#Hokago wa Isekai Kissa de Coffee o

[shazzeaslightnovels]

Hokago wa, Isekai Kissa de Coffe o 1

Author: Kazamidori

Illustrator: U-suke

Label: Fujimi Fantasia Bunko

Release Date: 20 June 2017

Art Notes: U-suke’s art is cute but it’s a shame that almost all of the illustrations are of cute girls. I would have liked to have seen more of the odder customers that visit the cafe. Regardless, I like the character designs a lot, especially Albel’s.

A very relaxing story about a cafe owner who gets isekai’d. It surprised me quite a bit and I enjoyed myself reading it. Recommended if you want to read an isekai cooking series and you enjoy series are almost drama-free.

...mmm... now I want a toasted cheese sandwich...

Story:

Genre: cooking, isekai, fantasy, iyashikei

Yuu is the owner of a cafe in Japan. One day, together with his cafe, he is transported to another world. With no way of getting home, he decides to reopen his cafe in the other world. The series focuses on Yuu and the people that come to his cafe.

This series has one of my biggest nit-picks when it comes to cooking isekai series and it’s when the author doesn’t create their own ingredients that could be made in a fantasy world and instead uses the food from our world and gives them a different name. For example, “devil’s fruit” is just a tomato. It strikes me as being uncreative and I would love to see a fantasy cooking series make up their own ingredients. Also, despite there being scenes that detail Yuu’s process of cooking, there aren’t any proper recipes that you can try out at home. Most of the cooking manga that I read do have the recipes and I was a bit disappointed that this didn’t but it really is a minor nit-pick.

Anyway, this was quite a nice and relaxing read. There’s not much conflict or drama or anything which makes for a nice change of pace. The volume also surprised me by addressing the amount of anxiety that would come from suddenly being isekai’d through the protagonist and it did it in an interesting way that I hope gets developed more. I had fun reading this volume and I’m interested to see what direction the story goes.

As for romance, there’s not much of it. Yuu and the main heroine, Linaria, are likely going to get together eventually but there’s not much focus on their relationship. Their dynamic is nice but there is an age gap. Their ages aren’t specified but Linaria attends a magic academy and I would assume she’s in her teens and I really don’t know about Yuu. Based on his looks, I would guess that he’s in his early twenties but it’s never specified. The age gap doesn’t really bother me at this stage because Yuu never really feels older than Linaria but I figure it’s worth mentioning because I know that this can be a deal-breaker for some readers.

Character:

Yuu starts off a bit of a boring protagonist but I was impressed by how he was developed by the volume’s end and he turned out to be pretty interesting. His narration is also good and helps to maintain the relaxing feel of the volume. Linaria is a bit plain but she’s likeable enough. All the characters that visit Yuu’s cafe are quite memorable and endearing. My personal favorite ended up being Niltori, a lazy cat girl who often cuts class to hang out at the cafe and I also liked Albel, an adventurer and one of the few customers who like their coffee straight. I do want to mention that not all of the characters are cute girls; there’s a surprising amount of variety to the customers of the cafe. There’s older men, older women, a mafia rabbit boss in a suit (yes, really), etc. and all of them are memorable in their own way.

Adaptation Notes:

The manga is complete at 1 volume and is illustrated by Sora Tsutaya. It covers the first volume of the light novel and cuts a couple of things out regarding the side characters. I was sad to see Albel cut out (aside from a small cameo) but her part wasn’t really necessary for the story so it’s fine. Sora Tustaya’s art is nice and suits the series. It’s a nice adaptation and I’d recommend reading it if you don’t have access to the light novel.

Recommended for:

People who want to read a cooking series with an isekai element and who don’t mind stories with low stakes and little conflict.

I plan to read the second volume sometime soon.

10/3/20

I read 2 chapters of the web novel and they contained extra info that isn’t in the light novel so I wanted to add some corrections to my original review.

