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南瓜とマヨネーズ
10
1
Finished
1998
Ten stories about the everyday life of Sei, an idealistic songwriter, and Miho, the young woman who struggles to support the both of them. Miho and Sei are living together. She works at a boutique while he tries to make it as a musician. Even though Miho still can’t forget about Hagio, her ex-lover, she is happy in her relationship with Sei. However, all is not well for the young couple. Struggling to make ends meet, Miho decides to take a second job as bar hostess. As she becomes increasingly desperate for money, Miho eventually gives in to one of her client’s sexual advances. When Sei finds out about this he begins to distance himself from her. Things are getting even more complicated for Miho when Hagio suddenly reappears in her life. (Source: Goodreads)
7.3/10
Average Review Score
75%
Recommend It
4
Reviews Worldwide
This manga is about the everyday life. I like this "normal" feeling. A couple is living together, having their normal life. The protagonist Tsuchida is an insecure girl, who's always thinking about life. She loves Sei of Hagio? The manga is all about where to find happyness and love. I like the end of it, even if it's a little sad. The art is very lovely, clean and elegant, so I gave it an outstanding. :)
This will be quick and direct Story 7/10: A slice-of-life story doesn't need to be deep or complex, because, in the end, nobody's life is complex, quoting Yamazaki from Welcome to the NHK! "A drama has a progressive thought, an emotional climax and a resolution, but our lives aren't like that. All we get day after day, are a bunch of vague anxieties that are never really resolved" . This is what Pumpkin & Mayonnaise is, a simple and realist despiction of a relationship: the drama isn't chessy, the pacing is slow and mundane, the lives of the characters don't feel like something out of reality, Pumpkin& Mayonnaise is realist, in the end the manga shows what it promises us: the everyday life of Sei, an idealistic songwriter, and Miho, the young woman who struggles to support the both of them. Art 7/10: Clean, minimalistic, relatable, elegant, unlike "Blue", by the same author the art actually can tell the story. Is not realist, nor "moe", the character desings are quite generical, but we all are generic characters. The backgrounds are there, showing us the enviroment they are not detailed nor realist, so you may not notice them, which, in my opinion gives a feel of desolation. Character 9/10: Yeah, the most important part of a slice-of-life story are the characters, how can you tell a story about someone's life if they don't feel real? Kiriko Nananan knows this, so she makes her characters relatable, they make mistakes, they feel annoyed over little things, they acknowledge their mistakes, she gives them small details about their personalities that makes the experience even more real. This is a josei, the onee-chan of shoujo, this needs to be mature, so, the main character Miho, like any other heroine feels confused and makes stupid decisions, but it doesn't feel like the cliched annoying shoujo girl, you can actually simpathize with her. Enjoyment ? That's up to you. Overall 8/10: With a bittersweet ending, and a small but memorable run, Pumpkin & Mayonnaise is way better than most of the popular romance stuff out there
If you like disappointments and pieces of shits in your life, this is the manga for you and also this is very sad if you encourage people like the main male character Sei. The dramatic synopsis made me really think I would enjoy this manga. So to that idiot who told me "if it has a good plot, then it's gonna be good, anime or manga without a great plot isn't worth the time." Lemme tell you that reading this shit was a waste of time like you literally have the typical weak and dumb female protagonist named Tsuchida who tries so hard to impressstupid men who she shouldn't give the time of the day to. Both men in her life don't respect her at all. Her precious ex Hagio is a womanizer and she literally knows "he has other women, is a womanizer, and not a nice person but I like the way he makes me feel. That emotionless look in his face scares me but shortly after lately he smiles, he's always smiling." This doesn't even make any sense whatsoever lol. Her ex is cold hearted and her man that lives with her mooches off of her and he depends on her like a man child. He has no motivation at all, no plan B, doesn't help support her or offer to do shit for her but has the nerve to complain about Hingis as if he pays the bills. He's literally a loser and the type of guy a parent doesn't want their daughter to be put with at all, he's just extremely annoying and fucking pathetic. When they get back together, he goes back to ordering her around as if nothing happened. She always have to do things for the guy sooo... her broke ass ex couldn't pay for the hotel, so she..tight on money paid to buy him beer and that hotel just to fuck him, cheat on her loser current bf until the same loser breaks up with him because he "wants her to have a happier life and a man who'll treat her right." When she breaks up...ofc the dumb broad goes back to her womanizer ex who finally says "I only liked you when you had a boyfriend, maybe we should split up." Now her friend warned her so many times but being the pathetic shell of a woman she is, out of money, she made sacrifices for men...finally invites her last bf that just left Sei to "come back home so she can cook him something good," in what's looks like they're going back to the same routine of him be a controlling loser and failed musician. Saying things like "how long do I have to wait to eat" I'm sorry but maybe your punk ass should idk help out, get a stable job, learn how to cook instead of being a whiny adult child and crying all the time, you're a grown man. She's just stupid honestly lol.
Kiriko Nananan wrote us again another master piece I read Water. months ago, and I had mixed feeling about it, due to some weird atmosphere and some conclusion-less stories. But Everyday (or Kabocha to Mayonnaise) erased most of the flaws of Nananan's art and style : The art here is less muddled, even though Nananan kept her special decoupage, charadesign, setting that offer to us a dark yet calm atmosphere, a mixture of the vanity of the everyday life and the soft aftertaste of a romantic relation. . . Because Nananan always add a pathetic side in her romances, which is here, infidelity,guilt and theprogressive downfall of the love in the couple, to escape the usual tropes in conventional romance mangas/josei I personally used to use the term "Dark romance" to talk about Nananan's works but it rather "realistic love" of which her works (so Everyday) are about It's still a personal feeling, but Nananan way of writing reminds me a lot Kate Chopin and her feminist tragic romances. It's a hard story to read if you aren't used to romances and """adult"""" mangas in general, but I hope that the curious will fall for one the best romance writer of the manga-sphere Solid 9/10