Kinō Nani Tabeta?

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Kinō Nani Tabeta?
Original title き の う 何 食 べ た？
genre Gourmet , Comedy , Shōnen Ai
Manga
country JapanJapan Japan
author Fumi Yoshinaga
publishing company Kōdansha
magazine Morning
First publication 2007 - ...
expenditure 15+
Television broadcast
Original title Kinō Nani Tabeta?
Country of production JapanJapan Japan
year 2019
length 40 minutes
Director Kazuhito Nakae, Katsumi Nojiri, Kenji Katagiri
script Naoko Adachi
First broadcast April 6, 2019 on TV Tokyo

Kinō Nani Tabeta? ( Japanese. き の う 何 食 べ た？ , dt. about "What did you / did you eat yesterday?") is a manga series by Fumi Yoshinaga that has been published in Japan since 2007. The work is about a lawyer who every day with effort and joy prepares a dinner for himself and his partner, a hairdresser. It is in the genres Gourmet , comedy and Shonen Ai classify and appears in the information addressed to young men his magazine Morning . An English translation was named What Did You Eat Yesterday? released. An adaptation has been published as a television series since 2019.

content

The lawyer Shirō Kakei is in his forties, works in a small law firm and lives with his partner Kenji Yabuki. Shirō cooks for both of them every evening, out of the joy and relaxation that cooking gives him. But also to save money and still eat healthily - for the same reason, he often buys cheap. The hairdresser Kenji is sometimes annoyed by the frugality of his partner, but still happy about the healthy and yet tasty diet and the money that you can save. Because Shirō does not want to be worn out at work, but prefers to leave on time, he stays in the small office instead of switching to large companies and therefore earns relatively little. They also have to save money because they have no children.

Shirō's hunt for bargains goes so far that he befriends a woman he happens to meet while shopping and who thinks it is similar to him. From then on, they regularly exchange ideas about shopping and cooking. Opposite it has Shiro, quickly from a random out as homosexual outed . It's different at work, where his colleagues have long been wondering why he's not married yet. And Shiro's parents still haven't really accepted his sexual orientation either. Kenji has completely broken off contact with his parents, while at work he has no problems with standing by his sexuality.

The series tells in short episodes from the couple's life, with Shirō and Kenji taking center stage. In addition to problems with discrimination or general relationship problems, it is also about events that both of them experience in their professions. Topics such as domestic violence , the male victim of which becomes a client of Shirō, or the skills of the hairdresser Kenji and the worries of his customers come up. One meal is always part of the story, the ingredients and preparation of which are shown in detail. Through Shirō's thoughts, in which he goes through every ingredient and action, the reader can understand the preparation.

Publications

The series has been published weekly in Morning magazine (12/2007 issue) by Kodansha since 2007 . The chapters have also been published in 15 edited volumes so far. An English translation is published by Vertical and Sharp Point Press publishes the manga in Taiwan.

At midnight on April 6, 2019 (and thus on the previous television day ), an adaptation as a television series ( Dorama ) started on TV Tokyo . The main roles are occupied by Hidetoshi Nishijima (Shirō Kakei) and Seiyō Uchino (Kenji Yabuki). Kazuhito Nakae , Katsumi Nojiri and Kenji Katagiri are directing and the script was written by Naoko Adachi .

Reception and analysis

While the second volume of the manga sold 125,000 copies in the first two weeks after publication, the 14th volume sold almost 190,000 copies in three weeks. Volume 8 was number 91 of the best-selling manga volumes in the first half of 2014, with 293,000 sales. The series was particularly successful for a title about a same-sex couple and for an older audience.

The series was nominated for the Manga Taishō Award in 2008. In 2019 Kinō Nani Tabeta? nominated for the Kōdansha Manga Prize .

