The aesthetics of deliciousness in culinary manga

This paper aims to explore comics about eating, not only as a subject but as a way of transforming an everyday, mundane act into a vibrant and sensory reading experience. We will focus on how food is depicted in comics—not just the food itself, but also the reactions and emotions that arise from the characters' experiences.

We begin from an aesthetic standpoint, investigating how visual elements can evoke sensory experiences of taste and smell. Colors, shapes, graphic style, textures, and page layout all contribute to the aesthetic appreciation of food, engaging readers sensorially. The central question is how comics create a form of synesthesia—offering a visual representation of how food feels or using character interactions with food to convey the experience of eating, its flavors, and the emotions that accompany the act.

We will examine the recurring themes of repetition and variation, and how they resonate in graphic storytelling. For instance, we will look at techniques such as the use of ascending lines to represent temperature, the glistening effect of oily food, and other methods for graphically expressing tactile sensations. Additionally, we will analyze the recurring forms of character reactions to identify patterns and differences across the comics. Understanding how these techniques are used in different works—both similarly and differently—will provide a more comprehensive insight into the mechanics of such depictions.

We are witnessing a growing wave of manga that celebrate the joys of food. In this exploration, we will examine how different series depict food in distinct ways—from The Solitary Gourmet (Kodoku no Gourmet), by Taniguchi and Kusumi, which captures the quiet pleasure of solitary meals, to Suito-to! and Dungeon Meshi, which approach gastronomy through unique and imaginative lenses.