僕らの食卓

BOKURA NO SHOKUTAKU

Slice of Life

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
1
RELEASE
January 21, 2017
CHAPTERS
8

DESCRIPTION

Eating around other people is a struggle for salaryman Yutaka, despite his talent for cooking. All that changes when he meets Minoru and Tane—two brothers, many years apart in age—who ask him to teach them how to make his delicious food! Yutaka soon finds himself having a change of heart as he looks forward to the meals they share together.

(Source: Seven Seas Entertainment)

CAST

Yutaka Hozumi
Minoru Ueda
Tane Ueda

CHAPTERS

RELATED TO BOKURA NO SHOKUTAKU

Cover Art for Bokura no Shokutaku: Okawari

MANGA Slice of LifeBokura no Shokutaku: Okawari

REVIEWS

Benkei
74/100
Spoiler-free review of Our Dining Table. A Sweet and short dramatic romance.
════ ⋆★⋆ ════ Considerations ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ ● __This is a spoiler-free review.__ ● 70+ in my rating means average. ● I've got to read this work on a friend's recommendation. I didn't look too much into the synopsis and just started reading. ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ The Story ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ Yutaka is living through a rough and lonely period until he finds Tana and Ueda, two energetic brothers that are willing to share meals with him. The story of Our Dining Table is good. As a SoL (slice of life), I was expecting something very trivial without much development and some of an Iyashikei (comfortable/healing) vibe, but the manga has a great dramatic side. The pacing is very well done and you really feel both styles; chapters focused on developing the drama and bringing a serious side to the story and panels that are very comfy and warm you up. It's the perfect mix for an afternoon read, especially since it's a short work. ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ The Art Style ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ The art style is pretty simple yet good. My closest reference would be to what I call the "shojo" art style. While the characters' designs and expressions are excellent, other aspects fall short. ‎ In the "shojo art style," the main complaints that I have are the lack of background detail and the amount of white. Sometimes the manga is so white that reading at night can hurt your eyes, but besides that, everything works pretty well. (Flashbang.jpg) ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ The Characters ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ There are a small number of characters in this work; Yutaka, Ueda, Tana, their family, and a few supporting characters. Anything else besides Yutaka and Ueda isn't overly developed, which is expected in a short time. The development on both of those is great, and knowing their past experiences and how they molded them into who they are nowadays is a pretty charming experience. As I always like to talk about the main characters, Yutaka was great, I really wasn't expecting the dramatic development that he had and how he drives the manga. His character concept alongside Ueda's is great. ‎ ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ Conclusion ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ If you're like me, you skip everything and read only the conclusion because you don't want to get spoiled with other themes. So I will try to be brief on this point: Read it. It's a really short work that has only 8 chapters and I think that it has a nice drama that is worthwhile the time you spend on it. If you are used to shojo and can withstand the amount of white, I believe that it will be a positive experience for most.
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joannne
93/100
I loved it and you should too <3
In the short time between completing this story to writing this review, I have returned to Our Dining Table no less than a few hundred times (lying, it was only ten times) and so came upon the personally groundbreaking realisation that: wow, it really was that serious.

Despite its conciseness, Our Dining Table left such a pleasant lasting impression on me that it immediately climbed its way to being one of my favourite manga's of all time; so passionately that it pushed me to hit up the bookstores just to nab my own copy (and finding out I wasn't the only one because it was out of stock everywhere). Something about the whimsical wispiness of the art-style and the quiet but meaningful angst of our protagonists left me feeling strangely comforted and content—I can't deny that it is, in part, largely because of my fondness for stories with food themes and tiny round children flitting around in the background unintentionally bringing people together. At risk of "reading too much into it", I liked that the story sort of 'subverts' that expectation that anything food and eating would be 'cozy' or 'feel-good' given that our main character is someone who is disillusioned by these practices due to his repeated negative experiences with meal times growing up. I personally felt that this discussion had a significant cultural weight to it seeing that food and eating is so integral to family rituals in Asian households; the act of eating together or asking people if they've eaten or bringing food for others is a sort of love language particular to such cultures, especially when we are less likely to outrightly verbalise our affections. Yutaka's disillusion with dining is representative of his dissociation with his family, with whom he has never felt belonged and not just because he is adopted. The idea that food doesn't taste quite right when you're in an environment that is suffocating you. And it goes pleasantly full circle when Yutaka is able to enjoy food and eating again after finding his own home elsewhere. I just really like that connection of family and food, and despite the lack of "closure" per se surrounding Yutaka's home situation, I found that I was less fussed because I was more invested in Yutaka's future happiness with his new family (which I feel expertly reflects Yutaka's own feelings as he gradually stops putting so much weight on his relationship with his adoptive family). It's a story that packs a punch even with its simplicity.

Rather than lamenting that the story was restricted by its short run, I was more impressed that it brought me so much joy in so little time. If you are someone like me, who enjoys slow, feel-good, quiet stories, I think you'll definitely like Our Dining Table! And whether you believe it or not, the baby fever and children propaganda in this is unfortunately not beneath you, I fear.
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