1. Yuu did not already own the cafe and he did not transport together with it. Instead, he just fell down a manhole and ended up in another world. He then spent 2 years searching the world to try to find a reason as to why he was transported and found nothing and THEN he obtained the cafe. How? I don’t know and it’s another one of those things that I’m going to have to ignore for the sake of my continued enjoyed experience of this series. Unfortunately, there’re a lot of contrivances in this setting that I have to ignore, like the chess thing in volume 2.

2. Yuu was 15 when he first arrived in the world and is 17 at around the time when the story starts which means that there is no age gap between him and Linaria. He doesn’t act like he’s 17 but I guess coming to a new world forced him to grow up and mature quickly or something.

[shazzeaslightnovels]

Hokago wa, Isekai Kissa de Coffe o 6 + Overall series thoughts

Author: Kazamidori

Illustrator: U-suke

Label: Fujimi Fantasia Bunko

Release Date: 20 July 2019

LIGHT SPOILER WARNING: I won’t go into detail about how things happen and I won’t spoil the ending but I will be talking about some late plot developments so you have been warned. I don’t think that I will talk about anything past page 200.

This volume starts with Yuu being told that it will soon be time for him to go home. If this was Yuu from the first volume, I think he’d have been delighted more than anything else but this isn’t Yuu from the first volume. Yuu now has a life here and people that he loves and beind told that he has to give it all up is a complicated feeling, to say the least. He still knows that he doesn’t really “belong” in this world and a part of him does want to go back but does he really have to leave all this behind? Worse, it is later revealed that this world is slowly forgetting about him and his life for the past 3 years will soon be erased. He can’t leave anything behind and no one will remember him.

It’s painful and this is something that I am always wanting to see isekai series deal with: what happens when the protagonist has to go home? In most modern isekai stories, the protagonist does not have to go home, nor do they want to. Typically, the protagonist’s past world has nothing of value for them and it’s easy for them to create a new life in their new world but Yuu is different. Yuu had a life back in our world and it was something that he could not let go of for a long time. So seeing him gradually being able to live a life in this new world and then having it taken away from him is painful to read but is so interesting and is something that I wish more isekai series would deal with.

And then there’s Yuu’s relationship with Linaria. They have mutual feelings but he’s not going to act on it because he could disappear at any moment and he does not want to put her through that. Their romance is one of the weakest aspect of the series for me but you can’t help but root for them to end up together. The ending isn’t as satisfying as it could have been but it does work well.

Overall series thoughts:

Hokago wa, Isekai Kissa de Coffee o is obviously not perfect but it is a damn good isekai series. Yuu is an excellent protagonist and the series explores concepts that most modern isekai series do not touch and it executes them so well. There are some moments when I wished that it had explored it’s conflicts further but it was overall a very satisfying experience and I’d like to read more isekai stories like it in the future.

That being said, I have to mention that volume 4 is ultimately useless and you can skip it. The character that is introduced there and is focued on throughout the volume does not appear in volume 5 & 6 and is only mentioned a bit so you can definitely skip it without missing much.

Overall, a really good end to a really good series and I’m very satisfied. I’ll be reading the author’s other series in the future.

[shazzeaslightnovels]

Hokago wa, Isekai Kissa de Coffee o 5

Author: Kazamidori

Illustrator: U-suke

Label: Fujimi Fantasia Bunko

Release Date: 20 February 2019

Art Notes: I really like this cover. It’s so nice and soothing and comfy and it’s the perfect cover for such a relaxing series. Alas, despite being on the cover, Niltori is barely in this volume but she’s still cute.

This volume focuses on Aina, a character who was introduced as Linaria’s stalker back in volume 1. I haven’t mentioned her much because I didn’t know how they were going to handle her character but I really enjoyed her stuff here and she’s ended becoming one of my favorite characters in this series. This volume has Yuu learn the language from Aina and it shows a lot of the character development he’s went through and that he’s finally ready to accept this new world as his home, even if that does mean giving up on returning to his old world. The other thing that this focuses on is chess, which was another thing that I really liked. I mentioned that I liked that Yuu has this hobby that doesn’t really play into the plot all that much and, while it does play into the plot here, I liked how that was set-up in a previous volume so his interest in chess doesn’t feel like it comes out of nowhere. The structure was far improved from last volume, as well. I really enjoyed this volume and it’s probably my favorite in the series so far.

