Isekai / reincarnation / fantasy mangas have been huge these past couple of years. There are many interesting mangas with various topics and themes out there, but “cooking” is one theme that I can’t get behind.

I love cooking mangas in general. I’ve read Mister Ajikko, Chuuka Ichiban, Yakitate Japan, Shota no Sushi, Oh! My Konbu, Shokugeki no Soma, and many more. In these mangas, no matter how ridiculous it gets, it is usually based on real world ingredients. The final product is often exaggerated but the flavor is something I can actually imagine. I’ve actually attempted to make some of them and read about others who have done the same.

But this is often untrue for cooking scenes in fantasy mangas. For example, cooking is a major part of Drifting Dragons. They would make dragon meat dishes that are similar to real world dishes and go into details about how it tastes. In Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill, Mukoda would make real-world dishes but isekai monster meat, and how great they taste. But… so what? No matter how much you describe the taste to me, I don’t know and will never know how a dragon or orc taste.

I’m not saying those mangas are boring. I actually really enjoy both Drifting Dragons and Campfire Cooking, but I just can’t get into the food part of it. I would probably enjoy them even more if they glossed over the food and spend more time on other things.

  • Lvxferre
    2·
    1 year ago

    Isekai Meikyuu de Harem Wo has a good example of cooking filler. All that Michio prepares is fantasy equivalents of RL dishes, just so the girls say “sugoi” and “oishiiiii”. And it goes as you say, it doesn’t add to the story.

    I hear ya on the other overused tropes. Kumo Desu Ga is perhaps the only one that I’ve seen that actually uses the “pages of random skills” shtick for anything interesting (in the fight against Araba, to show that both were overpowered monsters - you aren’t really supposed to read the full pages for either Araba or Kumo, I think).

    And since we’re speaking about overused tropes: 90% of the romance tropes in isekai (actually manga in general) feel overused and stale. Like:

    • [MC bumps on girl, and both fall on the floor]
    • [MC] Are you OK?
    • [Girl] Yes, I am. Wow you’re so nice, I’m in love with you!
    • [MC keeps running away while the girl keeps chasing him]

    For me it’s the biggest offender, because I love well-made romance. At least Cooking with Wild Game is handling this decently enough - it’s a slow burner but you do see some progress between Asuta and Ai.