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| Title | Cooking with Wild Game Volume 2 |
| Author | EDA |
| Illustrator | Kochimo |
| Publisher | JP: Hobby Japan EN: J-Novel Club |
| Original Release Dates | JP: Apr 22, 2015 EN: Apr 13, 2019 |
| Genre | Cooking, Slice-of-life, Rustic |
Author’s Note: I discuss details of storylines and characters which could be considered minor spoilers. No major spoilers will be revealed.
Reader discretion advised: This volume includes mentions of a past attempted/ failed assault against Ai Fa (the heroine of this story) and an extra chapter which briefly recounts the failed attempt. Though all mentions of this sensitive topic are short and with quick resolution, discretion is advised.
Cooking with Wild Game follows the life of Asuta Tsurumi, a seventeen year old trainee chef who finds himself whisked away from modern Japan and brought to a lush forest belonging to a much less developed world. He is soon taken in by Ai Fa, the only woman hunter of her settlement, and begins his new life as a member of her Fa clan at the Morga Forest’s edge.
In the previous volume, we learn that the people of the forest’s edge are a hunter-based community who live primitive lives. They are wholly dependent on giba; large, powerful boar-like animals that provide meat for sustenance and materials to trade with the nearby post town. They are also isolationists, mostly interacting closely with clans sharing a blood relation. For over eighty years, this has been their way of life, and now rooted as tradition, the people have resigned themselves to this harsh lifestyle.
In addition, the forest’s edge denizens have no concept of culinary art nor any understanding that a delicious meal can offer comfort and strength. Ai Fa first experiences the joys of a delicious meal when Asuta teaches her bloodletting and cooks a meal using the blood-let giba meat. When Rimee Ruu of the Ruu clan visits and tastes his cooking, she requests Asuta’s help for her great-grandmother, Jiba Ruu’s, sake. Asuta obliges, cooks for the Ruu clan, and many of its members offer their praise and gratitude. However, not everyone is pleased with the meal, such as the clan head, Donda Ruu. In fact, he insults Asuta’s efforts and berates him for his lack of understanding the preferences of a forest’s edge hunter.
And so, Cooking with Wild Game Volume 2 begins right after that meal, with a frustrated and stressed out Asuta. Despite the praises, he cannot but dwell on the fact that not all enjoyed his cooking, nor can he overlook his tunnel-visioned approach. As an apprentice chef and son of a restaurant owner, he feels he should have been more mindful, accommodating, and prepared. Ultimately, he chooses to request from Donda Ruu another opportunity to cook for him and his family. Asuta understands that as long as the hunters aren’t convinced of his efforts, and thus adopt bloodletting, Jiba Ruu and the others will never be able to prepare nor enjoy delicious meals.
However, Donda Ruu, in an attempt to dissuade or perhaps even scare away Asuta and Ai Fa, challenges Asuta to prepare a meal for a pre-wedding celebration. It is tradition for the engaged couple to visit all of their affiliate clans, and so the eldest son, Gazraan of the Rutim clan will be visiting, alongside his betrothed, Ama Min, and Gazraan’s father and clan head, Dan Rutim. Donda Ruu threatens that failure of this dinner will result in having all ties between the Ruu and Fa clans completely cut. Determined to prove himself and validate his beliefs and efforts, Asuta steadfastly accepts the challenge, taking a revised approach and practicing different methods before returning for the pre-wedding showdown.
Cooking with Wild Game Volume 2 is a solid continuation of Asuta’s story, offering a tenable plotline, one full of emotions for him, Ai Fa, and the Ruu to work through. Despite Asuta having received praise and gratitude from most of the others at the meal, Asuta believes he failed in his efforts due to Donda Ruu’s reaction. Those feelings of stress, anger, and frustration, along with the realization that he needs to do more to persuade and convince his current naysayers, lay the foundation for this volume’s main storyline. Like last volume, it’s the clash between lifestyles and mindsets, along with the resultant emotions, which drive the story, and Volume 2 does this as remarkably as Volume 1 does. I also appreciate how Asuta’s goals from Volume 1, to demonstrate the joys of good food to Ai Fa and to help Jiba and Rimee Ruu, are used to so naturally set up Asuta’s next trials to overcome in this volume. He’ll work through his feelings as he processes what he misunderstood, to try to prove again that what he brings can be a benefit to the forest’s edge community.
