Kumika no Mikaku

This is purely a placeholder review (and a meaningless score) until someone finds the time to write a more comprehensive review in the future, as I hate leaving interesting manga with such an unattractive overview on this site; this will not contain any spoilers, even minor ones. Given its on-going state, this will just be a quick heads-up and not a constructive critique.

First of all, Kumika no Mikaku is not a food manga, far from it, as it doesn't display any mouth-watering or overly original dishes, but only uses it as a starting point for the story and helps build a backdrop for the titular character. As such, do not expect the very boring one dish per chapter trope that you've probably seen in other manga/anime (Amaama to Inazuma comes to mind), which massively hinders the flow of the story; and no shounen-esque eating/cooking scenes either. Also, even though we have some cute humanoid aliens, this is no MonMusu either, there is absolutely no fanservice involved.

What you are in for, though, is a comfortable and interesting Slice of Life with progression (as of chapter 16), and an appropriate amount of character development. The characters are all of working age (around 22 years old), which, along with the sci-fi twist, helps bring an overall fresh feeling to an otherwise trope-ridden genre: you won't have to suffer through thousands of pages of the same copy pasted school backgrounds, as each chapter brings something new to the table. The main character is no isekai protagonist either, being believable and just the slightest bit quirky (did I mention she has two tentacles on her head?), as she discovers what life in Japan is like without wandering in the very overdone innocent/pure maiden/raised in seclusion territory.

Visually, the art is very reminiscent of josei, with a simplistic yet expressive drawing that doesn't look incredible but does its job quite well. The author strikes a good balance here as the characters do not look bland without making stupid over-the-top faces every single panel. There are some good touches here and there (oh my god she uses those tentacles as hands all the time?), for example with the clothes being detailed and varied, that help with the very natural setting the author is going for.

Overall, Kumika no Mikaku looks very promising, as long as it keeps following the very sane objectives it has set out to achieve: make something that feels different and yet not farfetched and that you can easily enjoy without being cheap.

Final note: enjoyable slice of life with progression avoiding overly reused garbage settings, tropes and characters.

Excellent romantic slice of life with a unique twist. As you can probably already tell, there's a heap of aliens in this manga and they're all great. Objectively the pink lady alien is best girl. The focus on food being the driving force behind the love interests' relationship is an excellent one as it allows for an interesting form of character introspection, development and fluff. Character designs for the aliens range from "fair" to "very unique and interesting" and the flow of extra characters isn't so slow that it stagnates the plot or too fast that it derails the plot entirely and I can safely say I only hated the character designed to be hated so that's a really nice addition

Slice of Life/ ( ˘▽˘)っ♨ (Eat) / Romance & Friendship within a workplace

Whenever I see a manga that demonstrates “love and happiness out of simple thing(s) that we take it/them for granted”, I give it a really high score. If you want to get that kind of “grateful vibe”, read this manga! σ(≧ε≦ｏ)

!!Minor Spoiler!!
Story: 10 (using the concept of “eating” as the “starting point” of discovering “life” & “love” is so amazing! The main thing of this manga is not about food!! Rather, "food" is used as a "tool" to show us something more special and beautiful about life itself!)
Art: 10 (we can see the improvement of the mangaka’s drawing skill! If I can even drool from mangaka’s art, it means that he did an excellent job of drawing to food!)
Character: 10 (the setups of the characters are pretty excellent. We can also see how Kumika grow as a character xD )
Enjoyment: 10 (feeling internally warm whenever I read a chapter. Makes me feel more appreciative about every single meal that I have ate/ eat/ will eat :D)
Overall: 10 (Sweet from the beginning to the end. Oh yes! good ending ;D )

A good quotes for this manga:
“One cannot think well, love well and sleep well if one has not dined well.” – Virginia Woolf


P.S. I really want Kumika’s secondary ears/ tentacles/ wings/ or extra hands (whatever you called them) xD

To start off, unlike the previous review, this is a completely biased opinion of mine that will reflect how I feel on this series. This review will contain spoiler to a certain amount. I can't say how much, but it will.

Kumika no Mikaku, or Kumika's Taste is very much a food Manga while being not about food. As you can see, it involves food, eating and food appreciation through out from the start to the end, true to its name.

However, the food aspect really was just a base to tell another story, the story of a fool traveling through the Arcana and learn new things to grow up. As you see very soon after the series started, the fool Kumika Hality was bland, too focus on work, overly serious and very much anti-social. That was until there was this guy who took the advantage of her when she caught a cold to poison her with the evilest of all thing: good food! How despicable. That drug called food was taking over the fool with joy for the first time, she then started to eat more and more, blowing lots of the money she made onto food even though she originally only need to breath to sustain her life. The more Kumika the fool keep eating, the more she's unable to get away from that devil's drug called food. She did feel sorry for her parents at home for eating the food they can't have, guilty for eating away lives somewhere among her... How truly evil! To top it off, the guy who poisoned her started doing it all because he has that selfish lust after her. What can be more evil than that?

