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Manga / Shinmai Shimai no Futari Gohan

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Sachi (left) and Ayari (right)

"You always had this scary expression on your face, but you look so happy when you cook."
Sachi to Ayari

Sachi's father and Ayari's mother just got married, and just like that, the two girls became sisters. While moving into a new apartment, their parents suddenly leave to go travel the world for their honeymoon, leaving the girls alone with just each other. Because of their different personalities, they aren't able to connect with each other. Not to mention, Ayari's permanent Death Glare and cold demeanor makes her seem particularly unapprochable. Everything seems hopeless and awkward, but the arrival of a leg of jamón serrano from their parents reveal something they both have in common: Their love for food. Ayari's passion is cooking, while Sachi's is eating.

With this as a gateway, they are finally able to open up to each other. And so begins the sisters' life together, as they get closer to each other through cooking.

Shinmai Shimai no Futari Gohan is a cooking Slice of Life manga by Hiiragi Yutaka. The manga started serialization in 2015 in the magazine Dengeki Daioh. In 2019, a live-action drama adaptation by TV Tokyo was produced and aired from October to December that same year.


Shinmai Shimai no Futari Gohan provides examples of:

  • A-Cup Angst: Chapter 3 of the manga starts like this. Sachi sees Ayari's bra while doing laundry and notices... quite the difference in bust size. This leads to some Height Angst, as well, as she notices that she's almost a head shorter than Ayari. All of this, in combination with Ayari's mature personality, leads to Sachi realizing that Ayari appears to be the big sister. The chapter is then dedicated to her trying to dress and act more maturely to compensate... with mixed results.
  • A Day In The Lime Light: Chapter 21 for Eri. It focuses on her making orangettes for Sachi and Ayari for Valentine's Day.
    • The extra story after chapter 28 for Nao. The sisters' cooking expertise fresh in her mind, she decides to try it out for herself, starting with pancakes.
    • Chapter 33 for aunt Minori, showing what a day of hunting is like for her.
  • Age-Stereotypical Food: Sachi gets hit with this when a classmate compares her palate to that of a child when she mentions some of her favorite foods.note 
  • Aloof Big Sister: Inverted and subverted. It's the younger sister Ayari who appears to the aloof one... Only she's not aloof at all, just shy.
  • Animal Motifs: Throughout the extras and various parts of the story, Ayari tends to compare Sachi to various cute animals.
  • Awesome, but Impractical: Making sausages using a piping gun and the skins of a leek.
  • Bait-and-Switch: Chapter 57 starts with the sisters experiencing an earthquake, Sachi being too paralyzed with fear to take cover under a table and Ayari calling out to her... but it soon turns out that it was just a simulation as part of a disaster preparation course that everyone in their apartment complex took part in.
  • Bait-and-Switch Lesbians: In the manga, many of Sachi and Eri's interactions can be seen as this. For a prime example, look no further than chapter 12 and Sachi's devastated reaction to Eri potentially getting a boyfriend. note 
    • Sachi and Ayari in the drama adaptation, as well.
  • Beach Episode: Subverted in Chapter 36. This is what Eri thought would happen when the sisters mentioned going to the beach, so she waited for them in a bikini. When Sachi and Ayari show up, they're surprised as to why she's so lightly dressed since they're there to dig for clams.
    Sachi: Why are you wearing a swimsuit?
    Ayari: That's a little too thin for clam digging...
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: Nao became friends with Ayari after the latter shared her lunch with her.
  • Big Eater: Sachi is almost always eating a snack or thinking about her next meal. In fact, it's almost easier to count the panels where Sachi isn't eating, talking or thinking about food. Eri unfavorably compares her to a black hole at one point.
