Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill
A dude cooks to conquer the world, literally.
I have been aware of this series because I’ve read them from time to time on J-Novel. What I wasn’t aware of is that it had been approved as an anime series until I saw the first anime episode.
I don’t tend to make a review of a light novel itself since it is my understanding that asking people to read is a mental torture, and there are people who can’t or refuse to read in spite of having an ability to read.
So, I generally wait for an anime series to appear before making a review. FYI, I’ve read up to 12th volume of light novel when making this review.
The story, really simple
A 27 year-old business man gets isekaied into another word. He wasn’t meant to be teleported however. A high school guy and two high school girls were targets. He just happened to be in their vicinity when a magic circle appeared.
Now, how do we know? Well, the three youngsters have awesome combat skills while our protagonist has a single skill called “Online supermarket”. The guy’s name is Mukouda Tsuyoshi.
Mukouda is quickly ignored and sent on his merry way while the youngsters are being prepped to become heroes of a kingdom.
He soon finds out his “online supermarket” skill is … broken as in overpowered AF because he can purchase modern Japanese items from there, basically allowing him to purchase things that aren’t even available or invented in his isekai world.
Additionally, items on the online supermarket is dirt cheap, allowing him to make 1,000% profits with ease.
Aye, broken as shit.
Finally, it seems like the dude is a diehard gourmet with surreal cooking skills. In fact, his cooking is so good that, within 100 pages of the first volume (light novel), he is begged to form a pact with a fenrir which is so powerful that it is in fact right below Gods in power scale.
Even Gods themselves submit to his treats later on.
Basically, he has all cheat cards.
What the hell is the point of this series then?
I normally drop a series once it becomes clear that it’s going to be a harem. I despise harem series. This series has no hint of any harem. In fact, the MC, so far anyway, doesn’t even have a single female sidekick character which he constantly complains of. He thinks about getting a sex slave even.
Still, the MC gets all the cheat cards within the first volume. What’s the gist of this story then? It plays more like a slice of life series where the MC is a literal God. Nothing can harm him. No one can mess with him. Regardless, he has goals still although the goals become really hazed in later volumes.
Naturally as a former Japanese salaryman, he wants a comfortable life which translates to good income. He works on it and swiftly becomes a multi-millionaire. Then he gets more familiars in addition to the fenrir, thus more havoc.
About one third of the story is dedicated to cooking which gets rather repetitive, so I skipped cooking parts when reading the novel. I also started skipping repetitive dungeon crawling and hunting as well. The novel chapters are titled well enough that I was able to skip repetitive parts.
Overall, after volume 5 or so, I skipped about 50% of everything from a volume.
But again, what’s the point of this story? It is a slice of life. It has none. The MC lives on – that is the point. There will be smaller goals here and there just as a life would.
It has a side story
Do you remember that the MC was summoned alongside of three high schoolers? Although infrequent, their stories are covered as a side story. I figured that their story would eventually overlap with the MC’s story. But nope. It’s completely separate. Manga omits their story. Anime probably will as well.
I ended up liking their tale a lot.
Light novel vs. manga vs. anime
Light novel is the source material which doesn’t always mean it’s the best.
I will go with manga first. The manga is okay but there are a lot of overreactions which I found tiresome after a while. Everyone overreacts too much. It does follow the source material faithfully however which means everyone overreacts even in the novel, but it’s less of a bother since it’s worded.
As for the anime, I’ve watched only two episodes so far. I fully expect it to follow the path the manga version has chosen, omitting the original heroes stories. This series should make a good 11-episode series due to it being a slice of life series. Even at light novel volume 12, nothing has really happened.
Meaning? Don’t expect season 2.
Finally, the source material, light novel.
I started losing interest at volume 12 because the MC gets way too many animals at this point. The plot, if the author has ever planned one, is non-existent. A slice of life story can only go so far without any plot advancement. The MC is a literal demi-God at this point as well. It’s an okay-read though. I will give it that much. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have read whole 12 books.
Overall, I’d recommend manga since it already omits repetitive parts for you. While it also omits the heroes stories, it isn’t really worth diving into the novel for. Manga will certainly go further than anime will do as well.
Of course, you should watch anime as well. Anime nowadays is just a supplement material anyway.
See you all later.