But... There is a catch.
Kumika the fool learned the taste of food. She then started to open up to her co-workers and they openly accept her. She took the first childish steps into a world with color, with more emotions, with worries, with happiness, with laughter, with love. She started to notice more about what is around her. She learned that eating is to take lives into yourselves and started to appreciate food. She learned to cook and season her life with the spices she has. She noticed her neighbor works just a floor under her. She reached out to a stranger. She taught someone else how to cook. She was able to confess her love to the man she was in love with.....

The fool started her journey. And she reached a place she never had the idea she would reach one day.

Like the previous review mentioned. This Manga has a lot of a josei (targeted at mature women) Manga. It was so expressive in its art while staying rather simple throughout ever page. It's like you can feel the joy of the main characters, especially Kumika, as they taste the food which might have been ordinary to us with joy and to be honest, I was drooling during my read too. The way each food gets described and their taste as well as how they are made are so simple, yet so magical it feels like I was reading a fantasy instead of reading about food you can get in restaurants. There was this child like unsettling feeling inside me urging me to get that exact same food right there and then.
Its food is so, so expressive and seem so good. Yet, the reaction is not over the top like in other food Manga like Shokugeki no Souma. It doesn't feel out of place because the one reacting is an alien who didn't know anything about food! She reacts to the food with every emotions she can express and with everything she learned the previous days.

It's really like a joy watching a child learning new things and growing up. The kind of subtle joy any working adult might appreciate.

Overall. Kumika no Mikaku isn't that impressive of a Manga series. But in the mini adventure it is, in only 1 year, it gives you a kind of joy and appreciation you might never have realized in your daily life. While not that good. It was certainly enjoyable. 10/10 for enjoyment.

My Synopsis: Set in a futuristic Japan (you won’t really see too much stuff outside earth) where Earth’s borders are open for space travel . Aliens are common place and come to Earth to visit/work (you’ll get some world building as you read through.) Our main character is Kumika a chick who doesn’t need to eat because her species can absorb the nutrients needed through the air. (again enough exposition is done to know how this is done)
It’s a good manga with some really cute moments. It makes you feel nice and fluffy when you read it.

Story 7: Again fluffy manga so the story isn't crazy or anything but it has romance which has good progression. The manga is very episodic each chapter has its own self-contained plot and every now and then the plot will stretch across 2-3 chapters.

Art 8: The art really fits with the manga it’s nothing unique but it’s done really well. Key moments of the manga are especially well drawn. Great art with some unique alien designs and the few planets that we see are also pretty unique.

Character 6: Kumika herself has good character development but aside from her everybody else stays the same. Watching the character grow through the 30+ chapters is nice. Nothing is rushed it’s a smooth ride when you read it.

Enjoyment 8: If you’re in the mood for some feel good fluffiness then pls read it. It’s a nice read whenever your feeling like you want to read something nice and cute. Plus the art is good. Not only that but it has some funny moments to so what more do you need am i right.

This gives me a warm nostalgic feeling whenever I go to reread it. Warm and fuzzy. Wholesome to the extreme.

How can I really describe what makes this manga so great without getting into too lengthy of a review? I'll try my best, but this'll be hard.

Well, first off, for those who like the "monster girl" genre but get sick of all the "uwu, you were kind to me once so can I like, sucky your dickywicky?", this does NOT have that. In fact, there is little fan service and zero harem (not to say there isn't some romance or fan service, but it's done very light heartedly and it never gets too raunchy)

Second, it's a nice slice of life about enjoying the small things and connecting with others through things you enjoy. I absolutely had a lot of fun watching the main girl grow as a person, and in turn, enjoyed seeing how her new found lease on life affected the others.

Third, the designs. The designs feel very unique with some, but familiar with others (but with a nice spin). For instance, there's a girl who almost looks like a xenomorph but still has enough different about her to look unique (love her lizard-like qualities). A "slime girl" is also included that's more based off a jelly-fish, and she also had a little bit of a twist to her design to make her a bit unique. Some of the other aliens also gave me an early 2000 "demon" or "alien" vibe which gave me a huge smile.

The world-building was pretty simple with not too much explored, but here, it didn't feel necessary to dive into it more than what was already shown. However, I do feel like it'd be neat to see a spin-off or even another cast of characters within the same world so that we could get some more details about alien planets, more alien biology, and even how off-world visits to earth began. After-all, the set-up was perfect for giving a taste of what this world has to offer, but seeing a brand new tale would give a lot of opportunity to see even more species.

Lastly, the characters. There isn't really a bad character, in my opinion. They were fun, some relatable even, and not to mention all had their unique element while still feeling somewhat grounded.

For fans of slice of life stories where characters eat delicious food and become closer to one another, this is a fun read. Reminds me of the warmth I felt watching Bed and Breakfast for Spirits as well as Sweetness and Lightning.