    • It's also deconstructed for laughs. As Eri reveals to Ayari, Sachi's gluttony has led to her sticking things in her mouth that she really shouldn't have eaten in the past. She ended up hospitalized at one point when she was in elementary school after eating some weird mushrooms during a field trip, and there's mention of her even eating a mud ball at one point (Though she apparently didn't get so much as a stomach ache from that). In the two bonus panels from chapter 27, Minori brings this up when warning the girls about poisonous plants in the mountains, and Sachi indignantly exclaims that she knows better now. A doubtful Minori extends a mountain plant towards her in response... which Sachi sticks in her mouth immediately, much to Ayari's concern.
    Ayari: (glares) Nee-san. Do not leave my side.
  • Big Fancy House: In the drama. By contrast, in the manga, the sisters live in an apartment complex.
  • Big Little Sister: Downplayed in that the girls are the same age, but Sachi is a month older than Ayari, therefore making her the big sister. But Ayari is the taller one.
  • Big Sister Worship: A variation of this trope, as they're not actually sisters: Nao develops something like this for both Sachi and Eri. Especially Sachi, even going so far as to call her by the very formal honorific "Onee-sama" after meeting her for the first time. Sachi, who had played up the "big sister" role for all it was worth in order to leave a good first impression, was shocked - Clearly, the act worked a bit too well.
  • Birthday Episode: Chapter 8 focuses on the sisters celebrating Sachi's birthday. It's also revealed that this is the first time anybody has thrown a birthday party for Sachi - Her father has apparently been so busy that he's never celebrated his daughter's birthday with her in person, though she mentions that he has sent her gifts.
  • Blended Family Drama: The new stepsisters don't initially get along when left behind by their parents to travel the world, but they eventually bond over their love of food.
  • Bonding over Missing Parents: Both Sachi and Ayari are only children with busy parents.
  • Call-Back: Sachi's reaction after her first time meeting Nao mirrors Ayari's after her first meeting with Eri, many chapters earlier, highlighting how the two of them share things in common despite outward differences.
  • Camp Cook: Chapter 27, which focuses on harvesting mountain greens, and chapter 39, which focuses on fishing for rainbow trout.
  • Cartoon Cheese: Averted. The raclette cheese used to make fondue is pretty realistic.
  • Character Tic: After Sachi gives Ayari the hair tie she was using in the first chapter, Ayari always ties her hair up in a bun or ponytail with it whenever she's about to cook.
  • Christmas Episode: Chapter 16 is about Sachi and Ayari's first Christmas together.
  • Cool Big Sis: This is how Ayari and Nao see both Sachi and Eri. Nao in particular even refers to Sachi as "Onee-sama". Downplayed in that the girls are the same age - It's just that Sachi and Eri are the oldest.
  • Comfort Food: Aside from the occasional chapters focusing on exotic ingredients, most of the food shown is simple home-cooking fare or things that are easy enough to find, like melon bread. It's a point that even common meals become more delicious when made with love and shared with people you care about.
  • Comically Missing the Point:
    • In chapter 16, when asked about how she spent her previous Christmases, Ayari reluctantly reveals that Santa has never visited her home before. Eri and Minori are both shocked that a 16-year-old girl as mature as Ayari still believes in Santa.
    • Sachi takes the chance to reveal that Santa has never visited her either. Though this time, it's only to Minori's shock - Eri knew already.
  • Companion Cube: Ayari's hair tie, which was given to her by Sachi in the first chapter. Since then, she always uses it to tie up her hair whenever she's cooking.
  • Cooking Stories: With one sister's love for cooking and the other's love for eating, the manga easily lends itself to this trope. Every chapter introduces a new type of food, with the full recipe and additional tips and trivia at the end.
  • Corner of Woe: Ayari retreats to one after scaring Rina, complete with a Brown Bag Mask (which Eri lampshades as just making her look creepier).
  • Death Glare: Ayari does this unintentionally - Her face tenses up whenever she gets nervous, which tends to happen around strangers. Unfortunately, this only scares and alienates the people around her, resulting in nobody getting to know her for real and leading to her Friendless Background.
