Yakumo-san wa Ezuke ga Shitai (2016)

[八雲さんは餌づけがしたい]

Volume 1

Author/Artist: Satomi U
Publisher: Square Enix

Synopsis:
A lonely young widow finds fulfillment cooking for a high school baseball player who lives next door.

Story/Characters:
Maison Ikkoku is my favorite manga of all time and there is a similar vibe in this series (I would say deliberately so), albeit with a larger age difference between the male and female leads. I actually thought it would've been better to have a larger age gap between Godai and Kyouko in MI, but here the difference is large enough that we start to enter statutory concerns if the story takes a more romantic bent. At present, there's just some ship teasing between Yakumo-san and Yamato-kun, but it appears to be mostly platonic. It's in this ambiguous place where Yakumo-san's interest can be interpreted as maternal or romantic or a little of both. I do appreciate that the author doesn't use the premise strictly for ecchi factor. In fact, the only really perverse scene is entirely in the imagination of Yamato-kun's classmate Rui. Speaking of Rui, I do like that she's established as a sort of counter-point to Yakumo-san, "raising" Yamato-kun for her own ends. Now, it's possible for the story to take an unpleasant turn, but right now it's fairly pure and really quite sweet.

Art:
I'll admit that it was the cover of the second volume that originally caught my eye and my decision to give the first volume a test run was based almost entirely on that. Character design is a big draw for me and Satomi U has an appealing style. Yakumo-san is really cute, as are her interactions with Yamato-kun. As you might imagine given the theme, food is rendered in especially loving detail. I definitely don't have any complaint as far as the visuals are concerned.

Other:
We get a little omake about Rui and Ritsuko and little character profiles of Yakumo-san, Yamato-kun, Rui, and Ritsuko at the end of the volume.

Conclusion:
At least as far as the initial setup is concerned, this is a charming little story and while I'm a little concerned about its future, I'm quite eager to see where it goes. At very least, it's worth a read, but if you're a fan of Maison Ikkoku like me, you'll probably want to add it to your collection.

Rating:
Own It