History Main / HandmadeIsBetter

There's an old saying that goes, "Handmade is better." Whether it's food, handicrafts, or other trinkets, products made by human hands are treated better than factory-produced ones.

** At the end of the Monaco Cup, Azuma manages to best Shadow in the Grand Finals to achieve victory for Team Japan, even though Shadow had used his PowerCopying abilities to be able to bake as well as [[BigBad Yuichi Kirisaki]]. When Shadow complains to Kirisaki about this loss, Kirisaki admits that Azuma has now surpassed his skill. He also mentions Azuma had made a lot of his own ingredients (including sugar) while Shadow uses store-bought ones, citing the old "Handmade is better" dogma as part of his explanation.

* In ''[[VideoGame/QuiltsAndCatsOfCalico Quilts & Cats of Calico]]'', Aunt Agatha doesn't trust the Iron Loom, which mass-produces quilts, because its operators don't care about the quality of its output, which is why the cats aren't attracted to it. When Mona challenges the Quilter to a duel with the Iron Loom, they manage to beat it with their handmade quilt, and while Mona is impressed by their skills, she uses that to "improve" the Iron Loom so it'll perform better than humans. [[spoiler:It's later revealed that the Quilter's father invented the Iron Loom out of desperation to win the war, and he regrets giving up hand-making quilts for it. However, he's proud of their child continuing his legacy, so he asks them to sew a quilt for him to show how far they've come.]]

* In ''[[VideoGame/QuiltsAndCatsOfCalico Quilts & Cats of Calico]]'', Aunt Agatha doesn't trust the Iron Loom, which mass-produces quilts, because its operators don't care about the quality of its output. When Mona challenges the Quilter to a duel with the Iron Loom, they manage to beat it with their handmade quilt, and while Mona is impressed by their skills, she uses that to "improve" the Iron Loom so it'll perform better than humans.

* In an episode of ''Series/ToTheManorBorn'', Audrey starts selling honey straight from her own hive. Eventually she gets so successful that she runs out of honey, so she buys commercial stuff from Richard's grocery store and transfers it to her own jars to sell as authentic local honey. Of course she charges many times what the store does.

* True to some extent when it comes to real life mass produced foods. To extend shelf life, most processed foods have preservatives that can end up impacting the flavor compared to homecooked ones that lack these preservatives. To also cut down on cost, they may often use inferior ingredients as well. [[https://www.youtube.com/c/JoshuaWeissman/videos Joshua Weissman's]] "But Better" series shows the difference between homemade versions of mass-produced foods with quality ingredients can be night and day.

* Subverted with WWII LaResistance fighters, who couldn't wait to get rid of the sketchy homemade weapons they used and replace them with a high-quality, precision engineered military-grade gear. Partisans and guerrillas often start their battle against the totalitarian government's army with Molotov cocktails, obsolete museum piece rifles from WWI, hunting rifles and homemade guns produced in underground workshops (made from pipes), some of which were not that effective.

** Alluded in the early chapters where Manager Ken Matsushiro mocks inferior bakers as "bread-making machines". Kawachi takes offense at this, and Ken challenges him and Azuma to put their heart and soul into their craft to make better bread.

In romance stories, ThePowerOfLove may be at play, as the gift receiver appreciates the thought, time, and effort their loved one pours into making the goods (even if it turns out badly) more than expensive stuff bought from the store, or even ones commissioned from professionals.

* {{Justified}} in ''Literature/IntoTheHinterlands''. Handmade goods are valuable trade goods not because they're necessarily ''better'' than something stamped out in a robotic factory, but because each item is unique. This allows traders to make a good living bartering for handicrafts from the Riders ([[FantasyCounterpartCulture the setting's equivalent to Native Americans]]) and then selling them to settlers or cross-Bight trade ships.

* Subv with WWII LaResistance fighters, who couldn't wait to get rid of the sketchy homemade weapons they used and replace them with a high-quality, precision engineered military-grade gear. Partisans and guerrillas often start their battle against the totalitarian government's army with Molotov cocktails, obsolete museum piece rifles from WWI, hunting rifles and homemade guns produced in underground workshops (made from pipes), some of which were not that effective.

Might overlap with NewTechnologyIsEvil and AppealToNature, since this often comes with the mindset that things made "naturally" are better than those made by unreliable machines.

* True to some extent when it comes to real life mass produced foods. To extend shelf life, most processed foods have preservatives that can end up impacting the flavor compared to homecooked ones that lack these preservatives. To also cut down on cost, they may often use inferior ingredients as well. [[https://www.youtube.com/c/JoshuaWeissman/videos Joshua Weissman's]] "But Better" series can show the difference between homemade versions of mass-produced foods with quality ingredients can be night and day.

* True to some extent when it comes to real life when it comes to mass produced foods. To extend shelf life, most processed foods have preservatives that can end up impacting the flavor compared to homecooked ones that lack these preservatives. To also cut down on cost, they may often use inferior ingredients as well. [[https://www.youtube.com/c/JoshuaWeissman/videos Joshua Weissman's]] "But Better" series can show the difference between homemade versions of mass-produced foods with quality ingredients can be night and day.