  • Deep-Fried Whatever: Ayari makes tempura for Sachi in chapter 23 in order to turn Sachi into an adult.
  • Description Porn: Not only does Ayari explain every step of the cooking process, but she also goes into the origins and other factoids about every dish she cooks and every utensil she uses.
  • Didn't Think This Through: After Sachi succeeds in making pudding, she then has the idea that it'd be fun to make a bigger (read: bucket-sized) one. The very next panel has her fail to put the bucket into the much smaller steamer pot.
  • Diet Episode: Chapter 51 sees Eri go on a diet. A bit of an inversion, as well, as the chapter is actually about what she wants to eat on her Cheat Day.
  • Disappeared Dad: Sachi's dad is almost always abroad because of his work as a photographer.
    • Ayari's dad is revealed to have passed away when she was little.
  • Ditzy Genius: Despite what her Genki Girl demeanor, gluttony and complete lack of even basic cooking knowledge may indicate, Sachi gets excellent grades - In fact, she's the one who gets the best grades of the main girls. She also proves herself to be very quick to learn from Ayari's cooking lessons. Ayari is shocked to find this out in chapter 4, as she was under the impression that Sachi was stupid, and tearfully apologizes to her. Though Sachi doesn't seem to realize what Ayari is apologizing for.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: In the first chapter, Eri says "I wish I had a sibling" when discussing Sachi's newfound older sister status. Later chapters, however, show that Eri does have a pair of younger siblings.
  • Eating Lunch Alone: Ayari used to spend lunchtime alone since she had no friends. This lasted until she befriended Nao.
  • Edutainment Show: Ayari's vast knowledge of food and cooking is prominently featured in each chapter. There's also a full recipe of the chapter's featured dish at the end, with some additional facts and tips by cooking manga researcher Kei Sugimura.
  • Even the Girls Want Her: Minori has a fellow female hunter blush at her presence.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The Japanese title of the manga almost literally translates to "New sisters have meals together".
  • Face of a Thug: This is ultimately Ayari's problem which has led her to have a Friendless Background. When she gets nervous, she tenses up, which causes her face to be locked into a scary scowl. This combined with her lack of social skills scares and alienates the people around her and gives off exactly the wrong impression of her.
    • She seems to scare children in particular - In Eri's sister Rina's debut chapter, she gets so scared of poor Ayari that she blows into her anti-crime whistle at the sight of her and compares her face to a demon's. And in chapter 44, Ayari believes that she made an elementary schooler cry with her glare when fetching her ball from a fountain. Thankfully, she does manage to get through to them both in the end: Rina warms up to Ayari after the latter makes her crépes, and it turns out that the girl with the ball cried because she was surprised that Ayari would do that for her and gives her a homemade bookmark as thanks.
  • Failed Attempt at Drama: A recurring bit of humor is for someone (usually Sachi) to react with amazement or wonder at some aspect of the food being made...and then immediately deflate as Ayari impassively moves along to the next step, since she's so used to it.
    Sachi: (with sparkles) Red! Round! This is the octopus I remember!
    (next panel)
    Ayari: I'm chopping it up.
    Sachi: Goodbye...
  • Family of Choice: Despite not being blood-related, both Ayari and Sachi decide that they are sisters.
  • Fancy Dinner: Every dinner could be considered one when Ayari is the one cooking, though the fois gras sauté from chapter 19, in particular, stands out.
  • Feminine Women Can Cook: Ayari and Eri are the most feminine of the main characters and both are also Supreme Chefs.
    • Nao and Minori are both tomboys and don't have much in the way of cooking skills - Even when Minori looked after Ayari when the latter was a child, Ayari was the one who handled the cooking. Though Nao shows an interest in learning, and Minori shows the girls how to cook rice in bamboo stalks and is very knowledgeable about foraging and what makes wild game taste good.
