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 Gourmet Girl Graffiti
Anime Review
Did you love Iron Chef back in the day? And are you really really into Japanese cuisine? Then this is your show! Gourmet Girl Graffiti is the tale of two junior high students and food. And as you may have guessed from the title, the food is pretty much the most important character in the show. In fact each episode has a tempting title like “Crispy, Dripping” or “Fluffy, Sizzling” which describes the various dishes featured in that episode. And of course each episode features several dishes, with no repeats on the menu. In fact half the fun of this show is running to wikipedia after you’re done watching to look up every dish featured in the show.
 And so next you may ask, who is the gourmet girl in Gourmet Girl Graffiti? That would be young Ryō Machiko who lives on her own in Tokyo because her parents work overseas, although don’t worry too much as she does have a workaholic aunt who looks in on her from time to time. Ryō formative life experience was growing up with her grandmother who taught her everything about food, however tragically for poor Ryō her grandmother passed away last year. So Ryō’s fragile sense of self esteem comes from her ability to cook, and this show is very much about her quest to master this critical life skill — much like young Luke Skywalker learning to use the force.
 Ryō’s intrepid comedic sidekick in the series is Kirin Morino, a second cousin who comes to town each weekend to go to art school with Ryō. Kirin’s main task in the show is to act as an enthusiastic guinea pig for Ryō’s weekly weekend culinary creations. Kirin’s constant hunger for high quality food is sadly due to a lack of imaginative meals in her home life (not that she really doesn’t love her mum). And what’s nice about Kirin as a character is that she allows the viewer to experience exploring Japanese cuisine and the cityscape of Tokyo as a first time visitor with Ryō as her tour guide.
 Each episode of Gourmet Girl Graffiti is pretty easy to digest since the series has a gentle slice-of-life comedy feeling to it. And what really makes this show work is the wonderful level of detail that goes into presenting each dish in the cultural context of Japanese life, which is something that a typical cooking show can’t give you. So in the first episode poor Kirin is feeling homesick (although she won’t admit it) so Ryō warms up her heart up with some homemade kitsune udon which is a classic soup noodle dish. And in the next episode our two hungry heroes explore the wonders of bento box picnicking and Tokyo street food in honor of the cherry blossom festivities.
My only real critique of the show is that I wish it went a little bit deeper with the human characters, although the reason for that is that this series is based on a four-panel shoujo manga by Makoto Kawai which is aimed at a younger audience and thus gentle by nature. Although that said the gentle qualities of the show make it very user friendly to younger kids or even for non-anime fans who are foodies. So if you’re looking for a charming series to follow where food is the main ingredient I’d recommend Gourmet Girl Graffiti which is now being served up Crunchyroll.
Reviewed by Michael Pinto, February 2015
Below: Scenes from Gourmet Girl Graffiti.
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Below: Manga covers and a book cover (and back cover illustration) for Gourmet Girl Graffiti.
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