蒼太の包丁銀座・板前修業日記

SOTA'S KNIFE

Slice of Life

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
41
RELEASE
February 19, 2013
CHAPTERS
409

DESCRIPTION

The eponymous Sota is a kitchen hand at a high-class traditional Japanese restaurant, learning the basics of cooking washoku. Through Sota's training, readers will come to understand the care and forethought that goes into creating Japanese cuisine and which has led to its wide-spread popularity across the world, from ramen to sushi to izakaya fare. Pure-hearted, hard-working, and in love with food, Sota will have readers rooting for him to become the best washoku chef ever.

(Source: Media Do International)

CAST

Souta Kitaoka

CHAPTERS

RELATED TO SOTA'S KNIFE

MANGA ComedyShin Souta no Houchou

REVIEWS

Boreduser
90/100
A good manga about cooking
Sota's Knife

A common analogy for relationships is food. You take ingredients (people) mix them together (spend time with each other), and then you get something new and delicious (a lasting and beneficial relationship). It's not all too uncommon for characters in stories to mention their favorite foods and have others try it as well. Whether that be because it's a memory associated with that person and they're choosing to share that, or because it's simply a great way to get closer to one another. Most people have to eat after all. It's a fact of living. Memories of food can also go beyond a person's life. Everybody has to eat, and everybody has to die, and yet food alone can extend a physical and metaphorical life. Yet still, to the people that cook, food is even more important than that.

Sota Kitaoka is a very simple character. He's only 20 years old at the beginning of the manga, so he's considered to be quite young to work in a Ryotei, a top-class Japanese restaurant. He's kind to a fault, very dense to people's feelings towards him, and way too dedicated. He's the type of person to wait on a fruitless crush of his for nearly 11 years. He's also the type to hunt expensive ingredients just for single customers in the restaurant. Sota hardly changes throughout the story. This isn't a bad thing necessarily since Sota doesn't need to change much to be a better chef. He's naturally inclined to cooking and has the heart to carry love to every dish he creates, which is then conveyed to everybody who eats it. He does change. Just very slowly and methodically. By repetition in doing what he enjoys, he learns more about himself and the people around him. Through his cooking he gathers people around him that trust him. "Cooking is just repeating the same thing too! It's helping me grow, little by little."

There's plenty i could talk about within this manga. There's tons of great characters, and with a length of 41 volumes, this manga has a lot to potentially discuss. In the attempt of keeping things simple, I'll say this. This story takes place over the course of nearly 11 years. People will come and go throughout that time. There'll be moments of great happiness and moments of great sadness. For it all, the ultimate truth prevails us. We have to eat. With memories of times gone by or hope for the future within. The food we've eaten and the relationships we build with it. A shared snack with a friend. A parent's home cooked meal. The last meal eaten with a lover. Even the meals of old, connecting us to those who were here before. Little by little, a change is made. Through repetition and dedication. We eat, we survive, we thrive.
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