    • Averted at first with Sachi, who despite being quite bubbly and girly starts out as a Lethal Chef. She improves as the story progresses.
  • First Friend: Ayari states that Eri is this to her. Later, Nao becomes the first friend Ayari makes on her own.
    • Averted with Ayari and Sachi since they think of each other as sisters rather than friends.
  • Food Porn: Thanks to Ayari's skills in the kitchen, and by virtue of being a manga that focuses on cooking, every chapter has some mouthwatering depictions and descriptions of food.
  • Four-Girl Ensemble: After Ayari befriends Nao.
  • Genki Girl: Sachi and Nao.
  • Girl's Night Out Episode: In chapter 24, Sachi is meeting up with another friend to go to a cake buffet, so Eri decides to invite Ayari for a day out on the town instead.
  • Gray Rain of Depression / Happy Rain: Used as a contrast between Ayari and Sachi. The former sees rain as the first trope, as it reminds her of the day her dad passed away, while the latter enjoys the rain.
  • Hard Work Hardly Works: Averted. Ayari's skills come from years of practice, and Sachi also improves a lot thanks to her lessons.
  • Heartbreak and Ice Cream: Inverted. Sachi gets depressed because her favorite ice cream flavor was changed to a different one that year.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Sachi tries to do one when she mistakes Ayari's aunt Minori for a criminal, yelling at Ayari to save herself. It's Played for Laughs.
  • Hypocritical Humor: In chapter 9, Eri mentions how excited she is to make takoyaki, at which point Sachi calls her a glutton. Eri immediately fires back that Sachi is the last person to be allowed to say something like that.
  • Imagine Spot: The sisters share this habit; Ayari tends to imagine Sachi as cute animals, while Sachi's imagination tends to go in odder directions, like a witch wielding an egg whisk.
  • Improbable Food Budget: A small example - Every now and then, their parents send them some luxury ingredients like jamón serrano and fois gras. Otherwise, the contents of their refrigerator looks pretty average.
  • Improbably Female Cast: The only guys that have appeared so far that aren't background characters are Sachi's dad Tooru and Eri's little brother Satoshi. And even then, Tooru has only shown up twice so far and Satoshi has only had a speaking role in one chapter.
  • I'm Your Biggest Fan: Nao, who is an amateur photographer, turns out to be a big fan of Sachi's father's work.
  • It Runs in the Family: Ayari learned how to cook from her cooking researcher father.
    • Sachi, meanwhile, has great photography skillsnote , and her father turns out to be a world-famous photographer.
  • Japanese Delinquents: Because of her lack of social skills and Face of a Thug, Ayari is seen as this by her fellow classmates. It even goes so far as a rumor spreading about her being a Yakuza Princess. Thankfully, her classmates eventually get to see her true nature in chapter 48.
  • Japanese Honorifics: For the first few chapters, Sachi uses "-san" on Ayari, but after being surprised by her friend immediately jumping to yobisute on Ayari, decides to do the same.
  • Loners Are Freaks: This is what Ayari's classmates think of her. Her Face of a Thug and social anxiety give off the wrong impression to other people, and as a result, they always end up scared of her. Some people at her school even started a rumor about her being the daughter of a Yakuza.
  • Midnight Snack: The plot of chapter 4 - Sachi and Ayari stay up late to study, and when Sachi turns hungry (as usual), they decide to make some "midnight soup".
  • Mistaken for Profound: The reason why Nao admires Sachi - Sachi's "big sister" act that she played up when meeting Nao for the first time worked so well that it resulted in the latter mistaking Sachi for being mature and refined. As a result, Sachi feels like she has to keep up the act whenever she and Nao hang out.
