My Beloved Supper Review
Yoru Hioka is a connoisseur of food: from melt-in-your mouth beef stews to succulent pumpkin croquettes, he loves his meals and wishes to savour every bite. There’s one problem however: he’s a vampire, and vampires can’t eat human food…or can they? Yoru has found a way around it as long as he he eats human food right after he drinks blood. This is the story of one vampire’s mission to try out the best food humans have to offer, even if he has to kill a few along the way.
This unique supernatural title is by Kaho Ozaki, whose name you may recognise if you’re a fan of her series, My Noisy Roommate: The Roof Over My Head Comes with Monsters and a Hottie, published by Kodansha. Kaho Ozaki has several series under her belt, having started her career in the late 2010s, but this is only her second title to be made available in English so far. Most of her work is fantasy/supernatural, with some Boys’ Love sprinkled in there, but according to the author notes, she wanted to combine her love for vampires with her love for food manga, a sub-genre popular in Japan. It’s a very odd combination but the atmospheric and frankly brilliant first chapter sells its concept.
The chapter starts quite slowly, showing Yoru’s boarding-house life, and his mundane office job, but offering glimpses into his fascination with human food, all without a word on Yoru’s true identity. The first pages show us all the food he sees, plus the background mystery of the ‘vampire killer’ on the screens, then a phone call from an anonymous person who sends Yoru details of ‘a request’. This leads to a back alley, Yoru alone with a criminal, all in the dead of night. The tension finally breaks when Yoru sinks his teeth into the criminal, and the manga really lingers on it too with gothic, dark imagery, the glow of Yoru’s eyes as he licks the blood off his face, how he steps on the body of his victim in a vile manner, and the sunken eyes of the corpse, all to reinforce the horror. Then, the switch is completely flipped to comedy, as it cuts to Yoru running through the city, like he’s doing the Naruto run home as fast as he can, with movement lines across the panel and a beaming smile on Yoru’s face. This change of pace pays off with the reveal of a beef stew looking succulent on the page, full of bubbles and sparks filling up the panel’s white space, and a full display of emotions on Yoru’s face as he savours the taste of the meal. The chapter ends with a proper introduction to Yoru, with gothic-style text boxes, contrasting with Yoru’s face, looking fulfilled by the meal he’s just enjoyed. It’s a brilliant case of juxtaposition, and how the mangaka makes the separate genres work together in a unique blend. This vampire is dangerous, but also a complete sap for meals, and it really works.
This excellent blend of comedy and horror continues as the book goes on, with each chapter serving as a separate tale of Yoru’s quest to try to eat human meals. There are also a few brief flashbacks to his past, to hint at his growing love for human food, as well as information as to why vampires can now walk in the sun, so the vampire lore in this series is explored in a different way, which I really liked. It should also be noted that Yoru doesn’t talk much, but you get what he’s thinking and feeling from the many panels dedicated to his facial expressions; the manga isn’t afraid to take its time and really showcase Yoru’s emotional range, and the chapters say a lot about him without a lot of dialogue. So even though we don’t get to spend that much time with Yoru, we feel like we know him well by the end of the series.
As for the other cast members, you don’t spend too much time with them but there’s enough to keep you intrigued about their separate lives. The boarders feel like a warm neighbours to Yoru, with Sonoe (the one who looks after and cooks for all the boarders) being a constant loving figure. She makes a huge impact on Yoru, as we discover over the course of the book. There’s also Yoru’s ‘blood provider’ as it were, for the criminals that Yoru feeds on, who happens to be a detective named Saneatsu. He’s sort of like Dexter, if he were outsourcing the killing of the criminals that got away to a third party vampire, instead of doing it himself. Saneatsu is clearly morally corrupt, and even though he tries to close the cases he outsources to Yoru quickly, it’s clear that other police staff and detectives are suspicious of him. It’s an interesting dynamic; Yoru doesn’t think about the moral ambiguity of killing the criminals Saneatsu sends his way, as they’re just a means to an end for him, but Saneatsu is clearly taking advantage of that as well and is not above pushing Yoru’s buttons to get what he wants, even if Yoru tries to lay off blood for a while.
As much as I love this manga overall, there are two major things holding it back and they’re intertwined. One is the pacing of the book. Each chapter acts like a brief look into Yoru’s life, but it’s hard to tell as and when they’re taking place. One sentence in the fourth chapter mentions it’s been ‘several months’ since Yoru has last eaten, but there’s no visual clue that has happened, no showing of snow or autumn leaves to showcase the passing of time. This happens again in the final chapter, but this time years have passed and again there’s no environmental visual cue to help the reader, only a throwaway line where we suddenly meet a boarder’s nephew, who apparently has encountered and learned about Yoru off-page, plus Sonoe has more lines on her face to showcase her age. It’s a bit jarring to keep up with; even a text box saying how much time has passed would help the reader out.
The last issue I had was the final chapter. I don’t know if this was the planned ending all along, or if the mangaka was told to wrap up the series quickly, but its tone is very different to the rest of the manga. Weirdly, the book goes from one of the manga’s most violent and bloodiest chapters, to its most heart-warming, and it feels jarring. Yoru is suddenly at peace with his driving desire for human food, and is all chummy with the boarders (when previously he kept to small talk) and his relationship with Sonoe overtakes the narrative when it didn’t before. It isn’t a bad ending, but I couldn’t help but think of the final chapter of another one-volume series, Stardust Family. Both have a sudden years’ time-jump, both have underdeveloped background elements overtaking the narrative in the final chapter, and both have many important plot threads suddenly solved off-page. I think I ended the book slightly deflated because, like any good meal, I wanted more. I wanted more from Yoru’s culinary journey, more of the corrupt detective and how he came to this arrangement with a vampire, more flashbacks of Yoru’s past and what became of the other vampires who adapted to the modern day, and to witness Yoru try dishes from other cultures to see what he thought of them, I wanted more. And I think that’s a good thing; I could have easily devoured at least three more volumes but maybe it’s better to end the series leaving the audience wanting more, than dragging it on long past its prime.
The art is extremely good. A lot of care has been put into every panel, from the details of each dish Yoru tries, to the individual strands of hair when up-close to Yoru’s face to show how handsome and alluring he is as a vampire. Kaho Ozaki is also really good at facial expressions; the manga lingers on Yoru’s change in demeanour a lot over the course of the volume, and you can really tell how he’s feeling and thinking with each panel. I also love the cover, not just the image but the meals are given some glossy embossing to make them pop out more, so the physical book is very enticing.
Translation is by Taylor Engel, and it’s a good read that flows really well. However, I don’t understand why the translation notes are inserted before the final chapter and not at the back of the book as usual.
My Beloved Supper is an excellent taste of two different genres making an appetising manga. I could have easily savoured more volumes of this series, but for what we get, it’s definitely worth a bite if you’re into vampires, food, dark comedy, drama, or a combination of them all.
Our review copy was supplied by the publisher Yen Press.
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Copyright © 2025 Kaho Ozaki/Yen Press
