Chisako reeally improved their art but their aangst improved too lol. But this is really fun to read thanks for the amzaing notes as always!!

I'm not sure I like the main character much. But at any rate, I think it's pretty definite they're going to end up together--at first I was thinking "subtext--is this going to be Stretch with food?" but nah. The ambiguity about whether she's just into her friend for the food is not really ambiguous except to her. The way it's written makes it pretty clear that there's a direction we're going.
The food looks good.

last edited at May 27, 2021 6:59PM

Just get married already

I feel like at some point soon she’s gonna have to just give up looking for guys and commit to living with Nagisa and see if she can work things out with her.

Her actions and thoughts paint a starkly different picture right now.

last edited at May 27, 2021 7:32PM

Raclette without potato? Sacrilege! So würde Ich dass nie essen.

Foooood. Ugh I want gyoza now

Wonder what nagisa is thinking? We got that little panel on her face after mc left so that’s suspicious

My unsolicited recommendation for homemade burgers (@chapter 1): use hotdog buns, make the patty longer and narrower. Easier to grab, less chance for things to fall out. They also somehow taste even better, no clue as to why.

Your steel (implied) pan is getting burnt? Wat? Just scrub the damn thing, and if you manage to "burn" a steel pan, you should really stay away from teflon. That stuff can't take the heat. (not a knock on Knight Heron, I'm very sure the original doesn't really make any more sense...)

I'm getting Handsome Girl and Sheltered Girl vibes. That's a good thing.

Google wouldn't tell me what Yuurinji is. >:( Thankfully there's a recipe on the credits page!

Kinda ironic how she "can't eat as much as she needs/wants to" while on a date hunting for a husband. Girl, if your eating habits drive a guy away, he wasn't marriage material to begin with. (Exceptions apply.)

Oh boy, here we go again with the "selfishness"...

Where's the meat?! A lady after mine own heart. Wait... WHAT ARE THEY DOING WITH THE CHEESE?! THEY'RE RUINING IT! AND THE SALAD!
Where potato? Schade um den schönen Käse.

If he picked a place like this for the first date, can I really trust his food sense...? She's absolutely asking the right questions!

Judging by his sweater, he'll make her mother happy, at least. Nothing better to judge a man upon than his choice of sweater I guess. Totally reliable and valid method.

Ginger, soy sauce and Mirin... now there's a cool idea. Should it be marinated ginger (Gari) or fresh ginger, though?

I wonder how many we should make... The only correct answer: ALL THE GYOZA!

Food is love, food is life.

I had seen this on the Storia site (みんな私のはらのなか) but I thought it was too slow a burner to take the pain to translate. The title in Japanese is a friggin pun about how they "keep it all inside of them" (belly and heart of hearts being the same word).

After 9 chapters, nothing of note happened between them. You'd have to wonder if it's yuri. MC even met a guy who's a food connoisseur like her, so he meets her standards, and he just asked her out. So, drama and more to come..."

It's adverstised as yuri on the storia site, so there is that.

This story is filled with annoying stuff like husband hunting for status and profit, girls playing "love games" at an all girl school, and Nagisa's crappy taste in boyfriends. After Kirin-kun informed me that the story is going to spin its wheels for at least another 5 chapters, and still not guaranteed to have a satisfying ending, I'm not sure I can stick with it.

last edited at May 28, 2021 3:30AM

nagisa is quite the simp despite "not" having feelings for seiko

well damn, i actually like it this way wow how yummy

This story is filled with annoying stuff like husband hunting for status and profit, girls playing "love games" at an all girl school, and Nagisa's crappy taste in boyfriends. After Kirin-kun informed me that the story is going to spin its wheels for at least another 5 chapters, and still not guaranteed to have a satisfying ending, I'm not sure I can stick with it.

