Gourmet Girl Graffiti, known in Japan as Happy Cooking Graffiti (幸腹グラフィティ), is a four-panelcomic stripmanga written and illustrated by Makoto Kawai.It was serialized in Houbunsha's Manga Time Kirara Miracle! magazine between the March 2012 and November 2016 issues.A 12-episode anime television series adaptation by Shaft aired between January and March 2015.
Plot
Ryō Machiko is a second-year middle school girl who has been living by herself since her grandmother died. Despite having exceptional skill in cooking, Ryō has felt her cooking hasn't been tasting good. That is, until she meets her second cousin, Kirin Morino, who comes to stay with her on the weekends to attend cram school in Tokyo and shows her the key to great tasting food: eating together with friends and family.
Characters
Ryō Machiko (町子 リョウ)
Ryō is the protagonist of the series and is a second-year middle school student of Hariyama Middle School who lives by herself in a big apartment. Her parents live abroad due to their work, and she was brought up by her grandmother, who died a year before the story begins. Her wish is to pass the entrance examination of a high school specializing in art, and therefore she goes to an art cram school, where she gets to know Shiina. As the story progresses, she enters her desired high school, Hariyama High School, where she becomes classmates with Kirin and Shiina. Ryō is a talented cook and is capable of cooking a wide range of dishes.
Kirin Morino (森野 きりん)
Kirin is a girl who is the same age as Ryō and is her second cousin despite her short stature and looking like a twelve year old. She hopes to go to an art school in Tokyo, so she attends the same art cram school as Ryō every Sunday and stays at Ryō's house every Saturday the day before. She is shy and has a somewhat childish side, but is extremely polite and well-mannered. She is short, but contrary to her appearance, is a powerful child and is a big eater. She has an unrivaled athletic ability among the characters in the series. She is bad at housework, but somewhat knowledgeable about cooking. She later attends the same high school as Shiina and Ryō and moves into Ryō's apartment to attend school. Kirin joins the basketball club in high school and is called "Kii" by her friends and teammates. She expresses her thoughts on food dynamically. She does not like carrots. At the end of the television series, Kirin moved in Ryō's home to live with her.
Shiina (椎名)
Shiina is Ryō's friend from middle school. She is one of the students of the art prep school both Ryō and Kirin also attend and lives with an old family in the metropolitan area. She is physically fragile, but is a beautiful young lady who is cool and has mysterious atmosphere. She meets Ryō because they are in the same class together, and she knows Kirin from flower viewing in the park. She is accepted to the same high school as Ryō and Kirin. Thanks to her cooking skill, she builds up a circle of friends besides Kirin and Ryō.
Yuki Uchiki (内木 ユキ)
A woman who lives below Ryō in her apartment complex. Her favorite food is pizza. After her meeting with Ryo and Kirin in Yuki's home, Yuki attended the high school where Ryo, Kirin, Hina, Mei would later attend.
Akira Machiko (町子 明)
Ryō's aunt. Always business at work, she rarely visits Ryo. During breaks from work, she is frequently seen drinking beer.
Tsuyuko (露子)
Shiina's maid and housekeeper who dresses like a shrine maiden. She was mistaken by Kirin as Shiina's mother after she gave her a tomato. She is the only character in the series who doesn't talk much.
Hina Yamazaki (山崎 陽菜)
A classmate of Ryo and Kirin from prep school, and from the same middle school as Ryo. She has shoulder length blonde hair. After middle school graduation, she went to same high school as Ryo.
Mei Tsuchida (土田 芽生)
A classmate of Ryo and Kirin from prep school, and from the same middle school as Ryo. She has dark brown hair and wears a white headband. After middle school graduation, she went to same high school as Ryo.
Misaki Kometani (米谷 美咲)
Another classmate of Ryo and Kirin from cram school. She has a spoiled and annoying personality and has silver white hair worn in a ponytail.
Ryō's Grandmother/Grandma (リョウの祖母/おばあちゃん)
Ryō's grandmother who died a year prior to the start of the story. She is the one who taught Ryō all about cooking, although it is later revealed she was once terrible at cooking and only started taking it seriously for Ryō's sake.
Watanabe (渡辺)
A librarian who is an old friend of Ryō and her grandmother. She also introduced Ryo's grandma to certain cookbooks when she needed to learn cooking, and the same cookbooks were introduced to Ryō when Ryō lived alone.
Tatsuki (樹)
A short brown-haired girl from the same middle school as Mei, Hina, Ryō.
Shiina's Mother (椎名さんの母親)
A sweet childish young woman. Because of her young appearance she strongly resembles a teenager.
Rin Morino/Kirin's Mother (森野 凛/森野の母)
Kirin's strict and temperamental mother and Ryo's aunt. She is bossy to both her daughter and husband and often argues a lot with Kirin, but does care about her as a parent.
Mr. Morino/Kirin's Father (氏 森野/森野の父)
Kirin's calm and loving father. He has an eccentric personality.
Midori Machiko (町子 緑)
Ryo's mother. She works overseas with Ryo's father for an unknown secret job, but occasionally mails Japan-made food to Ryo. In the television series, she is only seen in Ryo's dream sequence.
Media
Manga
The original four-panelcomic stripmanga, written and illustrated by Makoto Kawai, was serialized in Houbunsha's Manga Time Kirara Miracle! magazine between the March 2012 and November 2016 issues.[2][3] Houbunsha published seven tankōbon volumes from January 26, 2013, to September 27, 2016.[4]
Anime
A 12-episode anime television series adaptation, produced by Shaft, directed by Naoyuki Tatsuwa, and chief directed by Akiyuki Shinbo aired in Japan between January 9 and March 27, 2015[5][6] and was simulcast by Crunchyroll.[7] The screenplay is by Mari Okada and the music was composed by Kotringo.[8]Kazuya Shiotsuki (Shaft) designed the characters for animation, and served as chief animation director alongside Shinya Nishizawa and Takumi Yokota. Three episodes were outsourced: episode 4 to Mouse; episode 7 to Jumondou; and episode 11 to Drop. The opening theme is "Shiawase ni Tsuite Watashi ga Shitteiru Itsutsu no Hōhō" (幸せについて私が知っている5つの方法) by Maaya Sakamoto, and the ending theme is "Egao ni Naru" (笑顔になる) by Rina Satō and Asuka Ōgame.Sentai Filmworks licensed the anime in North America.[9]
Video game
Characters from the series appear alongside other Manga Time Kirara characters in the mobile RPG, Kirara Fantasia in 2020.[10]
