She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat, Vol. 4 Volume 4

Aaah I've missed my babies so much and I can't believe I managed to wait with reading this for so long …! (Bought the volume in June 2024!!!) They made so much progress in this and I've been swooning since chapter 1! Constantly blushing and screaming and telling the author to not do this to me, yet at the same time asking for more. I feel like a teenager watching an "adult" romance movie for the first time!! P~P #-# XD [Tiny spoiler] I really liked the confession scene! It wasn't typical romance confession with kissing and more, nothing rushed, their own pace. I've no experience with that so I can't say what situation is more realistic, but their slow pace does feel more realistic to me. It was a bit awkward but that's precisely how I imagine those situations to be – if everyone involved is inexperienced. Don't get me wrong, it was really cute, but I also got a bit of second-hand-embarrassment. In a good way though! I like it because it's not the cliché way of portraying. And given they're both "older" than the average person figuring out their sexuality, it fits the vibe well.  I loved Yako's asexual exploration and Nagomo's deipnophobia scenes a lot, too. Nagomo's POV especially hit close to home cause I can relate to her struggles, a lot! She can put my own feelings into words. I teared up here and there. Same with Kasuga's family situation – relatable and got me emotional.  Normally I'm not much a fan of portraying queerphobia (of any orientation/identity) in fiction, but this one works well, cause it's not part of the plot per se – as in, it doesn't come from any of the active characters, only small moments from the outside. And the mangaka uses it to highlight struggles of queer lives without "dramatizing" or romanticizing it.  ~ Since it's been a while reading/watching them, I had forgotten to grab food when starting the volume, but managed to find a snack to eat at around the 29th chapter (2nd in this volume)! Now that I'm vegan, though, reading and seeing all the non-vegan food does hurt much more than in 2023. But since it's fiction, I'm just imagining the food to be magical … or vegan alternatives that happen to have the exact same name. P-P (At least they're not afraid of the word "vegan" and it was even included. Albeit for something that is usually vegan anyways, so, lol. xd)  ~ Overall totally recommended and I hope the 5th volume is out already, cause I really need to continue! The second season of the TV show has elements from the 5th volume after all, so I want to have read those first before watching them!! x3  -Ayxan Solongo, 16.01.26