Manga Review - 'The Savior's Book Café Story in Another World, Vol. 1' by Kyouka Izumi (Original Creator), Oumiya (Writer), Reiko Sakurada (Artist), Alexa Frank (Translator)

'The Savior's Book Café Story in Another World':

An isekai/transmigrator manga where the heroine - the "savior" - just wishes to settle down and open a book café in the fantasy world she is mysteriously transported to. The heroine is given magical powers, which she uses efficiently, responsibly and comfortably, at the one spot at the edge of the forest where her café home is located. And she is in her early thirties.

I needed this, like, yesterday.

What a dream manga and series for someone like me. It is so sweet, simple, quiet, quaint, gentle, funny, romantic, slice-of-life, and cosy. 'The Savior's Book Café Story in Another World' is the dictionary definition of a cosy fantasy, in the cosy/cottagecore fantasy genre.

And it is a wonderful fantasy, where capitalism and business are not the be-all-and-end-all to existing; you are allowed to live an unassuming life, doing whatever you want, when you want, at your own leisurely pace, and if you do run a business, like a café on the outskirts of a forest, nothing changes about you, and the number of customers isn't important, for money isn't as important as the company, and the dream life. Money is no object or issue; charge little and receive much in the way of love and friendship. It is your life, and you can live it however you wish. Money, magic, it makes no odds.

I cannot emphasise enough how I - and my heart - needed this manga, right now in my life.

I really like and relate to the heroine, Tsukina, a former office worker who could be considered an otaku only of books and cooking. I'm surprisingly really into the developing romance she has with the main guy, Il. The bafflingly named Il is a tall, dark, cool yet awkward, caring, and handsome chap, and a soldier, and a bookworm! Dreamboat! Dream bloke! Shame about his name.

In fact, I like all the characters, as little of the cast as we are introduced to so far.

The art is very good, if standard shōjo manga fare. But the food is brilliantly, exquisitely drawn, for the café and elsewhere. You will be hard-pressed not to want tea, food, and a book in a café after reading this!

'The Savior's Book Café Story in Another World' is quite clever and subversive of the typical isekai and transmigrator genre, too, and not just because of the heroine's age and her wanting a quiet life, with no grand hero's journey. I can tell that the plot is going to, well, get going, and will get even more twisty as the series progresses.

Or maybe there will be no adventure or battle in the traditional sense, and the romance will remain the primary focus, I don't know.

There are understated flowers in the corners on the cover of the first volume, which I think sums things up nicely.

'The Savior's Book Café Story in Another World' - what a cosy, lovely, warm, delectable, endearing, adorable little manga, and a sweet, soft, gentle-snowy-forest dream for bibliophiles and café lovers. It will certainly cheer anyone up, to escape into this fantasy. There's not much in the way of conflict and stakes yet, but judging from the forewarnings and foreshadowing, there will be!

Sure, there are flaws - like how you don't even find out what Tsukina's name is until over halfway through the volume, when Il says it, and how she somehow, magically knows what gender his horse is when she first meets him, and the bare-branches, underdeveloped worldbuilding details that aren't explored properly in this introductory volume. Tsukina is very much going with the flow and focusing on herself, her café, and her magic studies at the moment (we see her shopping in town once, and on Il's end there are somewhat rising tensions at the kingdom and palace where he works). Plus, we don't know yet how or why she was chosen to be this fantasy world's "savior" in the first place. But I don't care. I'm letting my feelings take over with this one.

'The Savior's Book Café Story in Another World' might be my new therapy.

It is rare for me to want to bother continuing a series once I've consumed its first volume, or pilot, but in this case, I definitely will be collecting the rest of the series. It is short, and it is making me happy, so why not? Consider me a won-over fan.

Recommended if you also like 'A Cat from Our World and the Forgotten Witch', 'Snow White with the Red Hair', 'Aria of the Beech Forest', 'Frieren: Beyond Journey's End', 'She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat', 'Kitchen Princess', and 'Amazing Agent Luna' (hey, it's another manga series I recently got into and finished, so why not include it?)

'The Savior's Book Café Story in Another World, Vol. 1' - I can't wait to read more of this lovely, dear, heartwarming series!

Final Score: 3.5/5