Sweetness and Lightning

Genre(s): Food, Slice of Life, Comfy, Seinen

Age-Appropriateness: 7+

Platforms: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

TheAwersome Rating: 8.4 / 10 (A Wholesome and Happy time)

Premise: Since the death of his wife, Kouhei Inuzuka has been caring for his young daughter Tsumugi to the best of his abilities. However, with his lack of culinary knowledge and his busy job as a teacher, he is left relying on ready-made meals from convenience stores to feed her. Frustrated at his own incapability to provide a fresh, nutritious meal for his daughter, Kouhei takes up an offer from his student, Kotori Iida, to come have dinner at her family’s restaurant. But on their very first visit, the father and daughter discover that the restaurant is often closed due to Kotori’s mother being away for work and that Kotori often eats alone. After much pleading from his pupil, Kouhei decides to continue to go to the restaurant with Tsumugi to cook and share homemade food with Kotori.

TheAwersome’s Thoughts: Something I love about the various food anime that I’ve watched is that each one brings something very different to the table. Food Wars brings incredible, high-end haute cuisine with clever and ingenious methods of creation. Emiya Family shows the cultural significance of various meals and the power that food has in bringing people together and as an expression of love. Sweetness and Lightning shows the joys and thrills of learning to cook and getting into the whole world without having any prior experience. The joys of taking it at your own pace and sharing it with people you care about. 

I also felt that this show handled having a 4-year-old main character very well. While Tsumugi is cute and adorable, she isn’t exempt from the emotions that beset children at that age. And while Kouhei isn’t perfect in raising her as a single father, he’s earnest and trying his best.

TLDR: A sweet, lovely, and wholesome show that takes top seats in both food and comfy categories.

I really like how this had an “Intro to Cooking” vibe to it. You get to join in with the characters on learning about and trying out cooking techniques and conventions from a place of no experience. There’s something so pure and exciting about that process of discovery that was portrayed very well here. And when it isn’t doing that, it’s a down-to-earth wholesome slice of life about a very loving single father doing his best facing the challenges that come with that.