Sleep Is For the Weak

13+ for romance and intense food emotion; official website

Disclaimer: This book was provided to us free by the publisher, VIZ. It’s a good thing they did. Within its pages I found answers to questions that have plagued my life for years. After reading it, I am simply a better human being. I have already bought five copies of this book for myself, and plan to distribute other copies to friends and family alike. That being said, there is absolutely no reason for any employee of VIZ or PR professional working for them to read past this paragraph.

You’ll forgive me if I don’t use the names of the characters from Mixed Vegetables. The book made such a small impression on me that I can’t really be bothered to remember their names.

So let’s say there’s The Girl and The Boy. They go to a cooking school. The girl is the daughter of a prominent pastry chef, but she dreams of being a sushi chef. The boy is a scion to Japan’s greatest sushi fortune, but he dreams of being a pastry chef. I wonder if these facts will have some effect on the romantic story.

According to Mixed Vegetables, Japan’s economy is still based on a feudal system - the only job you can possibly have is that of your parents. The butcher’s son becomes the new butcher, the bank teller’s daughter will forever sit behind the same wicket as her father. This is why The Girl feels the need to trick The Boy into marrying her, since this is apparently a loophole that allows her to pursue her sushi-based dreams without being crushed under society’s scorn for not fulfilling her pastry-based destiny. Throwing off society’s restrictions and pursuing her dreams without having to fool some poor boy into marrying her is not an option.

Anyways, The Girl starts flirting with The Boy. She advances, he doesn’t retreat. What an interesting development! As it turns out, quite independently of anything that has happened so far in the manga, he has “feelings” for her. And then the first volume ends. Most of the room that could have been spent on plot, story, character development, or humor was instead devoted to some kind of test where they have to slice cucumbers really thinly.

Initial impression: Obviously, I’m not the biggest fan of Mixed Vegetables. Here’s the take-away you should take away from this review: You can do better! Want a better shoujo? We review plenty of them here every week (well, month). Want to read about cooks and their hijinks? Check out Iron Wak Jan. There’s just no need to slum with this one. I guess you could call this a…mixed review! Ahuck ahuck ahuck. (Ed note: Although a mixed review usually includes some kind of praise.) (Bad Jew)

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