series is definitely on cooking. xD
• Other: Basically a theme of this story is YOLO, so go out and do the things you want to do, and really appreciate certain aspects of your life rather than taking it for granted. :) Also, I appreciate that Momoe didn't suddenly want to become a world-class chef or something, and that she was really satisfied with just making people happy with her cooking. Sometimes it's the simple things that count. ^_^ And that just adds to the "real" aspect of this story even more.

Wow, hope that wasn't intimidating to read lol.

Overall, I give Oishii Kankei a 4.70/5.00 stars! I took off some points because I wanted to see a little bit more romance at the end, and a few other things I can't say because I would spoil it. ^_^;;;

Really hope you take the time to try reading Oishii Kankei! Or watch the drama versions of it: My Name is Kim Sam-Soon, Oishii Kankei, and Sweet Relationship.

-Have a great day!-  J U L I E  (ㅇㅅㅇ❀)

Legend by Marie Lu || Book Review

So. Slight update to how I've been.
I'm reading again. And posting again after, what, two months? But even before that, I was barely active lol. Geez, time has flown by so fast. I know that's trite (or is it trite by saying it's trite? I don't know anymore...) but it's soooo true. School recently let out this week (but I didn't have to go because I didn't have any finals so, go me! ^_^), but I feel like I'm the same person that I was (or maybe slightly different) at the beginning of the school year. Does it feel that way to anyone else? Ugh, but now I gotta focus on applying to colleges...woot woot.

Anyway, life's pretty okay, moving on. I FINALLY got to this series. I'm pretty sure it's grouped with books like Hunger Games and Divergent (sorry, had to mention them even though I'm pretty sure everyone's sick of hearing about them), and for a good reason; all three series have a dystopian setting, tragic events, and main characters fighting back against the establishment.
Although, I think I like Legend's premise a bit more than the other books. I mean come on, a prodigy and a criminal falling in love with each other? Sounds absolutely hilarious....jk. But it IS pretty intriguing.

If you're not familiar with Legend, here is my overview of the book:

Legend by Marie Lu (Book 1 of the Legend trilogy)
Young Adult
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Action, Dystopian, Tragedy, Drama
Summary: Imagine a society where, at the age of 10, every child must take an exam, the Trials, in order to determine their future path. High scorers get admitted to high school and a free-pass to the most elite colleges, and even the pretty decent scorers can definitely go onto to higher education. The low-scorers, typically those who live in slums, however, are typically treated like dirt, and they stay in the slums. Such a society, called the Republic, is one where June, a hailed prodigy who gets a perfect score on the Trials, and Day, a mysterious criminal shaking up the Republic, lives in.
June has always thought positively on her society, but when a certain incident involving Day shakes her up, she realizes that the Republic is hiding a lot more than it seems. As a keen observer, June sets out to discover the truth, encountering love, ugly secrets, and deaths along the way.
Other notes:

• Alternating POVs between Day and June (different fonts and color which is pretty cool)

My actual (spoiler-free!) thoughts about the book:

• Characters: To tell the truth, my initial impressions on both characters weren't that great because both June and Day seemed a little too awesome for me -- even if there were people that didn't like them...and a lot shit happens to them. I mean, they're both good-looking, intelligent, AND athletic?? Wow, and they meet EACH OTHER? And fall in love. Lol I'm only teasing but one comment I have to make though, is that I felt that their attraction towards each happened really fast for me. Maybe it's because I've been reading too much shoujo manga, and FYI, in shoujo manga, it takes CHAPTERS for any romance to develop. Oh yeah, and btw, these characters are both 15 years old. Damn. June seemed to more of stoic character to me, which is actually kind of refreshing because a lot of heroines in YA seem to be expressive and emotional (which isn't bad). She does let her emotion show through sometimes though. Day is quite similar to her (ya know, with the whole, being perfect thing).
• The villains in Legend, are, as expected, dislikable. I think it might have to do with the first person POV. Since we're seeing only one person's POV, we're kind of inclined to take their side/opinion on certain people. There's honestly very little sympathy I felt for them because as a reader, ya pretty much see them at their worst.
• Plot: The story is pretty easy to follow, and if you're familiar with dystopian, probably easy to predict as well. But for me, it still kept me interested for the whole way. I feel that the story starts off a bit slow, but you really become attached to it at a certain point.
• Writing: I think Lu's writing really shines in the latter half of the book. Her style is pretty easy to read for the most part, and then it slowly becomes better in terms of flow and description.
• Pacing: I didn't have any issues with the pacing, other than what I mentioned before, about starting a bit slow in the beginning (but that may be because introductions kind of bore me lol). Even the shifts in POV didn't bother me that much because I just wanted to know what was going to happen next. But June and Day are pretty similar in terms of thinking and character so that helped as well.
• Additional: Okay, this has nothing to do with the story, but I have to re-iterate that Legend has an Asian-American author!! This made me really excited because I've been wanting to read more books by a diverse range of authors, and also, because I'm an Asian-American myself.

Okay, one last thing (and one that I just found out): Legend is going to be turned into a movie!! Say whaaaaattttt. I just pray that they don't screw the casting up and make, say, Day a white boy because he's mixed (and has Asian features as well)!! But anyway, I am looking forward to it!

Overall, my rating for this book is 4.00/5.00 stars, which is what I rated it on GoodReads.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you try reading Legend if you haven't yet!!