Nobunaga no Chef - Reviews

I'm surprised this is not based on a novel to be honest, it's not common to see standalone manga with this quality of narrative and storytelling, superb job by the author. There is an attention to detail on every front and how well the author melds history, cooking and storytelling which is simply great.
The history is as far as I can tell accurate (I have a shallow knowledge and a bad memory) and is told with interesting narrative.
The characters feel both human and majestic, Nobunaga in particular gives that sense of visionary, fair and ruthless all in a package giving way to the several faces that the character has taken in history.
The cooking is interesting too but kept moderate, it takes a nice chunk of the story but never being completely in the first plane, Ken's dishes tip the balance in negotiations and so on but almost always as a part of a scheme by Nobunaga, this is specially interesting because it presents the idea that maybe Ken's actions don't change the future but are a part of it while at the same time giving place to the option that Nobunaga just adapts his scheme based on his present tools, without Ken he would just succeed in some other way, either is interesting and still hasn't been made clear.
And last, the portrayal of the era is very well done, the accepted obsequience of the citizens, the position of women, the socio-political situation of the warring state period and the insertion of the Nanben and Ming culture and products.
All is very well done and the art is quite good too, nothing breath taking but solid, simple to understand and follow and simply looks good. Can't recommend this enough for anyone, specially if they are a fan of historical novels.

I've only read a couple chapters and am intrigued to read more. but I stopped because this book reminds me of Sengoku Komachi Kuroutan: Noukou Giga. It follows the same idea, the protaganist goes along with the same historic figure Oda. I think you should read the book I suggested after reading this one if you're after the same idea of book, but it overall is a good book.