This is a nice and entertaining series that really is a pleasure to read. Sota goes from one situation to the next and keeps his good humor and optimism. The stories are interesting and easy to read. The art complements the stories well. The food drawings are realistic and can look appetizing. Through the stories we also get a glimpse at Japanese food culture.

Overall, this is a good and entertaining series with a likeable protagonist. Foodies will likely enjoy this, but you do not need to be a foodie to enjoy this often warm story. If you like mangas like Oishinbo, you'll probably like this. I definitely enjoyed it and highly recommend it. Libraries that collect comics and graphic novels would do well in adding this to their holdings. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

This was a really cute manga. I enjoyed the story and it had some grammatical errors most likely due to translation. This wasn't like the food wars series, which is very dramatic and exciting, but a more 'slice of life' journey. Overall, I'm interested to see where this will go.

This is a sweet, simple little manga about a young man who wants to learn to be a great chef so he can move home to his small town and help his dad bring back the good old days of his failing family restaurant. By chance he is hired at one of the best traditional restaurants in the city and is more than willing to pay his dues and work extra hard to learn as much as he can.
The story is very much "slice of life" but explains a lot about Japanese food and cooking traditions. Very much enjoyed.

Great comic book for people that are very interested in traditional Japanese cuisine. There are some weird translations and typos in the book, so minus one star for that. Otherwise it's excellent.

Book Review
Title: Sota’s Knife Volume 1
Author: Kei Honjo & Yuichiro Sueda
Genre: Manga
Rating: ***
Review: So, this manga follows 20-year-old Sota Kitaoka working at a famous restaurant as he struggle with his own ambition to become a chef in his own right. While he is working doing small jobs like dish washing and peeling potatoes Sota has a dream to work with his father in their family restaurant.
For the first ¼ of this manga, we have been following Sota in his daily life working at the restaurant and the different kinds of people he interacts with and how these interacts affect him and his decisions. While I liked some of them and hated other I understand this is helping Sota grow as a person and giving him more perspective on his life. However, not a lot has happened in the grand scheme of things and I wasn’t really enjoying the story.
As we cross into the second half of the manga, Sota is learning more and more about what it truly means to be a chef and how some of the skills they use can only come from years of hard work along with plenty of trial and error, but he isn’t ambitious in the sense of getting ahead but in the sense of helping his friends.
However, when a famous connoisseur visits the restaurant he takes a liking to Sota and sets him a challenge to cook without using an extremely important ingredient. Sota being only a kitchen hand has never been allowed to cook in the restaurant before and he puts his everything into this challenge and comes away better for it. We also learn behind the scenes that the challenge that Sota completed in a few days took the man near a decade to do and he knows that Sota is going to go far and I have a feeling he will be setting Sota more challenges in the future.
Overall, I enjoying the learning experience that was Sota’s knife, but it wasn’t really in a genre that I liked. Food Wars is set in a similar genre, but it offsets the tension and serious moments with light-hearted humour that Sota’s knife lacked in my opinion. While this manga might be right for some I won’t be continuing with this series.

This manga is about a young man called Sota who is working as a kitchen hand in a restaurant in Japan. He dreams of reviving his own family restaurant, and stays late most nights to practice his own cooking.

In this, Sota meets several challenges, mostly cooking-based. They all have some sort of sweet, positive answer or conclusion, and Sota uses his passion for cooking and his father's and friends' advice to find the answers without any external help.

The grammar wasn't perfect, which I believe may be due to translation errors. I also didn't find it that easy to follow at times, and some of the speech bubbles weren't placed particularly clearly. The writing itself was a little hard to go along with too, honestly, and it wasn't the most exciting manga. But there weren't really any overwhelming faults, so I'm giving this 3 stars.

Description:
Sota Kitaoka, 20 years old, working at Ginza's famous "Tomikyu" under a strict but passionate boss, struggling and aiming to be a chef. One day he will make food that reaches peoples' hearts...

My Thoughts:
I am so glad that I found this on Net Galley as it combines my love of manga with my love of foodie stories. Although this is a fictional account of a young wannabe cook at a famous Tokyo restaurant, Tomikyu, I feel like the stories reveal cultural and foodie culture truths that make Japan so very unique.

I appreciate that the first story really identified the humility of Soto and his work ethic that will help him to succeed. That was a great way to identify this character and his gambatte spirit. Other values that are highlighted in this manga:

there is honor in even the most menial jobs
if you want to learn something, you have to show that you are willing to put the work in beforehand to show that you are "teach worthy"
ingredients, including water, are important
there are no cutting corners on quality
More from this very enjoyable character please.

An advanced copy provided by Net Galley and the publisher for an honest review.

3.5 stars

A delightful manga about an apprentice chef who helps people, with whom he crosses paths, realize their full potential. It's very sweet, heartwarming and all-around enjoyable.

