MANGA: Koi Tokidoki, Yakisaba Teishoku

Koi Tokidoki, Yakisaba Teishoku – Oshima Kamome

Contains three short stories: Love Is Sometimes a Grilled Fish Set Meal, Memorable Memory Reunion and The Reason Kuro Became Human.

Love Is Sometimes a Grilled Fish Set Meal is a tale of the cocky investment manager setting out to woo the aloof restaurant owner, who wouldn’t give him the time of day no matter how shamelessly he flirted.

Nagase is openly gay and openly pursuing Ishizuka right in front of Ishizuka’s father and customers. The nosy old geezers took a vested interest in their relationship and cheered them on, blatantly asking for the sordid details. Nagase, the narcissist, was eager to regale them.

This is a play on the indoor/outdoor faces people have. Nagase wants to project coolness with every move but gets flustered by Ishizuka’s reactions. Only when he realizes Ishizuka is only interested in his real self that the dork devolves into the dork that he is.

I love the subtle reactions that explode into heartfelt declarations. I’m a huge fan of food-centric BL manga, and out of the three stories, this takes the cake!

Memorable Memory Reunion is a gap-moe romance between two recently reunited childhood friends. This is also a take on that trope where the bullied kid grew taller than his protector.

Rihito and Masami used to play near the graveyard as kids. Rihito protects the then-smaller Masami from bullies. One day, they found a porn mag and started wondering about kissing. Then, they did kiss and found they enjoyed it. The next day, it was as if nothing happened.

Fast forward to the present, Rihito returns to his hometown for a funeral and finds that his old friend Masami is now a monk. A smoking, drinking monk who slyly stole another kiss from him.

This one is okay. It’s enjoyable but not my favorite. There’s the illicit thrill of debauchery with a monk, but overall, it’s a standard childhood friends-to-lovers story.

The Reason Kuro Became Human is why we don’t deserve dogs.

One day, Tohru opened his bedroom door to find a naked man putting on his clothes. A man with dog ears and tail claiming he is Kuro, Tohru’s dog.

Kuro said he wanted to help Tohru with his fish shop because sales have been low a.k.a. Tohru is grumpy and scares off customers. Seeing Kuro’s boundless good cheer that’s winning his customers’ hearts, he lets him assist in the shop.

Until one day, Kuro revealed the real reason why he turned human

A bit iffy in a way. I mean, it’s his dog. Tohru had to process, but eventually, our boy realized he got good things going. Kuro won my heart from the get-go, because how could you hate this ray of sunshine?! He’s just too adorable.!!

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