This Chinese Manga Is So Underrated - My Food Looks Very Cute
Don’t let the title fool you! This Chinese manga is very wholesome and comforting!
The story follows Xiao Lan, a grey werewolf, agreeing on giving Maria, a red hair vampire, her blood a little bit daily for 1 year as a trade for accompanying her in the new adventure, and that’s it! There’s no sexualization or anything! Instead, what we get is the daily life of these two living in the modern day of China under the same roof. While the word “food” might lead to some misunderstanding, “cute” is quite true for the characters! I can’t tell how many times I screamed out loud “Ahhhhh! It’s so cute!!! I can’t handle this cuteness!!!” Xiao Lan, the grey werewolf, is both innocent and cute while Maria, the vampire, is both cute and cool at the same time! Like, I don’t know how the artist did it, but they made me love Maria so much!
I think the art helps elevating the characters and story, too. It’s not a sophisticate art style or anything, but it’s so clean. Sometimes, the characters are drawn in chibi form, making them even more adorable!
Not only are characters beautiful on the outside, but they’re also colorful inside. Despite their dark past, they still could maintain their compassion toward other being (by the way, most of the characters are monsters or anthropomorphic creatures), especially their important ones. But of course, because of their past, there were some internal and external conflicts in their relationship/friendship. I like Xian Lan’s internal conflict the most. She was discriminated by human because of her origin as a wolf and thus she had no friend. So, she became an individual who looked cheerful outside but hid her insecure feeling and self-blame regarding friendship/relationship inside. It was so real and I love it!
Furthermore, what I love the most in this manhua is the non-toxic relationship. While most people love the messy relationship in media, I’m personally fond of the opposite. I mean… I’m already exhausted from my own toxic relationship with myself, so I don’t have any energy left to think about other people’s disastrous love story. While I said it is non-toxic, it doesn’t mean there was not a misunderstanding between the characters. There’re a lot! But they weren’t prolonged to the point of frustration and the solution only strengthened the bond between the characters.
Moreover, the plot itself is good! While the manhua looks like a simple slice-of-life story (and it is), it also has many twists and mysteries such as Xiao Lan’s past. It’s not a suspend plot twist or anything, but it also makes you think if there’s a way to solve the characters’ problem and keep on reading.
Finally, I love this manhua so much! I love both the characters and the story. When I caught up with the latest chapter (it’s still on-going) and I had no more chapters to read, I got so depressed and couldn’t find any other manga or manhua interesting at all! And the only solution was to re-read it all over again the next day! You know a manga is good when you have a void in your heart after finishing it.
