What Did You Eat Yesterday? vol. 2

If you were expecting things to continue on much as they did in the first volume, then you’ll likely be satisfied by this second volume about the love-and-work-lives of gay couple Shiro and Kenji and the food they eat.  This also means that the title’s flaws — its predictability, the way the momentum grinds to a halt when the cooking begins — are still present as well.  All of the stories here are also self-contained as they were before in their chapters, though there are a few plot threads that go beyond those boundaries.  Given that they involve Shiro finding a way to deal with celery leftovers and preparing for his father’s cancer surgery, they certainly make for an odd couple.  Still, this isn’t an unwelcome stylistic development and I wouldn’t mind seeing what a multi-chapter or volume-length story looks like in this title.

It may even give mangaka Fumi Yoshinaga a chance to flex her storytelling muscles and characterization skills even more than she does here.  Granted, this isn’t on the level of “Ooku” or “Antique Bakery” yet, but I did like the details we got regarding Shiro and Kenji’s respective histories.  She even manages a few genuinely affecting moments, such as when Shiro accompanies a client to the park so that she can watch her son play with his father and the man’s new wife.  Seeing her happiness slowly give way to tears is wrenching on a minor scale.  There’s also an interesting moment when Shiro realizes that he’s glad he met Kenji when he did because the man is just not his type.  I mentioned in my review of the first volume that they didn’t seem like they made a particularly good couple, so I’m wondering now if the whole thrust of this series is going to depict how they slowly grow apart and call it quits after a while.  At this point, that sounds more interesting to read about than the fine-for-what-it-is slice-of-gay-life we’re getting right now.