  • Mundane Made Awesome: Making caramel for pudding by heating up sugar in a saucepan? Using a gas torch to caramelize sugar sprinkled on top of créme brulée? Making sausages with a piping bag and the skin of a leek? Finding out that cream is added to butter chicken curry? Anything cooking-related is awesome in Sachi's eyes.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Sachi reacts like this in chapter 35 when she believes that she's eaten Ayari's pudding.note  She spends the rest of the chapter downcast out of guilt over this. Thankfully, it's revealed that Ayari made three puddings, not two, so she'd already eaten hers and wasn't angry that Sachi ate the last one.
    • Ayari has a moment of this in chapter 44, when she believes that she made a little girl cry by scaring her with her Death Glare when fetching her ball from a fountain. She's upset enough about it that she actually starts crying.
  • No-Dialogue Episode: Apart from some rebus bubbles, the first part of chapter 33 that shows Minori during a day of hunting has no dialogue, giving the sequence a somewhat reverent feel.
  • No Name Given: Both of Ayari's parents have remained unnamed so far. Especially odd in Ayari's mother's case, as Sachi's dad's name has been revealed.
  • Non-Uniform Uniform: Downplayed.
    • Sachi and Eri go to the same school, but Sachi usually only wears the thin sweater part of the uniform, whereas Eri usually wears the blazer with the sweater underneath it. A panel of their classmates in chapter 10 suggests that other students customize their uniforms, as well.
    • Nao and Ayari also go to the same school. But whereas Ayari's Sailor Fuku is black with buttons, Nao's top is white without buttons (Though she's briefly seen with the regular black top in her introductory chapter). Most of their classmates wear the complete black uniform, though some of them wear the white top.
  • No Social Skills: Ayari is so shy that she can't interact with strangers without panicking. This coupled with her face unintentionally locking into a Death Glare when she gets nervous has resulted in her constantly being alienated from her peers since she was a child. Though she's gotten better since meeting Sachi.
  • Obsessed with Food: Sachi and Ayari both have food at the forefront of their minds at all times, but in different ways: Ayari has an almost single-minded interest in cooking, whereas Sachi is almost always either eating, talking about or thinking about food. Eri points this out already in chapter 2 when she realizes that Sachi has only ever talked about Ayari's cooking and seems to know nothing else about her new sister:
    Eri: Sachi, I know you're a glutton, but don't tell me that food is the only thing [you and Ayari] talk about at home.
  • One-Gender School: Ayari goes to an all-girls school.
  • Only One Name: With the exception of Nao Shinoda, we only know the first names of the characters.
    • Ayari finally averts this in chapter 48, where it's revealed that her last name is Tsukishiro.
    • Sachi follows suit in chapter 53, answering the phone with Mizutani.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Sachi's reactions to Ayari's cooking tend to be quite loud and descriptive. So in chapter 35, when she gives off a simple "It's good." in response to the Olivier salad, Ayari can immediately tell that something is bothering her. (That being that Sachi believed that she'd thoughtlessly eaten Ayari's pudding that she'd made with premium eggsnote  and felt extremely guilty about it)
    • Ayari, as expected, gets really excited about good-quality ingredients. So in chapter 47, when she only reacts with an "Oh. Thanks." at the fresh broccoli Sachi brings home, Sachi realizes that Ayari is troubled about something: Namely, she's worried that her lack of social skills and involuntary nervous Death Glare are going to scare people away during the upcoming School Festival and considers not getting involved at all because of it. Though she won't admit it until Sachi literally corners her about it.
  • Parental Abandonment: Subverted. Sachi and Ayari's parents decide to travel around the world - At first for their honeymoon, but later for work in Sachi's father's case. But they stay in contact with the girls through letters, and they do show up at the end of chapter 33 to check up on them.
    • Played straight with Sachi's mom. So far, nothing has been revealed about her or why she's gone from her daughter's life. Flashbacks show that Sachi didn't have any parental figures present growing up, indicating that whatever happened to her mother, it happened when she was very young.
  • Platonic Valentine: Eri gives friendship chocolates to Sachi every Valentine's Day. Sachi finally gets to return the favor in chapter 21.
