The Drops of God (Kami no Shizuku) is a manga written by Tadashi Aginote and illustrated by Shu Okimoto. It was serialized in Weekly Morning from 2004 to 2014, and compiled into 44 volumes. It started being released in the United States in late 2011 by Vertical, under the title The Drops Of God. However, releases in the US came to a grinding halt, due to low sales numbers. To add insult to injury, the author requested that the release skip about 120 chapters and jump to the so-called New World arc, a decision that was received with contempt by readers. However, the license was picked up by a collaboration of Kodansha Comics and Comixology Originals in 2019, with plans to release the entire series in digital format.
Shizuku Kanzaki is an average office worker at a beer company. One day, he receives the news of the death of his estranged father, Yutaka Kanzaki, a world-renowned wine critic. Shizuku was trained from an early age to be a terrific wine taster, but he rebelled against his father and now disregards wine. In his father's will, it is stated that he will leave the house, his wine collection and a sum of two billion yen to Shizuku, so long as he can identify which wines are the "Twelve Apostles" and "The Drops of God". Shizuku would have refused the inheritance, if not for the fact that Issei Tomine, a renowned young wine critic whom Yutaka adopted just before dying, wants the wine collection for himself. Shizuku, together with apprentice sommelier Miyabi Shinohara, sets out into the world of wine, armed with strong senses and an uncanny ability to describe each and every wine.
This manga is most notable for being extremely influential on the Eastern wine business, especially as it shot up little known wines to fame and overall increased wine sales exponentially.
A live-action adaptation was made in 2009. A second live action adaptation was released on Apple TV in 2023.
Tropes include:
- The Ace: Tomine. A spectacularly skilled, cultured, and seemingly-universally adored wine expert.
- Adult Adoptee: Wine critic Tomine is adopted by Shizuku's father Yutaka shortly before his death, with the goal of inheriting Yutaka's vast and valuable wine collection. The plot becomes a Game Between Heirs to see who inherits the collection.
- Affluent Ascetic: Robert seems like a crazy, homeless old man who just happens to be a wine expert at first... but he's actually quite wealthy, and owns the entire public park that he has his little cardboard chateau set up in.
- Animal Motifs: Shizuku is usually depicted as a dog, due to both his earnest and somewhat oblivious personality and his insanely strong sense of smell.
- And the Adventure Continues: In the aftermath of the Twelfth Apostle, both Shizuku and Tomine dedicate themselves entirely to the search for the Drops of God, with Shizuku in particular preparing for travel to seek it out as directly as possible.
- Crack is Cheaper: In-Universe; Shizuku is constantly driving himself broke due to all the wine he has to buy.
- Defeat Means Friendship: So far (in the American release) Chosuke and Soichiro.
- Food Porn: The entire manga is utterly drenched in incredible descriptions of wine.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Tomine. Downplayed - he's Shizuku's rival, and can come across as cold, but he's not particularly evil.
- Game Between Heirs: The whole plot is basically Shizuku getting into a wine tasting contest with his adoptive brother to inherit his father's vast and valuable wine collection.
- Gender-Blender Name: Shizuku is typically a feminine name, meaning "droplet".
- Gender Flip: In the 2023 television adaptation, Shizuku is now a French woman named Camille Legér.
- Gratuitous Italian: Chosuke is an incredible fan of Italian wine, and will pepper his speech with Italian when in the mood to.
- I Ate WHAT?!: Shizuku's training included licking such things as belts, pencils and flint.
- Incurable Cough of Death: Implied fairly directly with Robert. At the very least, the old man wonders if he'll be alive to see the end of Shizuku and Tomine's quest.
- Missing Mom: Shizuku's mother died when he was a little kid.
- Mundane Made Awesome: Applying Shonen fighting tropes to wine preparation should be hilarious (and it is, a little) but it works.
- Pet the Dog: Despite Tomine being a smug rival to Shinzuku, he isn't really a bad person, and has no trouble respecting the good work of others. Early on in the series, he apologizes to a chef for a scathing restaurant review after enjoying his second visit.
- Playing Sick: Kenya and Junya's father pretends that he has cancer so they'd quit fighting and work together to further their wine store.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Shizuku and Tomine. One is likened to a dog, excitable and earnest, and the other is perpetually distant and cool in matters not related to wine.
- Seinen: It's a series about wine and the drinking thereof. Small wonder it's not marketed to kids.
- Serious Business: The plot revolves around the incredibly high stakes world of... wine tasting. Truth in Television. Wine IS taken this seriously in real life.
- Shipper on Deck: Every other character seems to be rooting for Shizuku/Miyabi.
- Sibling Rivalry: Shizuku and Tomine, technically stepsiblings, competing for their father's inheritance. Of course since Tomine is actually Shizuku's half-brother...
- Sommelier Speak: The manga is drowning in this, with the protagonist having LSD-like visions from the wine flavors. A good portion of the plot is derived from Shizuku and Tomine having to interpret their late father's eloquent, poetic descriptions of the flavor of a particular wine, and then match that description to not just a particular wine, but a particular vintage of that wine.
- This Is My Side: Kenya and Junya divide their store with a bunch of wine boxes.
- Training from Hell: Shizuku thinks he had this, what with being made to lick things like flint and cork and leather as a kid.
- Trickster Mentor: From beyond the grave, Yukata Kanzaki comes across this way. The Twelve Apostles seem designed to lead both his sons towards a greater, deeper understanding of wine.
- Wham Shot: In the last chapter, no less! The paper in the sealed envelope describing the Drops of God is blank.
- Wine Is Classy: A big draw of the manga. A more specific example is the Sibling Rivalry between wine store owners Kenya and Junya. Junya wholeheartedly embraces this trope and only stocks top ranked high class wines, while Kenya specifically looks for good bargain wines. They both get a "The Reason You Suck" Speech from their father, who tells Junya that he only looks at reputation without actually trying the wines, and Kenya that he's stifling his palate by ignoring the top vineyards.