I think it's annoying too, although not really unrealistic in Japanese society. Pressure on women to conform to some sort of stupid feminine ideal is pretty high after all. Still don't really like Seiko as a character, I can sympathise that society made her the way she is, but at some point you become complicit and she definitely shows some of the worst aspects of Japanese womanhood.
Crescent Moon and Doughnuts is a series that actually kind of starts with the same premise, but has a much more sympathetic main character and nice development. At the moment, this series feels like a more depressing and (so far at least) overall worse version of Crescent Moon.

Also, apart from the Yuri tag I am not yet sure about I'd like to also mention that Storia has this series tagged as Psychological Horror I don't think what was released so far qualifies for that, so maybe it's supposed to get only darker down the line?

last edited at May 28, 2021 11:00AM

tagged as Psychological Horror I don't think what was released so far qualifies for that,

I was certainly a lil horrified.

so maybe it's supposed to get only darker down the line

I sure hope not.

This story is filled with annoying stuff like husband hunting for status and profit, girls playing "love games" at an all girl school, and Nagisa's crappy taste in boyfriends. After Kirin-kun informed me that the story is going to spin its wheels for at least another 5 chapters, and still not guaranteed to have a satisfying ending, I'm not sure I can stick with it.

I think it's annoying too, although not really unrealistic in Japanese society. Pressure on women to conform to some sort of stupid feminine ideal is pretty high after all. Still don't really like Seiko as a character, I can sympathise that society made her the way she is, but at some point you become complicit and she definitely shows some of the worst aspects of Japanese womanhood.
Crescent Moon and Doughnuts is a series that actually kind of starts with the same premise, but has a much more sympathetic main character and nice development. At the moment, this series feels like a more depressing and (so far at least) overall worse version of Crescent Moon.

Also, apart from the Yuri tag I am not yet sure about I'd like to also mention that Storia has this series tagged as Psychological Horror I don't think what was released so far qualifies for that, so maybe it's supposed to get only darker down the line?

I like Crecent Moon and Doughnuts but I must admit I can't say I saw the connection. CM&D is more focused on the deepening bond between the main characters. Seiko seems to be throwing herself into husband hunting and food in a desperate attempt to avoid her feelings.
I understand that social pressure makes this story realistic, but it's frustrating to read. For Seiko to have her heart race over Nagisa one moment and in the next skip off to another date and to have that happen chapter after chapter with no real sign of development is just infuriating. Add in the fact that I'm not guaranteed the satisfying yuri hookup that would make this all worthwhile, I'm not sure I want to bother with it.

last edited at May 28, 2021 4:17PM

I like Crecent Moon and Doughnuts but I must admit I can't say I saw the connection. CM&D is more focused on the deepening bond between the main characters. Seiko seems to be throwing herself into husband hunting and food in a desperate attempt to avoid her feelings.
I understand that social pressure makes this story realistic, but it's frustrating to read. For Seiko to have her heart race over Nagisa one moment and in the next skip off to another date and to have that happen chapter after chapter with no real sign of development is just infuriating. Add in the fact that I'm not guaranteed the satisfying yuri hookup that would make this all worthwhile, I'm not sure I want to bother with it.

I mean, I fully agree that this story is frustrating to read. Seiko is just extremely dishonest to the point that lying to others and herself has basically become the norm for her. She is overall just not a very likeable character I think. The fact that she is realistic doesn't really change that I for me either.
Also, with the Storia tags being as they are, I am not particularly optimistic about the future of the series. But I'll probably still keep an eye out for it and check back occasionally before deciding to continue reading or drop it.

Regarding the CM&D parallel, I didn't mean they are similiar in the actual story, but rather in the initial setup of their main characters. Just like Seiko, Hinako is trying her best to be an ideal, "normal" woman, which in Japan automatically means marriage as well. The difference between the two is that CM&D clearly shows how Hinako is suffering from this, which then leads to great character development as her relationship with Satou makes her increasingly more confident and able to find her own path in life. In a sense, Hinako and Seiko therefore show two ways of dealing with the same problem, one builds meaningful relationships and learns to accept herself as she is, whilst the other basically completely denies who she even is and completely dives into escapism. Maybe that is what makes Seiko so frustrating as well, because there is no sense of progress whatsoever.