This is a slice of life manga and by goodness was it good! Sota is a trainee in a restaurant and it follows him as he aims to move up into the world. I really enjoyed it and it's a manga I would consider picking up the second in the series. A great first volume that delivers what it promises!

I recieved a free copy from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
The manga is a pretty sweet slice of life with an easy-to-follow story and a realistic art. I liked to the determined main hero, he was easy to sympathise with and respect. Overall, I enjoyed to volume. This is a great manga to read in your spare time.

An expertly illustrated tale about Sota, the new Tokyo restaurant kitchen apprentice who dreams of taking over his family's restaurant in Hokkaido. Fans of manga like Oishinbo will find this series equally charming, with much attention paid to the art of choosing ingredients, determining presentation, and celebrating the joy that is eating truly delicious food. There are some concerning aspects of the translation, however. Many Japanese words are left in with an asterisk to define them, which would be fine if it was just for untranslatable food terms and not words that could simply be translated as, say, "sous chef." Additionally, some speech bubbles retain all the Japanese characters, with the English translation left somewhere else in the panel for no discernible reason. These factors can be distracting from what is otherwise a nicely presented, fun, peaceful story about achieving dreams through a blend of hard work and inherent talent. As this book is only available digitally, I obviously can't recommend it to physical retailers.

This manga centers around Sota, a trainee studying under a famous chef. He’s starting at the bottom of totem pole as a dishwasher but listens to the hustle and bustle in the kitchen area which gives him ideas. There are a lot of personalities in this small establishment who each have their unique quirk. As co-workers they have a unique bond as they each develop their own cooking style. I am also looking forward to seeing their stories unfold because they each have an interesting driving force in regards to cooking.

Sota has a quality to him that I can’t help but root for. Already from the minute he is recruited to how serious he takes his craft I can’t wait to see how he develops as a chef. So far 8 of the 41 volumes are being published in English. There is a lot of content to look forward to.

This series follows Sota Kitaoka, an apprentice cook and everyone's favorite friendly neighborhood kitchen boy, as he perfects his culinary skills. It's overall very endearing, both the story and the art. It's a feelgood, wholesome volume that I enjoyed very much. It made me crave some Japanese food, so I had some sashimi tonight.

The version I received, however, is rife with typographical and spacing errors (see e.g., pages 19, 20, 50), text that was either not properly embedded to replace the original Japanese text or poorly translated (see e.g., pages 51, 68, 91, 104, 109, 129), font that is occasionally too small reasonably to expect someone to read (e.g., page 54), or just weirdly translated (see page 70). I trust these will be corrected by the time this is released to the public. What's that you say? It was released on November 7, 2017? Well, now I'm perplexed. Is this errata in the retail version, too?

Sota's Knife is my first food related seinen I've read and I'm quit pleased that this has been translated into English. It's actually odd too, since this type of manga has been very much absent from the repertory thus far. Sota's Knife isn't just a cooking manga, but it's philosophical too and actually doesn't have that much cooking in it, so if you're waiting for Iron Chef, then no. There's no single plot, but more like manga follows Sota, who's a kitchen aid at a known Japanese traditional restaurant. He wants to become a chef and save his dad's restaurant and he learns new stuff through occurrences and there's talent too, but it's slow. The manga is very realistic and relaxed, which suits it fine. For me the lack of direction was a slight letdown, since the chapters aren't linked to each other enough. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but feels sporadic and it's hard to concentrate when you cannot see the whole picture.

The art is round and and funny even, positive and light. The story in itself isn't the same, but the art compliments the story and makes it heartwarming as opposed to rough hardness. The story is about finding yourself and your talents and thus the soft art fits it the best. Honjo's art is slightly neutral though, so the manga doesn't fully reach its potential. Sota's Knife is an interesting cooking manga that isn't all that about cooking, which is probably the reason this was translated. We don't have enough manga like this on the market, so it's an interesting piece.

After reading Food Wars! and Space Battle Lunch Time, two extremely different food based stories, I've made it a point to seek out more food based manga and graphic novels. When I had a chance to read Sota's Knife Vol. 1 by Yuichiro Sueda and Kei Honjo I jumped on it. Sota's Knife is a wonderful manga about hard work, following your dreams, and food. Sota is a dishwasher at a restaurant run by a prominent chef. One day, Sota hopes to be just as good a cook as him, but for now he's at the bottom of the ladder trying to gain the skills he'll need to climb upward.

This manga was a delightful story featuring a very main character. Sota is a wonderful young man who wants nothing more than to be a great chef. After leaving his home in the country, Sota finds himself in the city, striving to learn more. Despite being a dishwasher he has great innate skills. But those skills remain uncultivated. Sota walks a fine line between being a dishwasher that happens to have some skills and a dream and a possible savant. Hard work has gotten Sota to where he is, even if it is only a position as a dishwasher, and a lot of hard work is still needed. The potential is there, though, for Sota to become a truly magnificent chef one day, and we are invited along on his journey.

