The Spring 2024 Manga Guide

Make it and Eat it On Your Own

What's It About? 

Tsurumaki's a section chief who can cook. His superior, Kotou, cannot and can be a reeeal drag about it sometimes. When they bump into each other after work at a veggie stand and Kotou reveals his girlfriend left him, he begs Tsurumaki to help show him how to cook. Tsurumaki agrees and learns a very interesting fact about Kotou's ex…

Make it and Eat it On Your Own has a story and art by schwinn. English translation by Lance. This volume is lettered and retouched by Happy Negi. Published by Irodori Inc. (April 28).

Is It Worth Reading?

I enjoyed Irodori's previous release of a title by BL manga creator schwinn, so I was excited to explore another one of their works. While I can't say that Make it and Eat it On Your Own was quite as heartwarming as that other book, it still has plenty to recommend. This story is about two men in their forties – Tsurumaki is forty-one and Kotou is forty-five. That's unusual enough in manga romance to merit mentioning, and what's even better is that they act like it. Tsurumaki has his life much more together than Kotou, but Kotou is very much a product of the society he grew up in. Afraid to present as queer, he's spent his life cultivating what he thinks is a “straight” persona, and that seems to mean being as aggressively and toxically masculine as he can manage. He makes snide comments about how he never cooks (his “girlfriend” does that for him), only likes meat, and generally comes off as a total jerk. This is his defining feature around the office; Tsurumaki may privately lament that Kotou's a twit and (apparently) straight because he's his type otherwise but the other office workers actively dislike him and wish he'd go away.

The main drive of the story is how a combination of food, sex, and vulnerability teaches Kotou how to become a better human being. It all starts when Tsurumaki runs into him at an unmanned produce stand near their homes and Kotou bursts into tears; his boyfriend left him and he's hurting. When Tsurumaki agrees to come over and show him how to prepare vegetables, he discovers the truth of Kotou's sexuality, and things proceed from there – and much to his surprise, Kotou turns out to be clingy and a little weepy. Kotou wants things to move much more quickly and is hurt that Tsurumaki not only leaves right after sex. He also doesn't want Kotou to come over and stink his place up. The romance then relies on both men learning how to unbend a little, the one to see past the toxicity that the other apes and the other to recognize his faults and learn to change. It's a rewarding plotline, especially if you like your porn to come with a plot.

schwinn's art is very nice, falling between bara and regular BL, and the book is completely uncensored. I especially like how schwinn draws faces, but they also do a good job of letting us know how clothed vs unclothed figures relate to each other and with the backgrounds – no blank spaces here. The food is also well drawn, which is important for a story with a cooking component, and even my despised brassicas look tasty. The worst element is some incredibly cringey dirty talk. And I mean really cringey. But if you can ignore that, this is a pretty good short series.

The graphic sex is not the only unflinching aspect of Make it and Eat it On Your Own. It's also a clear-eyed take on the boomer experience. Though both protagonists are in their 40s and not technically part of that generation, they're navigating the challenges of beginning a new romantic relationship in midlife—particularly when you're set in your ways or you've been burned before.

Keiichi is an introverted, serious-minded office worker who enjoys home cooking. He still has a chip on his shoulder about his ex-boyfriend, a careless man who treated him like a live-in maid. He's frustrated by his outspoken colleague Ryuuji, who won't stop belittling his girlfriend in stories that indicate him treating her in quite a sexist manner (“What a boomer,” his colleagues say behind his back). But after Keiichi finds out that Ryuuji was involved with a man (and playing up the sexism to appear straight at the office), these two middle-aged gay men develop a relationship based on cooking, and maybe something more.

This is a two-volume series, making it the longest explicit comic Irodori sent to the guide. That gives it plenty of time to develop Keiichi and Ryuuji's relationship (in between developing their sexual chemistry, with no detail spared). Keiichi has legitimate reservations about starting a relationship with yet another man with outdated, boomer-ish ideas. (My favorite part of the entire manga is when Keiichi uses sexual favors to bribe Ryuuji into approving a colleague's paternity leave. This is how men can be allies at the office!) Meanwhile, Ryuuji learns throughout the story that caring about other people means learning how to help them beyond their sexual needs. Charming, bara-adjacent art shows us every inch of our two protagonists and their bulkier-than-you-usually-see bodies. Though their relationship begins dick first, it turns into an unexpectedly heartwarming story about stubborn older men learning to change their ways for the better.

Also, both volumes inexplicably conclude with a quote from 28th US President Woodrow Wilson. Just a fun little Easter egg for your boomer porn experience.