Sweetness and Lightning Volume 09 Manga Review
Amaama to Inazuma Manga Volume 09
–> Buy Sweetness and Lightning Volume 09 from Amazon.com!
***SPOILERS***
Mikio gets teased about his friendship with a girl. Tsumigi gets her hair cut and manages to restore her friendship with Mikio. Kotori gets a shock when she sees Kouhei with another woman. The woman turns out to be his sister, who has a half-Japanese daughter named Ellie. Tsumugi struggles to befriend Ellie, who remains distant. Meanwhile, Kotori’s mom gets Kouhei’s sister to teach her how to make cannelloni.
Yuuka, Hana, and Tsumugi meet for a trip to the water park. As it happens, Kotori is there with Shinobu. Yuuka has friendship bracelets for Hana and Tsumugi. At the end of the day, the trio are sad to depart. However, they meet again later, where Tsumugi brings out the wishing stone, reminding Yuuka that they promised to be friends forever, even if they attend different schools.
Tsumugi wants to make niku-gaga (stew) as part of her summer research project. They run into Kotori at the library, thus the Megumi’s kitchen becomes the lab for Tsumugi to make her first meal. Kouhei has difficulty letting Tsumugi do the work herself.
Kyoko and Nagisa play with Tsumugi, where Tsumugi learns Kyoko’s mom is getting remarried. However, Kouhei has difficulty discussing the subject with Tsumugi. Meanwhile, Kotori notices her divorced parents are spending more time together.
School Friends
One of the themes in Sweetness and Lightning Volume 09 are school friendships. First, there’s the issue of boys teasing other boys because they are friends with a girl. Man, that hit hard with me ’cause I remember in kindergarten, the older boys teased me mercilessly because I sat with the cute girl in my class on the bus. She was hurt when I stopped sitting with her to try to stop the teasing. 😓
That aside, it is interesting that Tsumugi decided to get a hair cut because of this event. She does look cute with shorter hair. And I’m sure it was easier to draw. 😂
Then there was the issue of losing friends due to not attending the same school. Again, I thought back to my childhood. When I changed schools, I still remained friends with a couple of guys from my old school. But then we moved and I never saw them again. It happens.
On a similar note, Kotori plans to take over her mom’s restaurant. Her best friend Shinobu is thinking of leaving town after high school. What becomes of their friendship then?
Kotori
The pseudo romance element between Kotori and Kouhei resumes in Sweetness and Lightning Volume 09. Amagakure-sensei had put this on a back burner with no heat, leaving it all but dead. He reignited the fire when Kotori sees Kouhei with another woman. Poor Kotori is so horrified by the sight, and even more so when Kouhei brings his older sister to the restaurant. I couldn’t help but smile at Kotori’s relief when she learned the woman was Kouhei’s older sister.
Then later, Kotori runs into Kouhei at the water park and has feelings about that, though more along the, “I’m goofing off rather than studying.” However, when Kotori meets Kouhei and Tsumugi at the library, she has an excuse to be there. Thus she slyly comes up to them to talk.
I admit, these are tiny moments, but it is more than we’ve had recently. One lives off crumbs. 😜
Cooking
The first dish in Sweetness and Lightning Volume 09 is Milk Coffee Jelly. Pass. The second is Cheese and Spinach Cannelloni. That version is a pass for me. However, I do make a mean Beef Cannelloni with extra cheese. I’ve got some in the freezer that I should heat up this week.
Next up is yakisoba with oyster sauce. I love yakisoba, but I don’t like oysters. Following that is nuku-jaga, a dish I’ve never had, but one which shows up almost as often as Japanese curries. Speaking of curries, a fish curry wraps up the recipe portion. I’ve never had one, but I would certainly try one.
Omake
Starting off the omake section of Sweetness and Lightning Volume 09 are a series of 4-koma comic strips. A couple of these deal with Kouhei and his then future wife when they were dating. That was kind of sweet. After that, we get an afterward from Amagakure-sensei, followed by a couple of character sketches. Then Kodansha Comics throws in a ton of ads for their other titles.
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
In the end, Sweetness and Lightning Volume 09 continues the trend of being a wholesome, slice-of-life manga, filled with a cooking element. And there was a bit of movement with Kotori and her feelings for Kouhei, which wasn’t much, but better than nothing.
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