Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family Volume 1

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Having watched the Today’s Menu for Emiya Family anime adaptation, it was suggested to me to read the source manga. As such, I thought I’d give Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family volume 1 manga a read.

What’s It About?

The core of this manga series is that it is a cooking manga. Each 12+ page chapter contains a simple story that is merely an excuse to have some meal or dish featured. And as is common for a cooking manga, the instructions for preparing said food item is given.

Setting the series within the realm of Fate/stay night is an interesting choice. Those who’ve read the Fate/stay night visual novel, or who’ve watched the different anime adaptations of the three routes will be familiar with the characters and settings. The manga gives a feel of this taking place in a post-Holy Grail War setting, although the anime adaptation does a far superior job of catching this feeling.

Source Manga vs. Anime Adaptation

Although there’s nothing wrong with the small chapters in this volume of the manga, I quickly saw how incredible of a job ufotable did in their adaptation of this series. Normally, I don’t want an anime production company changing things, but I do give allowances for the need to make modifications to fit an anime time slot allotment.

It is actually kind of shocking how little story most of these chapters have. The stories were basically the minor element and the cooking the major element in the manga. But ufotable took those minor stories and mostly expanded them in a way that felt natural.

For example, in chapter 7, only two pages are devoted to Rin, Saber, and Shirou going to a water park. And one of those pages is a flashback. However, ufotable heavily fleshed this out in episode 7 of the anime, which made it one of the funniest episodes in the anime series.

Interestingly, there are two side-story chapters in Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family Volume 1, which ufotable did not adapt. So if nothing else, there’s a reason to buy this manga.

Denpa’s Release

The physical copy of Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family Volume 1 was noticeably for its use of a heavier paper type. And Denpa mimics the Japanese tankoubon release by having the cover flaps and such. Normally, these things get turned into an extra page or pages. So I did like that.

Sadly, Denpa completely and totally fails on the Japanese honorific front. No doubt, it is the usual “muh localized English” or other such nonsense.

Also, I guess TAo did have Shirou address his adoptive grandfather as Jii-san in episode 6 of the anime adaptation. Denpa has Shirou addressing Kiritsugu as “Gramps” in this manga volume.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family volume 1 is a fun little cooking manga. But it shows me how awesome of an adaptation job ufotable did.