Review: THE FOOD DIARY OF MISS MAID

We could stand to read something more pleasant after that last review...perhaps a nice, soothing food manga?  With a maid?

THE FOOD DIARY OF MISS MAID (Maid-San wa Taberu Dake), by Susumu Maeya.  First published in 2019 and first published in North America in 2022.

PLOT:

Suzume Tachibana was perfectly content working as a maid for her unnamed English master...at least, until his home was destroyed while she was away.  It's going to take a year to rebuild, so now she's stuck in Japan for a year with nothing to do but take care of herself.  There's only so many times she can tidy her tiny little apartment, so she spends most of her time wandering around and eating whatever tasty delicacies she comes across.

STORY:

Like a lot of food manga these days, The Food Diary of Miss Maid is focused less on the narrative and more on cultivating cozy, casual vibes.  There's not so much a story as there is a premise, a reason for Suzume to be stuck in Japan with nothing in particular to do.  Suzume's personality is as lightly sketched as the story at large, driven mostly by her curiosity and the anxiety she feels at being so far from her home and her everyday routine.  She doesn't even interact with many people beyond a single visit with her Japanese grandmother and a few interactions with her next-door neighbor, relying primarily on her guidebook to guide her way.

This means most of these chapters are focused entirely on the food - the ways it's made, the taste, the texture, and how it makes Suzume feel.  Most of the food here are common Japanese snacks (taiyaki, takoyaki, onigiri, etc) that habitual food manga readers have seen described before, so her observations are not particularly deep or unique.  After a few chapters, I found myself skimming through the rest of the book because the novelty of a maid wandering the streets of urban Japan and vaguely pleasant vibes weren't enough to hold my attention.  Much like Suzume's snacks, it's fine enough in the moment but it lacks the sort of complexity or substance to be truly memorable.

ART:

Maeya's art is just as pleasant and unchallenging as the story.  The character designs are cute, if not terribly distinctive.  The backgrounds do their best to present this anonymous Japanese town in its best and sunniest fashion.  The paneling is breezy and uncomplicated.  The food is well-rendered.  There's nothing here to object to, but there's also nothing here visually you couldn't get elsewhere.

RATING:

The Food Diary of Miss Maid is a cheerful but insubstantial trifle of a title.  I could see this being a perfectly acceptable entryway title for those curious about food manga, but experienced fans will likely find themselves craving something more unique.

This manga is published digitally by Kodansha Comics.  This series is complete with 4 volumes available.  All 4 volumes have been released digitally and are currently available through most major digital manga retailers.