Hit the “Random” button and see what comes up! In this feature, we take a look at whatever manga the Random Number God decides to throw at us and find out if it’s worth your time.

This time: Cooking Papa, by Tochi Ueyama

Cooking Papa is exactly what it sounds like. It’s about a papa who cooks for his family, friends, and coworkers. I bet you didn’t see that one coming, did ya? Every chapter is pretty much a cute slice of life about our manly protagonist doing his thing, that thing being cooking, and then a (usually) simple recipe is presented to the reader. Because it’s called Cooking Papa. You can’t get any more obvious than this, folks.

And, since this is a weekly manga that started in the 80s (actually, this is the fourth longest running manga of all time, far outdating the Cooking Mama franchise of video games), there are a bunch of once-a-chapter gags to stall for pages. Mr. Araiwa is a salaryman, and is thus in charge of a bunch of lamer salarymen who don’t have as great of a lantern jaw. So, there’s the guy who always messes up their work, there’s the salarywoman who has a crush on our protagonist, and there’s his boss who always wants to trade for Araiwa’s delicious lunch.

Through all of this, Araiwa has to pretend he doesn’t actually know how to cook, because HE IS A MANLY MAN and also this is a manga that started in 1980’s Japan. That said, it’s never quite presented as something un-manly. At worst, Araiwa is presented as a tireless family man and appreciated by all his friends. It’s more endearing than anything that our hero is embarrassed about cooking amazing food, especially when everyone assumes his wife did the work.

Verdict: Cute
I actually really enjoy this manga, and I look forward to every new scanlated chapter. As mentioned above, this manga is one of the longest runners with over 1000 chapters, and only recently did a one-man scanlation team begin preparing it for our reading pleasure. As of this writing there are 9 chapters out in English, nearing up on the end of the first volume. Only 121+n to go, buddy.