With this latest installment, What Did You Eat Yesterday? volume 19, the series by Fumi Yoshinaga remains my favorite manga. One of the strong reasons is that it’s so rare to see comic characters in late middle age going through challenges of daily life. Each chapter stands alone, and the focus of each chapter is how to make a reasonably priced meal using seasonal produce or tying into recent events, but the underlying conflicts involve such things as whether one […]

What Did You Eat Yesterday? volume 18 is another outstanding example of my favorite manga series. It’s the story of Shiro, a lawyer, and his partner Kenji, a hair stylist, and the meals they have together. But it’s about a lot more than that — Shiro and Kenji are now firmly middle-aged (over 50), and so they deal with conversations about inheritance after one of them passes, complicated by the differences in legal status of a gay couple (as marriage […]

There’s a cute chapter in What Did You Eat Yesterday? volume 17 that has a lot happening. Ultimately, it ends with Shiro taking care of Kenji in a variety of ways, which I found heartwarming. Kenji, now managing the hair salon, feels as though he has to go out drinking with his good customers as part of the business. (Apparently, this is a thing in Japan, with author Fumi Yoshinaga making a comment about clients wanting to drink with their […]

What Did You Eat Yesterday? volume 16 continues in the consistently appealing mode of this Fumi Yoshinaga series: small stories about mature life experiences, all revolving around making food. For example, Shiro is going to meet his boyfriend Kenji’s family — his mother and two sisters — for the first time (although the two have been together for a number of years). They’re eating out together at an unagi (eel) restaurant. Although the meal is perfectly pleasant, it’s tempered by […]

Obviously, I’m not rushed to keep up with Fumi Yoshinaga’s What Did You Eat Yesterday? series — but since we’re at a point where we’re lucky to get one volume a year, I think I’m better off saving it to savor. Much like the many delicious-sounding meals Shiro makes for Kenji. What Did You Eat Yesterday? volume 14 came out about a year ago, and the next book (yay for continuing!) is due out May 2021. As with the previous […]

What Did You Eat Yesterday? isn’t my favorite manga series because every chapter has yummy-sounding (or eye-opening) recipes for home-cooked Japanese meals. It’s not my favorite manga because of the relationship struggles and small victories the two leads experience as they deepen their life together. It’s my favorite manga because, as in volume 13, it’s about two middle-aged people building a life together and what it means to be an adult. So few comics deal with that time of life […]

Flying Witch volume 3 doesn’t differ appreciably from the first book in the series. That’s its strength — calm, lightweight stories about everyday life with just a soupçon of magic to make things interesting. Not too scary or different, though, just relaxing. The kids go to a witch cafe where they’re waited on by a ghost. Another patron is a fox — drawn adorably! — an encounter which helps Chinatsu’s mother write children’s books. The kids garden and eat what […]

In looking over the manga I’ve read from Vertical, I’ve come to realize that they specialize in challenging works. With the exception of their two longest-running series — the heart-warming What Did You Eat Yesterday? and the weirdly comic My Neighbor Seki — the stories in Vertical releases are generally off-kilter and discomforting in some way. (Even the cat manga had some disturbing portrayals about home and family.) These are not manga you read for escapist enjoyment or light entertainment. […]