Antonija Cavcic analyzed how the gourmet theme and romance interact in the manga. The series focuses on cooking, eating and everyday problems. In contrast to the genre Shōnen Ai, which is usually aimed at women , only romance occurs, but no homoeroticism. The romantic stories are interwoven with the dishes, these become the subject of conflicts between the protagonists and also serve to resolve them. The preparation of the dishes, which the reader is able to cook at a later date, is both a promise of practical satisfaction, a delicious meal and a symbol for the unusual, or even seemingly impossible, romance the reader is looking for. Through the connection to the cookable food, this romance appears attainable or tangible.

Xuan Bach Tran compares the manga with other works by Fumi Yoshinaga. In contrast to these is the same-sex relationship in Kinō Nani Tabeta? dealt with explicitly, whereas it is rather hinted at in other works. In contrast to the other series, however, there is no great drama. While other gourmet series aimed at male audiences focus on competitions, do these come in Kinō Nani Tabeta? not before. Instead, cooking is a hobby and a necessity. Yoshinaga's protagonist Shirō Kakei stands as a - not outed - homosexual middle-aged man outside of the Japanese role models. Unlike professional chefs who fulfill “male” roles, he only cooks simple dishes for himself and his partner and thus corresponds more to the image of a housewife. This changed role is similar to some newly emerging male role models in Japan ("herbivore men" and "bentō danshi"), but with his same-sex partnership, he also falls out of these roles. And he does not fulfill stereotypes about homosexuals either - in his way of cooking it is more like that of the housewife or mother. With him, Yoshinga has therefore addressed new role models and questioned old ones. Yoshinaga also deconstructs the place of the kitchen, clearly identified in Japan as the place where women work. In Kinō Nani Tabeta? People of any gender, identity, age or profession work in the kitchen. The kitchen is the place where there is no quarrel, but where reconciliation takes place. Finally, it can be seen that the manga is the first series in a major Japanese medium to portray the life of an everyday, same-sex couple as a happy life, not as fundamentally unhappy and troubled. According to Bach Tran , Yoshinaga's feminist convictions are also evident in her portrayal of an equal relationship and the breaking up of role models .

literature

  • Katsuhiko Suganuma: Queer Cooking and Dining: Expanding Queerness in Fumi Yoshinaga's What Did You Eat Yesterday? In: Culture, Society and Masculinities, Harriman Vol. 7, Ed. 2, (Fall 2015): pp. 87-101. DOI: 10.3149 / CSM.0702.87
  • Xuan Bach Tran: Reading Food in Boys Love Manga. A Gastronomic Study of Food and Male Homosexuality in the Manga Work of Yoshinaga Fumi . AUT University, School of Hospitality and Tourism, 2018. pp. 59–71. (Dissertation)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Xuan Bach Tran: Reading Food in Boys Love Manga. A Gastronomic Study of Food and Male Homosexuality in the Manga Work of Yoshinaga Fumi . AUT University, School of Hospitality and Tourism, 2018. pp. 59–71. (Dissertation)
  2. ↑ What Did You Eat Yesterday? Live-Action Series Reveals Additional Cast. Anime News Network, March 27, 2019, accessed May 2, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Japanese Comic Ranking, November 26-December 2nd. Anime News Network, December 11, 2008, accessed May 2, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Japanese Comic Ranking, July 30-August 5. Anime News Network, August 8, 2018, accessed May 2, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Top-Selling Manga in Japan by Volume: 2014 (First Half). Anime News Network, June 3, 2014, accessed May 2, 2019 .
  6. ↑ a b Antonija Cavcic: From Dashing to Delicious: The Aesthetics of Contemporary Gastrorgasmic BL manga . Ed .: The Asian Conference on Cultural Studies 2013. Osaka 2013, pp. 279, 282 f .
  7. ↑ 12 Titles Nominated for 1st Ever Manga Taisho Awards (Updated). Anime News Network, January 23, 2008, accessed May 2, 2019 .
  8. ↑ 43rd Annual Kodansha Manga Awards' Nominees Announced. Anime News Network, April 3, 2019, accessed May 2, 2019 .