stressedpenguin's manga / #chef(16)

What a surprise! An isekai bl into a fantasy world that feels mostly well constructed with unique art. Most characters get introduced and then are never relevant again, which is a shame. I like the idea of a japanese man just making an endless amount of okonomiyaki in a fantasy world and I love his dedication to making octopus popular even tho its feared everywhere. Overall pretty good. 6/10

last story is my favorite Story 1: guy's popular friend confesses to him and theres a bit of messy feelings Story 2: cute guy from story 1 befriends a gloomy big guy Story 3: Baker and his younger childhood friends. Light angst tag is referring to this one Overall cute. 6/10

The sexual assault by the girl was... very much unnecessary but I guess if you're someone who can look past that, it's a pretty cute professor x cook | food delivery guy story with all the typical confess then reject then confess then sex formula. 5 or 6/10

Bruhh the domestic fluffffff. So cute! Sojiro is so perfectly doting. Also uke isnt afraid to say what he wants. It's cute, its fluffy, it's funny. 8/10 wish the side characters were there more

Kinda didnt like the seme. Cute as he was, he was kinda pushy and overly jealous that the uke... had a friend?? Seems like the type to demand the uke to stop hanging with his friends. Got annoyed about it. Plot is standard. Nothing interesting. 5/10

short and sweet story about two boys running restaurants down the street from each other. they're both in love and it's super fluffy and the food looks so frickin good 7/10

Cute! Uke owns a restaurant that's in debt and the seme is a host who's destroyed his liver. the story really brushed over the sexual assault scene and the host having serious medical issues. Wish the uke had some friends of his own too but overall the story was pretty good. 7/10

Uke's entire family died in a tragic accident, and now it's just him and his nephew trying to survive life together. The hot and mysterious guy running a small restaurant in the town they move to takes in interest in them and they start building a relationship. The overall tone is melancholy as all three main characters are suffering from painful experiences, and it's sweet how they fumble through supporting each other in their developing relationships. There's some angst, some drama, and some ghosting, and there's a This story gets two big pluses from me: 1) The kid actually has agency. He's not used as a plot device. The story takes him seriously; it doesn't do that thing where they just call him cute and ignore that he's a real person with real feelings. Still looking for a story where the adults validate even the silly things kids get upset over because... like it's silly to us but very impactful to them and--I'm getting worked up lol. Anyway, this story did the kid justice. 2) The single mom the uke makes friends with is amazing and feels like a real person. For all the degrading the seme did of women, I was worried this would be another BL where everyone woman is shitty. But this mom was incredible and her handling of her son was incredible. I know this is like almost the bare minimum, but I'm happy to see it. Also a plus is the sex is consensual. Aside from the somewhat dubious bit because alcohol, the seme doesn't force the uke into anything sexual. I appreciate it. This is an 8/10. Would be 6/10 but it gets +2 for the kid and mom friend

photographer runs into a young restaurant owner while visiting town to photograph the sunsets. he winds up working at the restaurant in return for room and board. Photographer is still haunted by the death of his past lover so we got some angst too. Some gripes: 1) romance characters need to stop kissing people without consent. 2) I was expecting the drama to be a bit more fleshed out? Seme confesses, kisses uke, uke panics and leaves. Comes back 4 pages later and they have exactly one conversation about the complicated feelings associated with losing a lover and moving on from them, and then we're done. Overall, fairly cute. It's got a good not quite melancholy not quite fluffy atmosphere. 6/10

That age gap is the big mmmmmm factor for me. They coulda made him a broke uni student and bam, same dynamic. Anyway Both of these characters are weird but it makes them match so perfectly. I dont think I've ever seen a biting kink like this in any other BL I've read, and it was well done. Uh, yeah so make the seme just... not a kid and then actually pay him so we're not exploring child labor and voila this story would actually be so cute 6/10