Unfortunately, this may be the last volume of this series that I’ll be able to read for a while. I’ve been reading them through BookWalker’s Kadokawa Subscription and volume 6 is not available on the service yet. Hopefully, it’ll be added soon but I’ll be reading it regardless. I believe that volume 6 is the last one in the series and I’m excited to see how it wraps up.

[shazzeaslightnovels]

Hokago wa Isekai Kissa de Coffee o 4

Author: Kazamidori

Illustrator: U-suke

Label: Fujimi Fantasia Bunko

Release Date: 20 September 2018

Hmmm... the structure of this volume is very different to the previous volumes and I can’t say that I like it. Thus far, the light novel has avoided feeling too much like a web novel and most of that is due to the structure not feeling very web novel-like. But here each scene is a new chapter and it really disrupts the flow. For what it’s worth, the reason I dislike this kind of structure is because I tend to read one chapter at a time so when the chapters are so short, I come out of my reading session feeling dissatisfied and I find that reading multiple chapters at once really disrupts the flow of my reading so I’m disappointed that the series has gone in this direction and I hope that it changes back in the next volume.

A new character is introduced this volume - Tiese, a 12-year-old girl who Yuu meets when she is hiding outside his cafe in order to take shelter from the rain. She’s pretty likeable but a bit too orthodox for my tastes. Thankfully, they don’t do anything creepy with her and she doesn’t fall in love with Yuu or anything which is a relief. Overall, the story this volume was fine but unmemorable.

I know that these covers are not always accurate but Niltori and Aina being on the cover of the next volume has me a bit excited for it. I’ll be reading it soon.

[shazzeaslightnovels]

Hokago wa, Isekai Kissa de Coffee o 3

Author: Kazamidori

Illustrator: U-suke

Label: Fujimi Fantasia Bunko

Release Date: 19 May 2018

This volume starts with the magic academy being blown up so Linaria gets kicked out of her dorms and needs a place to stay during her summer vacation but the town is busy at the moment and all of the inns are booked out so, of course, Yuu offers her a place to stay. It’s good timing as Yuu’s cafe has been rather busy lately and he appreciates the extra help. 

The volume focuses on developing Linaria and Yuu and it’s pretty good. The foucs on Linaria really helps make her a far more likeable and interesting heroine, though I did feel like some of her drama came out of nowhere. I mean, I swear we only learnt that she’s an orphan in this volume so the drama about her being an orphan feels very sudden and wasn’t built up properly. Yuu continues to be a rather interesting isekai protagonist as we find out that he doesn’t know how to read the language in this world which strikes me as another way that Yuu tries to distance himself from the world and protect himself from considering a future where he doesn’t return to his original world. It’s good stuff and it’s something that I’d love to see more isekai explore.

I’ll be reading volume 3 soon.

Also, some corrections to my original review of the first volume, since I read 2 chapters of the web novel which had some extra information not in the light novel:

1. Yuu did not already own the cafe and he did not transport together with it. Instead, he just fell down a manhole and ended up in another world. He then spent 2 years searching the world to try to find a reason as to why he was transported and found nothing and THEN he obtained the cafe. How? I don’t know and it’s another one of those things that I’m going to have to ignore for the sake of my continued enjoyed experience of this series. Unfortunately, there’re a lot of contrivances in this setting that I have to ignore, like the chess thing in volume 2.

2. Yuu was 15 when he first arrived in the world and is 17 at around the time when the story starts which means that there is no age gap between him and Linaria. He doesn’t act like he’s 17 but I guess coming to a new world forced him to grow up and mature quickly or something.

