深夜食堂

SHINYA SHOKUDOU

Slice of Life

MANGA

STATUS
RELEASING
VOLUMES
Not Available
RELEASE
Invalid Date
CHAPTERS
Not Available

DESCRIPTION

A manga that revolves around an old-fashioned all-night food stall, the various dishes that the stall owner prepares to suit the tastes of different customers, and the joys, griefs, trials and tribulations of his faithful patrons.

Notes:

Nominated for the 2nd Manga Taisho Award (2009)
Winner of the 39th Japan Cartoonist Awards Grand Prize (2010).

CAST

Master

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

shinstarr
60/100
Everyone has a story or two to share. But are you willing to listen?
Shinya Shokudou isn't your typical run-of-the-mill gag-manga with weird drawings and even weirder characters. It's actually a metaphor for daily life, incorporating all it's hardships and joyful moments, packed tight with a bunch of characters who couldn't be more unique in their weird behaviour and tastes.

Story
The story is told in an episodic style, meaning every chapter is basically a stand-alone story and can be understood without having read any prior chapters (though that may not necessarily be advised). A typical chapter consist of an introduction, in which either a certain character or meal is being indroduced, followed up by some kind of personal problem or concern that usually revolves around the characters philosophy of life and lastly: a revelation that leads to either a meal being given a new way of being served or cooked or a character adapting to a new way of life.

Art
The drawings might appear a bit lackluster at first, but being honest, they are indeed decent at worst. The purpose of depicting emotions and creating atmospheres, that usually underlies manga drawings, is definitely met by the art featured in Shinya Shokudou. The wacky lines match the characters well, not only as a caricature of their personalities, but also as a way to show the uniqueness that everyone carries deep inside of them, no matter how trivial their life might appear in a bigger context.

Characters
The characters are the real selling point of Shinya Shokudou. Seldom have I seen as diverse a cast as the one featured in this manga. Every new character introduced is a real treasure chest filled with weird eating habits, tastes and background stories as strange as they come. Ranging from Yakuza members to transgender couples, over Mahjong enthusiasts and japanese adult video actors and actresses, every character quickly becomes a part of the world and not rarely also finds a way into the readers heart. As we get an inside into every characters personality through some kind of story, the only story the reader doesn't get a look into, is the story behind the main character. The manga does a good job at letting the reader get a grasp of the protagonists personality only through his behaviour and his reactions.

Enjoyment
Not a single time was I bored while reading. More than one time did this manga make me laugh out loud and more than one time did I have to shed a tear. The balance between comedy and drama is superb and the dialogues never get boring, despite the huge amount of text sometimes displayed.

All in all, I would say this Manga is worth a read, if anything, to at least see the beauty in the daily life activities that we so often dismiss as mundane.
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