last edited at May 28, 2021 5:12PM

Reading this at 4am with an empty stomach was a bad idea

I like Crecent Moon and Doughnuts but I must admit I can't say I saw the connection. CM&D is more focused on the deepening bond between the main characters. Seiko seems to be throwing herself into husband hunting and food in a desperate attempt to avoid her feelings.
I understand that social pressure makes this story realistic, but it's frustrating to read. For Seiko to have her heart race over Nagisa one moment and in the next skip off to another date and to have that happen chapter after chapter with no real sign of development is just infuriating. Add in the fact that I'm not guaranteed the satisfying yuri hookup that would make this all worthwhile, I'm not sure I want to bother with it.

I mean, I fully agree that this story is frustrating to read. Seiko is just extremely dishonest to the point that lying to others and herself has basically become the norm for her. She is overall just not a very likeable character I think. The fact that she is realistic doesn't really change that I for me either.
Also, with the Storia tags being as they are, I am not particularly optimistic about the future of the series. But I'll probably still keep an eye out for it and check back occasionally before deciding to continue reading or drop it.

Regarding the CM&D parallel, I didn't mean they are similiar in the actual story, but rather in the initial setup of their main characters. Just like Seiko, Hinako is trying her best to be an ideal, "normal" woman, which in Japan automatically means marriage as well. The difference between the two is that CM&D clearly shows how Hinako is suffering from this, which then leads to great character development as her relationship with Satou makes her increasingly more confident and able to find her own path in life. In a sense, Hinako and Seiko therefore show two ways of dealing with the same problem, one builds meaningful relationships and learns to accept herself as she is, whilst the other basically completely denies who she even is and completely dives into escapism. Maybe that is what makes Seiko so frustrating as well, because there is no sense of progress whatsoever.

Well you and I are pretty much in agreement.

Foooood. Ugh I want gyoza now

I'm hungry and left with angst and miscommunication so I'm doubly hungry now!

Yeah, bring out the aaaangst! Oh, also, the food.

Man, this is frustrating. I guess I just hate that these kinds of social pressures involving women and marriage exist in real life, so it's frustrating seeing the parts of society that I hate play such a major role in obstructing Seiko's happiness and her and Nagisa's potential happiness together. It's also frustrating seeing Seiko obstruct her own happiness by constantly lying to literally everyone, including herself, about what she actually wants. Still, I don't hate this manga. I just really hope we see some payoff later. This frustration better be worth something. Seiko needs to wake the fuck up and be honest with herself for once, because she is clearly not actually interested in marrying a man.

Edit: the food stuff's great though, especially when paired with Knight Heron's informative credits pages

last edited at Jun 1, 2021 1:41AM

I get the feeling that Nagisa's just going along with the flow and has the attitude of "If the one I love is happy, then I'm happy" and obviously Seiko's lying to everybody and herself. These 2 need to get hit upside the head with a gay bat or something to knock some sense into them. Actually, if Seiko would just figure out for real that what she's looking for in men is exactly what Nagisa is and if she would tell Nagisa that she's the one she wants to spend her life with, Nagisa would be absolutely over the moon with that outcome. However, she's too scared of losing the nice, comfy arrangement that they have and just goes along with whatever Seiko wants (or thinks that she wants). And Seiko's too stuck with "societal norms" and "what she's supposed to do" to admit to herself that she's already living with her "ideal marriage partner".

Well this is a frustrating series

I hope someone translates soon, volume 1 has already ended (chapter 15) and we’re getting a second volume in January.
This story is just too good and it’s finally getting somewhere! If they published them I would probably buy them.

last edited at Dec 4, 2021 6:40PM

This is so good, can't wait for more. Plus I love the extra bits the Knight Heron always puts at the end. I'm also realizing that the majority of the translations I've read here are Chaos Team, SAD, Knight Heron, and Cyan Steam. You all work so hard to keep us queer otaku happy, love and appreciate everything they do!