A definite slice-of-life feel is present throughout the manga. While we follow Sota as he tries to hone his skills it isn't through anything as structured as, say, culinary school such as in Food Wars. Various people come into the restaurant, each with their own problems and hardships that must be faced. A lesson in food, cooking, or the feelings and comfort that cooking can bring is always learned. Some of these characters are recurring, others do not appear as frequently. Sota learns something from each of them, though, and not always in the ways one might think.

At 261 pages, this manga is quite a bit longer than many other single volumes. While it might have had a higher page count than some, it by no means felt too long. The pacing was very good, a nice blend of characters, events, and lessons combined with Sota trying new techniques. Characters are developed, albeit slowly. Relationships between the chefs and other characters change and grow. I really liked watching the chefs interact with one another and Sota. While they all strive for the same ultimate goal - to provide excellent food to customers - some of their viewpoints can be quite different.

The manga was illustrated by Kei Honjo, whose art work I loved. Background isn't always prolific, most notably when two characters are conversing. However, detail isn't something that is lacking. Sweeping city landscapes are filled with minute detail, making the scene feel alive and real. Food looks edible and delicious. Scenes at night are cloaked in shadows. Light spilling from windows creates a warm glow on the immediate surroundings while everything else is masked by shadows created with shading and thick line work. The art is beautiful, and I would read future volumes just for that.

I really enjoyed Sota's Knife Vol 1 by Yuichiro Sueda and Kei Honjo. It's definitely a series I would read more of, and I look forward to future volumes. It was a beautiful, quiet slice-of-life manga with a wonderful main character. If you like slice-of-life manga or manga set in a contemporary setting pick this one up.

This first volume of Sota's Knife compiles the first 11 chapters of the manga and it is about the 20-year old Sota Kitaoka from Hokkaido who became a kitchen-helper in Tomikyu, a fine dining restaurant in Tokyo. He was hired by Kyu Goro Tomita, one of the top 5 chefs in Tokyo and now he works for six months already in the said restaurant. Sota is eager to learn a lot so he trains alone after the store closed at night. His only dream is to get his family-owned restaurant back on track.

Kei Honjo beautifully illustrated each comic panel because how detailed his drawings are. So far, I consider this as the best-illustrated manga I've seen because I saw how elaborate and how much time Kei Honjo spent in drawing this — there are texture, shadows, and highlights and that shows how skillful he is in his craft. He didn't draw the illustrations hastily because anyone can see the huge effort he did especially in drawing those settings, and of the images of food.

I also learned a lot from how much the Japanese chefs exert a lot in order to prepare each dish — giving the best quality of food to the customers. Sota's humility and passion to learn is admirable also, and the camaraderie in Tomikyu will touch anyone. There are a lot of Japanese manga that turns into either anime or real live film or TV adaptation, and I wonder if there would future plans for this. Hopefully, producers would give this an opportunity but hopefully, Kei Honjo would still be part of the illustrators if it would be an anime adaptation.

'Sota's Knife Vol 1' by Kei Honjo and Yuichiro Sueda is about a young man who wants to someday be a great chef. I loved this manga filled with heart and passion about food.

Sota works as a dishwasher at a famous restaurant called Tomikyu. He is starting at the bottom and working his way up, but his boss, the head chef, has seen something in him.

One day, a friend he knew in school shows up with fancy clothing and belittles Sota, but Sota doesn't mind, and soon his friend is humiliated for trying to create a shortcut to success. Another time, he helps a single mother create a special lunch for her daughter. There are trips to learn about mushrooms and miso, and late nights trying to perfect his dashi. All under the eye of a boss and coworkers who are mentoring him along the way.

I loved this book about a special young man and the passion for food that he and his coworkers have. The characters and stories were very interesting. I would recommend it to anyone who is a foodie, even if they don't read manga. I think it would make an interesting movie or television show. I definitely would love to read more of Sota's adventures.

I received a review copy of this manga from Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha, Ltd., and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this manga.

Received from NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review---thank you!!

Sota's Knife was a fun food-filled manga. Sota is a young man who leaves his hometown to gain experience in food practice to one day bring his family's own small restaurant to be the best it can be. Although just a helper and dishwasher, in his spare time, Sota practices cooking at home with different forms of the same ingredients, as well as using his knife in the most intricate of ways to make the food perfect.

I thought this food manga was very interesting. It had quite a few translation notes that related to the type of cuts, food, bentos, and restaurants therein relating to both current culture and history. I get the sense of a well-researched writer and learned quite a few fact about different types of restaurants in Japan--what makes something fancy, and what doesn't?

I thought the art was pretty good and liked Sota's attitude towards learning new things in the kitchen. His motivation and strive to constantly be better makes the character fun to follow and root for. I definitely wouldn't mind reading the next one!

(NetGalley wasn't able to post to Goodreads, so I posted manually to both Goodreads and Amazon).