Sweetness and Lightning Volume 12 Manga Review
Amaama to Inazuma Manga Volume 12

–> Buy Sweetness and Lightning Volume 12 from Amazon.com!

***SPOILERS***

Kouhei gets a stomach ailment, so Tsumugi tries to make a meal and burns it, angering her father. They make up with Kotori. Kouhei gets a medical exam, where he gets a clean bill of health. As a result, a food party is thrown. Years later, Kotori runs into Kouhei and the high school aged Tsumugi to have them make food at the Megumi’s Restaurant.

Short “Regular” Ending

There were only two “regular” chapters in Sweetness and Lightning Volume 12. All the rest are tagged as “Extras” and thus technically are omake. I could be wrong, but I suspect that the regular chapters marked the end of publication in Good! Afternoon magazine.

That said, the regular ending is rather a disappointment. There’s one final bit of drama, whereupon Kouhei’s stomach ailment causes a bit of a clash between father and daughter. The final chapter has a time-jump in it, where a high school Tsumugi reminds her dad that Kotori returns home that day. Thus he needs to dress nicely and clean up.

Cooking

For the regular section, Golden Fried Rice is the first item. The second item is a chili-pepper miso and a stir fry made from eggplant and green pepper. Pass! There’s also a recipe for dashi soup stock and soy-preserved nori.

For the omake extra chapters, the first two don’t have a recipe as they don’t discuss food like normal. The third chapter doesn’t either, but I suppose a cooking manga needs to have recipes, so it is soy-preserved oysters (yuck) and miso-stewed beef tendon. (I didn’t feel like looking up the Japanese name.) The fourth chapter does go back to the normal food-centered story, so stewed pork cubes are the thing. Finally there’s fried shrimp (not tempura) and taru-taru sauce.

Omake “Extra Chapters”

There is a TON of omake in Sweetness and Lightning Volume 12. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect these chapters were created to complete volume 12.

Regardless, the first extra chapter sees Kouhei and his wife Tae deciding the name of the then unborn Tsumugi, ending with Tsumugi as a toddler. The second story sees Kotori and Shinobu turn 20. Both have jobs and together with Tsumugi, Kouhai, and Yagi, they have a party. Yagi and Shinobu have a moment together.

For the third chapter, Tsumugi worries about her curly hair. So she pays Kotori a visit to chat about hair. However, since Kotori is about to leave home, Tsumugi is a bit depressed. As such, Kotori takes her out for parfaits. That night for her birthday, Kouhei buys Tsumugi a smart phone so she can keep in touch with Kotori.

In the fourth story, Tsumugi is in junior high school. She notices her father’s sweater is pretty worn out and so makes an issue of it. As such, Kouhei buys a new one, irritating Tsumugi who’d bought him a cardigan. It ends with her cooking food after consulting with Kotori.

In the final extra chapter, Kotori is looking to possibly attend school in Hokkaido, where one set of grandparents live. However, she’s concerned about her father being alone. In the end, she goes there, so Kotori and Kouhei see her off, promising to both be there when she returns. Kotori and Kouhei then go for a coffee together.

The Normal Omake

The last omake chapter isn’t labeled as such. It has the college-aged Tsumugi recalling when she was a child, asking Kotori, Shinobu, and Chiyo what they think is the most delicious food. After talking to her grandmother, Tsumugi returns home for a visit, where she’s greeted by Kotori and Kouhei.

There’s then an afterward from Amagakure-sensei.

Kotori and Kouhei

Due to the odd nature of Sweetness and Lightning Volume 12, I figured I’d write something at the end regarding the hinted at romantic elements between Kotori and Kouhei. It is clear that Amagakure-sensei is leaving that up to the reader.

It seems clear that Tsumugi is on board with her dad being with Kotori. For a start, she wants him to look nice when Kotori returns home (apparently for good). Then when Tsumugi leaves for Hokkaido, her request that both Kouhei and Kotori be there to pick her up when she returns causes them to blush and act different. Tsumugi picks up on this as a romantic thing and smiles.

Kotori and Kouhei go on a coffee date together after seeing Tsumugi off. By my reckoning, she’s about 29 here and he’s about 38. While there’s a sweetness to this moment, it was also sad for me. I get that Kotori was apparently away for a number of years. But it is also clear that neither of them found someone else during those years. So why not be together?

Since the final panel shows Kotori and Kouhei welcoming Tsumugi home, my head canon is that Kotori and Kouhei got together. Tsumugi encourages her father to marry Kotori, and so they get married. The end. (Oh–I almost missed this, but the “end” page for the final extra chapter shows Kouhei reaching back and Kotori taking his hand. So that’s that!)

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Sweetness and Lightning Volume 12 jumps all over the place in terms of time. We get some of the usual cooking elements. There’s a “leave it up to the audience” element on Kotori and Kouhei as well as Shinobu and Yagi. But it is a delight and wholesome just the same.