[shazzeaslightnovels]

Hokago wa, Isekai Kissa de Coffee o 2

Author: Kazamidori

Illustrator: U-suke

Label: Fujimi Fantasia Bunko

Release Date: 20 December 2017

Art Notes: despite what the cover may suggest, Niltori is in this volume for only a couple of pages and Linaria isn’t in it much either. It’s still a cute cover though.

Yuu continues to be an interesting isekai protagonist in this volume as he starts to contemplate what his dream is. He was suddenly transported to another world and making plans for the future in this world would mean that he has given up on a future in his original world. It’s an interesting concept that I would like to see explored in more isekai series. It’s rare to see an isekai protagonist who had a fulfilling life in their original world and I’m glad to see this series is exploring the implications of that and it’s doing it well so far.

Another little detail that I liked in this volume was that it reveals that one of Yuu’s hobbies is chess. It is such a random hobby and not something that I can see contributing to main plot very often but I think it makes him a lot more human. People do often have hobbies that are completely seperate from their work life and I really like that Yuu just has this casual interest in chess. (And, yes, I realize that it takes some logical leaps to accept that this world that is completely different from ours managed to create the same game and call it the same thing but I’ve decided to ignore it for now unless there’s a reveal that Yuu is not the only person from earth that was transported to this world.)

We learn a bit more about Linaria and what her dream is in this volume as well and she’s become more interesting to me and I want to see more of her soon.

Will be reading the 3rd volume soon.

[shazzeaslightnovels]

March 2020

Artist: Karei

No. of volumes reviewed: 23

Favorite volumes: Isekai Goumon Hime 9, Baccano! 1933, Ginga Tetsudou no Yoru o koete: Tsuki to Layka to Nosferatu Hoshimachi-hen

I also translated a short story that Keishi Ayasato posted on Twitter for Isekai Goumon Hime for Hinamatsuri which you can read here (it’s 6 lines long but it’s cute).

I can’t afford premium so I still have one episode to go until I finish Winter shows but I’m sure that the final episodes won’t change my mind much on these shows and it’s not like I’m going to want to talk about them next month. My ranking ended up being Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun > BOFURI > Room Camp. Room Camp was good enough to spend 3 minutes each week but it was rare that it managed to hit the same comfy feeling that Laid-Back Camp had. BOFURI was great and I thought that it did an amazing job at having an OP protagonist who managed to stay interesting and fun throughout the 12 episodes. I had a lot of fun watching it each week to see what kind of oddball skill Maple would acquire next and I really enjoyed how Maple was OP due to those oddball skills and interesting combinations instead of her just having cheat armor or something. Still not sure if I’m going to be reading the light novel but I’ll definitely watch season 2. Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun was a delight every week and Megumi Ogata’s performance as Hanako was particularly incredible. The way her voice was able to switch from cheeky brat to vulnerable brat was amazing in an instant. I really enjoyed it.

The Spring season is packed. I will definitely be watching the new seasons of Sword Art Online, OreGairu and Kaguya-sama. And, if they’re easily available in Australia, I hope to watch Arte, Digimon Adventure: and Bakarina.

List of Reviews:

Isekai Goumon Hime 9

Mondaiji 9

Hokago wa, Isekai Kissa de Coffee o 2

Akuyaku Reijou? Iie, Gokuaku Reijou desu wa 2

Tasogareiro no Utatsukai 6

Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road 3

Hokago wa, Isekai Kissa de Coffee o 3

Bakarina 8

Mondaiji 10

Magdala de Nemure 8

Baccano 1933 The Slash

Mondaiji 11

Shoujo wa Shoka no Umi de Nemuru

Tasogareiro no Utatsukai 7

Mondaiji 12

Ginga Tetsudou no Yoru o Koete: Tsuki to Layka to Nosferatu Hoshimachi-hen

Hokago wa Isekai Kissa de Coffee o 4

Last Embryo 1

Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume o Minai

Tasogareiro no Utatsukai 8

Last Embryo 2

Hokago wa, Isekai Kissa de Coffee o 5

Seishun Buta Yarou wa Petit Devil Kouhai no Yume o Minai

My only concrete plans for April are to read the rest of Tasogareiro no Utatsukai and Baccano! 1934.

