You ever read books that are just - niiiice? Definitely not page-turners but something about them keeps you going? Not boring, not that interesting, just - niiiice? That’s how I felt about the very blissed-out Blissful Land, Volume 1: niii - alright I’ll stop that!
It’s a Japanese manga about a small mountain community in 18th century Tibet. 13 year old Khang Zipa is a doctor-in-training who discovers he’s got an arranged marriage to the beautiful Moshi Rati. The two get to know each other. There’s no real story, barely anything remotely approaching what you could call “conflict” or “drama”; they make food and medicine together (no, those aren’t euphemisms - this is much too innocent a book for that!).
Still, it says something about Ichimon Izumi’s storytelling that I kept reading despite little happening. The main characters are likeable and it’s super cute seeing them “courting”. Learning about 18th century Tibetan culture was interesting and Izumi’s art is really lovely - the backgrounds are remarkably detailed and the food in particular always looks delicious.
Obviously this isn’t going to be for everyone and I think you need to be in a pretty chill mood to even kind of enjoy it or be a very young reader. Still, if you feel like the literary equivalent of being wrapped up in a duvet while eating the fluffiest sponge cake, check out Blissful Land!
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