First and foremost, one thing that I always like to remind people.
Despite this story featuring a gay couple navigating life as a gay man in Japan, this is first and foremost a Seinen story, published in a Seinen magazine. As such, a lot of BL convention doesn't apply here. In fact, they are often defied. There is a reason why the smut and the romance are restricted to the doujins--because that is never the point of this particular story. In fact, I dare say they are distracting like a porn video, a scenario that reflects our dirty desire more than reality.
First and foremost, it is a slice of life cooking manga.
And it shows. This is a really good source of Japanese home cooking, the kind of practical recipes that goes beyond sushi and ramen and curry; don't get me wrong, they DO make these menus, but even then it's done in a more pragmatic, homely way. With local ingredients and simple shortcuts, you get a clear sense that Everyday Japanese Cooking =/= Basic Japanese Cooking.
They are visually appealing, I drool everytime I read it, and GHTRHRHAHAHAHAGH ME WANT. And the thing is, this story offers a lot of varieties. Because the story manages to beautifully wed each character's cooking style with their personality.
We got simple cooking, random cooking, meticulous cooking, 'whatever I want' cooking, 'let's cut corners because ain't nobody got time for that' kind of cooking. So many things.
The second element is the slice of life. We get to see the characters' life--not only as gay people, but also as individuals, as workers, as friends. And the story takes a good care of balancing all elements of these. We see everyone portrayed with nuance; not just the protagonists, and definitely not just the gay men.
The story directly tackles issues that married couples, be that straight or gay, are experiencing in real life. Some of them are endearing. Some of them are frustrating. Some of them are embodied in a single person.
The romance that existed in this story is very subdued, very grounded, the kind of mixture between consideration and understanding and care that you'd see in a long-married couple. This story focuses more on life, and how it reflects on the food they make. And the storytelling also reflects on it.
A moment of heartfelt acceptance is immediately undercut by a vicious show of homophobia. The parents' acceptance of their son's homosexuality is not only flawed, and based on outdated stereotypes, but it is also proven to be so taxing that one of the parents got sick. Progress happen gradually in the span of 160+ chapters.
But aside from that, the archetypes that BL readers are familiar with are also flipped upside down, deconstructed outside the reality of a BL story.
Let's take the protagonist, Shiro. Played by Hidetoshi Nishijima in the live action series, he is a smart-dressing guy who wears his suit like a model. He looks young and sharp, cooks a lot and is considerate to others. A man who wouldn't be out of place in your typical Salaryman BL. And true to that, a lot of women likes him...at first. But for those who truly know him, even the women, they see him as who he is; meddlesome, nitpicking, boring, very image-conscious to a fault. And to other gay men, he is NOT a hot commodity you'd expect from reading BL. Neither a full twink nor a full hunk, he is basically an alien, a direct victim of biphobia; too straight-passing to be comfortable for gay people, but too dandy for straight people.
He's not the only one.
There's the other MC, Kenji. Shiro's partner, a purehearted man; a stylish old man with the heart of a maiden in love. The one who is more open about being gay. In a typical BL, he'd be the moral compass, the one that guides Shiro towards true love and acceptance. In here It's...complicated. Kenji is as sincere as he is hysterical. He is as devoted as he is jealous. His expressions of love are as heartwarming as it is overbearing. As much as Shiro is being influenced by Kenji, so is Kenji slowly being influenced by Shiro.
Kenji's maiden heart more often ends up as a punchline, or an obstacle.
And then there's the Beta Couple, Kohinata and Wataru; a pair of Age Gap Devoted Golden Retriever x Selfish Black Cat. A very familiar dynamic in BL. But this manga strips the dynamic from its rose-tinted glasses and presents it as the dysfunctional couple it actually is. For all his outside competence and success, Kohinata is dogged and spineless when it comes to Wataru. And Wataru is exactly what a selfish man would act in reality; petty, snarky, egoistical, a man who thinks only of himself and not about the problem he causes Kohinata and the others. You look at him, and you look at the age gap, and you start to realize that their relationship may be functional but is anything but romantic.
Also, the Golden Retriever gets exhausted and thinks of cheating.
Yes, another thing that sets this story apart from so many BL is the casual way it addresses infidelity.
The story doesn't treat the idea of cheating like what you'd see in many BLs. In fact, for everyone in this comic, infidelity is a fact of life. Even Shiro and Kenji has cheated and been cheated with in their past, albeit thankfully not with each other.
But that has shaped the tone of the comic so much. They react to talks about infidelity and cheating more as a pragmatic problem, and not a devastating act of evil. Heck, they gave more spotlight to finishing a damn baking powder more than an incident of almost cheating.
And yet, despite all this, everyone looks...normal. Mundane, even. The cheating boss, the gossip-loving young employer. The easygoing neighbor and her extroverted husband. The madam and her son. Shiro and Kenji's families. So many people, a lot of different personality, and yet everyone is portrayed fairly.
That's also another thing that sets this story apart from many BLs-- their sincere look on the female characters. The female characters here are more than side characters; in so many ways they are as fleshed and nuanced as the men, and we get to know characters like Shino and Kayoko as much as we know Kenji and Shiro.
Now I yap so much about all the ways they're different, but they are still very relatable and very approachable for both BL readers and non-BL readers.
And ultimately, this is a perfect, balanced, healthy meal that also manages to be indulgent.
It's a good story, whether if you're looking for BL or for a Seinen story.
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