Next month, there’s a new volume of Bakarina coming out, as well as a new release from Mei Hachimoku, who made their debut last year with Natsu e no Tunnel, Sayonara no Deguchi which was one of my favorite new releases of 2019. It’s called Kinou no Haru de, Kimi o Matsu. From the promotional material, I’m under the impression that it’s related to Natsu e no Tunnel but is not a direct sequel. Hachimoku also wrote a story for one of the OreGairu anthologies coming out in April but I’ve decided not to give those a read until after the final season of the anime has finished airing to avoid spoilers.

[shazzeaslightnovels]

February 2020 Reading Log

No. of volumes reviewed: 21

Favorite volumes: Danmachi Familia Chronicle Episode Lyu & Genjuu Chousain 1

This month, I finished the Symphogear anime (I watched season 1 and G last month) and I ended up really liking it. Like, it’s so silly and over-the-top that it ends up being really fun once you can get over how silly it can get. I think that it is excellent on a lot of levels (like set-up and pay-off, power levels, characters, animation, music, yuri, etc.) but I have trouble recommending it because I really didn’t care for season 1 but some plot stuff in season 1 becomes really relevant in later seasons so it can’t really be skipped. Still, I’d recommend giving it a go if you just want to watch gorgeous action scenes and listen to some nice music and turn off your brain for a while.

The other thing that I experienced this month that I loved was an Australian book called Euphoria Kids by Alison Evans. I don’t really want to go into details about my feelings about it because I’m not really comfortable sharing that much information on my personal life on here but it meant a lot to me and I definitely recommend it to anyone who has experienced gender dysphoria. It has an odd story and I’m not sure if it’ll work for everyone like it did for me but I think it’s worth a read.

List of Reviews:

Danmachi Familia Chronicle Episode Lyu

Tasogareiro no Utatsukai 3

Mondaiji 6

Tensei Ojou to Tensai Reijou no Mahou Kakumei

Baccano! 1932 Drug & The Dominos

Sword Oratoria 8

Otaria 4

Magdala de Nemure 4

Majo no Tabitabi 4

Shin no Nakama 1

Mondaiji 7

Tasogareiro no Utatsukai 4

Monrabu 6 & 7 + overall series impressions

Baccano 2001 The Children of Bottle

Majo no Tabitabi 5

Mondaiji 8

Otaria 5

Hokago wa, Isekai Kissa de Coffe o 1

Genjuu Chousain 1

Tasogareiro no Utatsukai 5

Otaria 6

Next month, my top priority is catching up to new volumes that were released this month. I’ll likely start with Isekai Goumon Hime 9 before tackling Shoukei Shoujo no Virgin Road and Akuyaku Reijou? Iie, Gokuaku Reijou desu wa. I also have the 8th volume of Bakarina that I want to get done early in the month. And, of course, I plan to continue with Tasogareiro no Utatsukai and Hokago wa, Isekai Kissa de Coffee o and maybe even finish Mondaiji and Magdala (haven’t been talking about the last couple of volumes but I’m up to vol. 7).

And a new volume of Tsuki to Lyka to Nosferatu is coming out next month! It seems to be based on an audio-book spin-off story that was released last year and I’m very excited! I’d heard about the audio-book and was intrigued but didn’t think I’d be able to experience it myself due to various reasons so I’m very happy that it’s being released in bunko format. The Oregairu anthologies have such amazing author line-ups that I’m a bit tempted to get them, even though I have yet to read the light novels. Maybe I’ll pick them up after the final season of the anime airs and I don’t have to be as worried about spoilers. There aren’t any new series that interest me much.