Compare TechnicianVersusPerformer, which pits a work/performance carried out with technical perfection and polish against one presented with a more creative and outside-the-box flourish. Compare also AMasterMakesTheirOwnTools.

There's an old saying that goes, "Handmade is better." Whether it's food, handicrafts or other trinkets, products made by human hands are treated better than factory-produced ones.

The logic behind this idea is that profit-oriented retail/store items are designed to be mass-produced as quickly and cheaply as possible, and are therefore low quality. Conversely, handmade items are much more personable and can be customized to fit the individual client/recipient's specific wants or needs, making them unique and one of a kind.

In romance stories, ThePowerOfLove may be at play, as the gift receiver appreciates the thought, time and effort their loved one pours into making the goods (even if it turns out badly) more than expensive stuffs bought from the store, or even ones commissioned from professionals.

Might overlap with NewTechnologyIsEvil and AppealToNature, since this often comes with the mindset than things made "naturally" are better than those made by unreliable machines.

* ''Manga/AhMyGoddess'': In the anime series, Belldandy hand-knits Keiichi a sweater for Christmas. Meanwhile, Urd uses magic to accomplish the same task, while Skuld uses a machine to do so. Sayoko gets a high end sweater crafted by a skilled artisan. In the end, it is Belldandy's carefully hand knitted sweater that Keiichi ends up appreciating.
* ''Franchise/{{Doraemon}}'': ''The Doraemons Special'' has a chapter opening with Nobita whining about not having enough money to buy expensive gifts for Shizuka's birthday. With Doramed's help, he time travels to the past to retrieve his grandmother's treasure box, which he lost when he was younger. He manages to find it, but is surprised/disappointed when he finds nothing but worn out pieces of paper inside them. His grandmother then reminds him that they are the paper cranes that Nobita worked hard to make for her when she was sick, and she sagely asserts that she'll have to leave behind any riches she has when she's gone, but she can take Nobita's love and kindness with her to the next life. Inspired, Nobita decides to reproduce the same paper cranes his now-deceased grandmother had treasured so much to give to Shizuka. In a hilarious subversion, however, when Nobita tries to hand over the cranes to her during the party, Shizuka mistook them for some [[CrappyHomemadeGift trash and points him to the trash can]].
* ''Hoppe ni Chuuboo!'': In one Valentine's chapter, Yummy wants to make chocolates for her crush Tsuyoshi, but loses confidence when her rival, Cecil, flaunts the high quality chocolates she bought from an expensive store. In the end, though, Tsuyoshi rejects Cecil's store-bought chocolates in favour of Yummy's handmade ones.

** At the end of the Monaco Cup, Azuma manages to best Shadow in the Grand Finals to achieve victory for Team Japan, even though Shadow had used his PowerCopying abilities to be able bake as well as [[BigBad Yuichi Kirisaki]]. When Shadow complains to Kirisaki about this loss, Kirisaki admits that Azuma has now surpassed his skill. He also mentions Azuma had made a lot of his own ingredients (including sugar) while Shadow uses store bought ones, citing the old "Handmade is better" dogma as part of his explanation.

[[folder:Tabletop Game]]

!!Examples

[[folder:Advertisement]]

--> '''Ron Swanson:''' People who buy things are suckers.

* The WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail "[[Recap/StrongBadEmailE163WhatIWant what i want]]" briefly [[ParodiedTrope makes fun of this perception]], giving an example of a homemade "gift" that was made because it would supposedly be seen as better: a seashell with office supplies haphazardly hot-glued to it.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': in the episode "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS1E19FoolsInAprilNeptunesSpatula Neptune's Spatula]]", King Neptune challenges [=SpongeBob=] to a cook-off after he pulls Neptune's legendary spatula from the grease bucket. [=SpongeBob=] spends all the allotted time making a single Krabby Patty by hand and with love, while Neptune uses his magic to mass produce enough burgers to feed the entire stadium. King Neptune is declared the obvious winner... until he and the audience ''eat'' his Krabby Patties and find they taste terrible. Neptune then eats [=SpongeBob's=] burger and finds it so delicious he immediately hires him as his personal fry cook.
[[/folder]]

* In "Mind Reader", a 2022 advertisement for Creator/{{Amazon}} Alexa, Creator/ScarlettJohansson claims at a dinner party that the bread is homemade using her grandmother's recipe. Her mind-reading Alexa [[VirtualAssistantBlunder tells everyone it was store-bought]], implying that she lied about making it as doing so would have been more impressive.

* ''Manga/WayOfTheHousehusband'': In her introductory chapter, Torajiro's sister Koharu arrives in town selling premade donuts from a well-known franchise in a deliberate attempt to hurt her brother's food-truck business. Tatsu helps Tora win against his sister by making his own donut, which tastes much better than Koharu's donuts.