We also see a few new story branches which bring additional conflicts and depth throughout the volume. An example of this, right after the initial meal concludes, we are offered a bit of character introduction and development, like Vina Ruu and her inner struggles. She expresses to Asuta her aversion to the traditional lifestyle of a woman of the forest’s edge, and her desire to explore the wider world. We’re also introduced to a conflict between the middle Ruu son, Darmu Ruu, and Ai Fa. This conflict, though seemingly one-sided, appears to hold deeper meaning. These scenes provide praiseworthy character development and backstory, and flow into the main storyline with a natural progression.
Similarly, this volume also includes many slice-of-life moments that further build and color in the world around Asuta. One such moment that stands out for me is when Ai Fa, who now loves hamburgers, questions why the ones Asuta cooks at home are smaller than the ones cooked at the Ruu settlement. Asuta replies it’s because of the availability of more stoves for better temperature control, and so Ai Fa and Asuta spend time building two new stone stoves. We get to learn of that exhausting process and see the pride and relief Asuta feels when the job is done. Furthermore, Asuta then uses the two new stoves to practice regulating flame strength and heat for more complex cooking. There are other everyday moments too, and these slice-of-life activities are nice ways of showing how different this world is, how tough life can be, yet also show that there are joys and satisfactions to be had.
Volume 2 also features an impressive extra story full of depth and detail. Framed around the time Ai Fa becomes a hunter at 15 years old, this extra offers a wealth of history and backstory for her. We get details on how her friendships with Jiba and Rimee Ruu began, why those relations broke down, and how Darmu and Donda Ruu play into that. We’re also introduced to an old friend of hers, Saris Ran, and how their relationship became strained. The extra also tells of the origins of conflict between Ai Fa and the Suun clan, specifically the attempted assault by Diga Suun. I can respect how such a charged, possibly triggering incident is addressed concisely and head on. And, the ramifications are notable for their authenticity. The fear of the Suun’s strength and influence driving away the smaller clans around Ai Fa and isolating her makes for a palpably dreary mood. It serves as a solid reminder that the Suun threat is heavy and ongoing. Overall, the extra story is an impressive addition, noteworthy for its ability to color Ai Fa’s history in such a succinct and tangible manner.
Despite my praises of its story, Cooking with Wild Game Volume 2 has its missteps, and the biggest misstep regards a situation that’s brought up time and again. An unfortunate act on Asuta’s part, he is led to a bathing area to wash up, which happened to be occupied by Ai Fa and several of the Ruu women. This essentially leads to Asuta acting like a fool and Ai Fa being embarrassed on multiple occasions thereafter. It’s supposed to be vehicle for humor and a bit drama, but every mention of the scene fails to land. Ultimately, the scene and every reference to it ends up hurting Asuta’s and Ai Fa’s characters. As such, it could and should have been moved on from sooner. At the end, I found myself exhausted by it all, and frustrated by the damage to their development. It’s nothing more than a cliché anime scene that adds little to the main story, and so given its prevalence, it and the negatives it brings are impossible to overlook.
Another issue I have is the droning that Asuta does during the second dinner at the Ruu settlement. Asuta has a tiredly longwinded monologue in which he admits mistakes made last time, and how he is trying to correct course. Since these very aspects are shown throughout the volume, a simple line or two as a recap would have sufficed. Instead, we get an essay, dull and uninspired. It’s also as if the audience, both the fictional one and us readers, are incapable of understanding implication or nuance. At one point, Asuta even narrates, “To be honest, I didn’t really know what I was talking about.” I felt my immersion slip away during this whole scene, nearly losing it completely when he later narrates, “…we finally hit the climax of this long-winded speech…” At this point, the read felt like a trudge, taking some time to get myself back into a wanting mindset to read on. I will say, although this and other issues do impact the experience, I did indeed want to read on, as I found the overall story to be an immersive one, and it had me looking forward to the next volume by the end.
More on character development and some final thoughts on page 2 ->
