Showcase: Kami no Shizuku
Jan. 15th, 2010 03:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
foolish_m0rtalSo many of you know I've been taking a class on the history of wine in Virginia (which quickly became a history of wine throughout the world from the first clay pot of fermented grape juice to the genetic engineering of the future that might make the foxiness of the Vitis labrusca disappear from its DNA)
I didn't know this till someone in my research group pointed it out, but there's a MANGA about wine called Kami no Shizuku, which translates to Drops of the Gods. This is a play on words, since the main character's name is Shizuku, so the title could also be read Shizuku of the Gods.
I finished this thing in one sitting. It's is absolutely engaging, surprisingly informative, and gorgeously fantastic! Makes you want to go out and buy a Chateu Calon Segur right now! (Okay, I have to wait another year. Stupid American drinking law) I agree with the whole 'wine is food' argument. When I drink it with food, I tend to eat less and enjoy the different tastes more. I kind of see why wine-drinking nations don't get fat.
It's about a wine expert (Kazuki) in Japan who has been compared to Robert Parker in Europe (He has a LOT of influence over the wine industry based on what he judges as good wine. Some wineries will make wines specific to his palate, which is actually insured for a million dollars. A good analogy I've heard is his influence is like "Alan Greenspan sway over the financial markets"). This wine expert dies of liver failure and leaves a challenge for his only son and another top wine sommelier Tomine (wine steward who stores, serves, and is generally an expert on wine) who Kazuki adopted the week before he died.
Kazuki had "twelve apostles" and the "drops of the gods," which were wine bottles (not brands, bottles. One bottle of wine in the same year from the same place can be different) he thought were worthy of the position. The challenge is to find out which ones Kazuki was talking about. The winner gets the inheritance, which includes Kazuki's wine collection.
Shizuku has never had wine before because when he was young, his father had him do all this horrendous stuff, like eat all sorts of different grapes and then have to tell them apart, taste wood and leather and different types of fruit, how to decant all sorts of wines properly, etc. Shizuku didn't know his father was just training him to be a wine expert from a young age and be able to detect all the subtle flavours and tastes in each wine. He's hated wine for a long time because he thinks it replaced him in his father's affections and caused his father's death.
He finally tries a glass a few days after he hears of the competition, and a lot of people are surprised by how sensitive his nose and wine palate are. So now the challenge is on. Tomine's just after the inheritance (or that's what we know right now), but Shizuku is after what his father was trying to communicate through wine and learn more about it.
If you guys enjoy Yakitate!Japan, this manga is like it's elder elegant cousin that's been off on a tour of Europe on a long leave of stylish absence. It's pretty frickin epic too- there's three pages of the most intense artistic decantering you've ever seen! Oh, the suspense! The only thing that threw me was how much this guy looks like Light Yagami and could BE Light in some other alternate universe where he moves from intense potato chip eating to intense Domaine de la Romanee-Conti decanting.
There's still the images of taste like you have in Yakitate, which I think help both stories incredibly well (Pixar did this in Ratatouille too) and they're just so beautiful. I can see why wine sales rocketed after this manga became popular. I just finished all the current volumes in one sitting, and I was surprised by how much of what we learned in class is discussed in the manga (terroir, the female representation of wine, decanting, noble rot, Robert Parker, etc).
I would highly recommend this manga with a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and a plate of stuffed oysters. (*Snicker* This is the wine I'm trying to get my parents to try because it's supposed to go well with seafood, Thai, and Japanese, which is what we eat most often. My parents only drink port...with EVERYTHING, ugh, and we've had bad experiences with white wine, so we'll see...)
I didn't know this till someone in my research group pointed it out, but there's a MANGA about wine called Kami no Shizuku, which translates to Drops of the Gods. This is a play on words, since the main character's name is Shizuku, so the title could also be read Shizuku of the Gods.
I finished this thing in one sitting. It's is absolutely engaging, surprisingly informative, and gorgeously fantastic! Makes you want to go out and buy a Chateu Calon Segur right now! (Okay, I have to wait another year. Stupid American drinking law) I agree with the whole 'wine is food' argument. When I drink it with food, I tend to eat less and enjoy the different tastes more. I kind of see why wine-drinking nations don't get fat.
It's about a wine expert (Kazuki) in Japan who has been compared to Robert Parker in Europe (He has a LOT of influence over the wine industry based on what he judges as good wine. Some wineries will make wines specific to his palate, which is actually insured for a million dollars. A good analogy I've heard is his influence is like "Alan Greenspan sway over the financial markets"). This wine expert dies of liver failure and leaves a challenge for his only son and another top wine sommelier Tomine (wine steward who stores, serves, and is generally an expert on wine) who Kazuki adopted the week before he died.
Kazuki had "twelve apostles" and the "drops of the gods," which were wine bottles (not brands, bottles. One bottle of wine in the same year from the same place can be different) he thought were worthy of the position. The challenge is to find out which ones Kazuki was talking about. The winner gets the inheritance, which includes Kazuki's wine collection.
Shizuku has never had wine before because when he was young, his father had him do all this horrendous stuff, like eat all sorts of different grapes and then have to tell them apart, taste wood and leather and different types of fruit, how to decant all sorts of wines properly, etc. Shizuku didn't know his father was just training him to be a wine expert from a young age and be able to detect all the subtle flavours and tastes in each wine. He's hated wine for a long time because he thinks it replaced him in his father's affections and caused his father's death.
He finally tries a glass a few days after he hears of the competition, and a lot of people are surprised by how sensitive his nose and wine palate are. So now the challenge is on. Tomine's just after the inheritance (or that's what we know right now), but Shizuku is after what his father was trying to communicate through wine and learn more about it.
If you guys enjoy Yakitate!Japan, this manga is like it's elder elegant cousin that's been off on a tour of Europe on a long leave of stylish absence. It's pretty frickin epic too- there's three pages of the most intense artistic decantering you've ever seen! Oh, the suspense! The only thing that threw me was how much this guy looks like Light Yagami and could BE Light in some other alternate universe where he moves from intense potato chip eating to intense Domaine de la Romanee-Conti decanting.
There's still the images of taste like you have in Yakitate, which I think help both stories incredibly well (Pixar did this in Ratatouille too) and they're just so beautiful. I can see why wine sales rocketed after this manga became popular. I just finished all the current volumes in one sitting, and I was surprised by how much of what we learned in class is discussed in the manga (terroir, the female representation of wine, decanting, noble rot, Robert Parker, etc).
I would highly recommend this manga with a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and a plate of stuffed oysters. (*Snicker* This is the wine I'm trying to get my parents to try because it's supposed to go well with seafood, Thai, and Japanese, which is what we eat most often. My parents only drink port...with EVERYTHING, ugh, and we've had bad experiences with white wine, so we'll see...)