  • Post-Stress Overeating: With Ayari, it's more like Post Stress Overcooking - When she gets stuck at a math problem in chapter 4, she starts preparing the next morning's breakfast. They end up using the soup stock to make a Midnight Snack:
    Sachi: Wasn't [the stock] for breakfast?
    Ayari: (gloomily) It's OK. It's what happens when I try to run away from reality.
  • Running Gag:
    Sachi: I love "____"! I wish I could eat "____"
    Ayari: Nee-san, I think...
    Sachi: Don't tell me... You're not saying... You can make "____"!?
    Ayari: I think I can!
  • Sailor Fuku: Ayari's school uniform. It comes in either black or white, though most of the students seen so far wear the black one.
  • School Festival: Chapters 48 and 49 focus on Ayari's school hosting a school festival. Her class decides to run a café;, and they're left at a loss as to what to make that follows the guidelines in order to prevent food poisoning, which means that any raw foods or foods containing eggs or uncooked dairy are out of the question. This is what lets Ayari's true nature finally show to her classmates as she shows them all how to make galettes.
  • School Uniforms are the New Black: Ayari is almost always seen wearing her school uniform, even at home or on her days off. In the manga, she explains that a rule from her school says that the students must always wear their uniforms when going out, even while not at school. After Eri takes her out shopping in chapter 24, however, Ayari's wardrobe becomes a bit more varied.
    • In the drama, Ayari does this after trying different outfits - She ends up being unhappy with how they look on her, so she chooses to wear her school uniform instead.
  • Shaped Like Itself: "Yes. Egg Fluffy...is fluffy."
  • They Who Must Not Be Seen: This was the case with Ayari's mom and Sachi's dad for the early parts of the manga. They would only interact with the girls through letters. They finally show up at the end of chapter 33.
    • Sachi's mom has yet to make an appearance.
  • Shrinking Violet: Ayari around strangers. Unfortunately for her, her shyness results in her face getting locked into a Death Glare, which scares people off.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Sick Episode: Chapter 37 has Ayari get a nasty cold with a fever. The chapter revolves around Sachi cooking rice porridge for her to help her recover.
  • Supreme Chef: Ayari is the most prominent one. Her father's work as a cooking researcher inspired her to take up an interest in it, too. And as she explains to Sachi, her Friendless Background resulted in her spending all of her free time cooking or doing research on it. As a result, she's honed her skills since she was little.
    • While not quite at Ayari's level, Eri is no slouch in the kitchen either. It's rather telling that Ayari treats her as her equal in this regard.
  • Swapped Roles: While chapter 40 is ostensibly about marmalade, the actual highlight is Sachi showing Ayari how to apply nail polish, taking on the teacher role that Ayari does when cooking and doing it just as well.
  • Training from Hell: Ayari's skills are the result of a self-imposed version. Downplayed in that she really does love to cook.
  • Title Drop: Sachi does this in the first episode of the drama.
  • Token Mini-Moe: Eri's little sister, Rina.
  • Valentine's Day Episode: Chapter 21 has Eri making orangettes for Sachi and Ayari as friendship chocolates. Sachi, in turn, gives her some chocolate crunch... Which was also the very first friendship chocolate Eri ever gave her.
  • When You Coming Home, Dad?: Sachi and Ayari have both had absent parents growing up:
    • Sachi's father is a famous photographer who's been travelling around the world for work ever since she was very young - It's even to the extent that he's apparently never even been home to celebrate her birthday with her. In the New Year's chapter, she even gets a little bit gloomy talking about how she wishes he came home more often. Eri also reveals to Ayari later, after their parents offer them to move to Switzerland and live with them there, that Sachi has missed her father for a very long time. She's started to get over this, though, which is why she and Ayari ultimately turn their offer down.
    • Likewise, Ayari's mother has also been frequently absent during her childhood, to the point where she even admits that her mother not being around is normal to her.

Tropes exclusive to the drama:

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