Review of Nagumo-sensei's manga "Megane-san to Oishii Yuge." (The Girl with Glasses and Delicious Steam): "A Table Without Discord"

Are you all familiar with "convenience store comics"...?
They are a format between a magazine and a paperback book, sold exclusively at convenience stores...
The paper quality is like a magazine... so they are cheap... and you can read manga...

The biggest difference between convenience store comics and regular manga volumes is...
the "short distribution period"...
Since the essence of a convenience store comic is a "magazine"...
it's "sold out, sorry," and they probably won't reprint it...

Nagumo-sensei's manga "Megane-san to Oishii Yuge." is...
a convenience store comic published bimonthly by Bunkasha...
It was a manga serialized in "Ore-ryu! Zeppin Meshi"...
with 6 chapters published per year...
In the nearly three years from the March 2021 issue to the December 2023 issue...
the 17 chapters written were compiled into a volume...
and released in mid-May 2024...

Of course, the serialization is continuing... and the appearance of the second volume...
by my own calculations... I had expected it in March 2027...

In April 2025... on social media, Nagumo-sensei announced...
that due to personal family circumstances requiring adjustments to the writing process...
despite the editorial department saying...
"Come back whenever you can!"...
because she "didn't know when she could return"...
the sensei herself requested not a hiatus...
but the end of the serialization...

As I explained earlier... it takes nearly three years to compile into a volume...
and what will happen to the uncollected chapters...
is unknown at this time...

I would like to take this opportunity... to recommend this work once again...
What is it about this manga... that is so good?

In this book...
the bespectacled protagonists, both girls and boys,
eat delicious food and...

"Nnnnnnnngh!!"
"Soooooo goooood"
"Nnnnnnnngh"
"So delicioooooous!!"
"Nom," "nom," "chomp," "chomp"
"Puff"

...they lose their vocabulary and let out "inexpressible screams" like characters from Baki...
and they are depicted in 17 gems of stories capturing the moments they become happy, layered with appetizing chewing sounds.

Therefore...
"Delicious food x the smile of a cute girl is irresistible...♡"
is a false advertising slogan...
The correct version is
"Delicious food x the bespectacled protagonists..."
with their full-faced smiles accompanied by inexpressible screams of "~~~~~!!"
is irresistible...♡"
That's it...
There are men too!

Being "cute" is...
the "default" in Nagumo-sensei's manga!

The titles of each chapter are
"Oyster Rice Bento," "Chicken Nanban," "Yakiniku"...
They are very straightforward and likable.
Each story is self-contained and the protagonist changes every time, but...

1. The protagonist wears glasses.
2. The shape of the glasses worn by each protagonist is different.

...is the "constraint" of this work, so you can read it with a fresh feeling every time,
and there is also the surprise of realizing there are so many types of glasses...

Since it is basically self-contained, you can read it from anywhere,
and although it is basically self-contained and the protagonist changes every time...
there are people who reappear later,
becoming a "continuation" of the previous episode,
and although each story is basically 10 pages long...
it is free from the quota of "exactly 10 pages,
and I like the attitude that "forms," "quotas," and "rules"
only push happiness away.

Looking at delicious-looking food,
their vocabulary reverts to that of a child saying "Looks delicious~"
eating it deliciously,
shouting their "impressions" with "Nnnnnnnngh",
feeling good and becoming happy,
and the shop manager says "You look so happy" and
gives them an extra dish, extending the happiness... This is everything in this work,
and the "discord" that blocks happiness is thoroughly excluded.

People who start a fight with the shopkeeper over the taste of the food and declare, "Wait a week!"...
People who complain that the shop's atmosphere is bad, leave the food, and put the shopkeeper in an armlock,
or people who lecture you on food trivia without being asked,
do not appear in this manga.

"Discord" is an obstacle to eating happily.
If parents are fighting, children cannot be happy while eating...

What I like are chapters 5, 10, 15...
The pleasant way the manga artists in the multiples of 5 chapters eat, and
the female bespectacled boss's "solo yakiniku" in chapter 12.

...There is no "discord" in this manga, but
in chapter 12, the boss, who is regretting something just a little bit,
"Alright, let's eat!"
The process of her eating yakiniku and becoming happy
is characterized by being drawn just a little bit wetly.

...Is the reason why this episode alone unusually makes you feel the "shadow of a man"
due to the influence of "Kodoku no Gourmet," where the feelings become "direct" after eating yakiniku...?

There is absolutely no unpleasantness in the art style,
no mean-spirited people appear at all,
"discord" never appears,
no people who lecture or preach appear,
the food always looks delicious,
and it can be said to be a manga specialized in becoming happy by eating delicious things.

I am... a lover of ultra-gore horror movies,
a "finished" human being who likes "discord" more than three meals a day,
to the point where I constantly chant, "I want to see terrible, terrible, terrible hell"...

"At least while I'm eating, I don't want to be bothered by 'discord'"
is what I also think...

In a manga called "Kabachitare!" by Takahiro Kochi...
in the middle of a fierce husband-and-wife quarrel...
a young brother and sister... grab a loaf of bread...
the brother puts mayonnaise on the bread...
and there is a scene where the sister eats the bread...

'Discord' cannot... actually be 'sold off in pieces'...
If there is 'discord' between a married couple...
The children are the ones who take the full brunt of that 'discord'...

Therefore... to say that you want there to be no 'discord'...
while eating a meal...
is a 'fantasy'...
The ideal table that children dream of...

In Jiro Taniguchi's 'The Solitary Gourmet'...
the protagonist, Goro Inogashira, says this...

'When you eat food...
without being disturbed by anyone...
freely...
and, how should I put it, you have to be saved...
Alone, quiet, and rich...'

The fact that Goro himself...
is saying this line while twisting the arm of a shopkeeper...
who disturbed his 'rich table'...
and putting them in an armlock...
is the abnormality of 'The Solitary Gourmet'...

'The Solitary Gourmet' is saying that...
to realize the 'rich table' that Goro dreams of...
you have no choice but to exercise your power and 'stop the noise'...

A state of 'no discord'...
that an 'ideal table' cannot exist...

Nagumo-sensei's manga is...
a miracle-like manga where that 'ideal table without discord' is realized...
and even without the characters putting anyone in an armlock...
a 'saved table' is realized...

My home was a 'nest of discord'...
just as depicted in 'Kabachitare'...
I studied hard to escape from such a hellish situation...
but now that I'm an adult and can live a rich life...I find myself seeking the 'hell' I saw so much of as a child...within creative works...

Because... that is the 'family' I saw so much of...
'Harmony'...
is just a pie in the sky...
Everyone...
spouts lies like...
'Marriage is wonderful' or...
'Family is wonderful'...

Marriage, family, and love...
are not wonderful at all!

That said... when I read Nagumo-sensei's manga...
tears stream down my face...
Because it depicts a 'state of no discord... a table without discord'...
that doesn't exist anywhere in the world...
Reality is too harsh, and to keep from dying...
you need manga like this, baby...
While I am reading this manga...

while I am reading about them eating in this manga...
I am 'being saved'...
As Goro Inogashira pointed out...
you 'have to be saved'...

Always... at any time...
you need 'hope'...

Sorry for the crazy review halfway through...
I'm hooked on Nagumo-sensei's food manga...
I've bought three of their doujinshi and am writing reviews...
It's not negative at all... and above all, it's decent...
It's content that lives up to the sign of...
'A Table Without Discord'...so please check it out if you'd like...