KINAMI BUNTA

Next to the hearth in Miss Alice's house, let's have a leisurely meal together.

According to AoiTsukiReviewer at www.mangaupdates.com, this is an enjoyable, intricate and beautifully crafted manga with nice ambience and enjoyable characters. The story revolves around a "older" (probably mid-20s but a mature type) woman named Alice who returns to live in the countryside after her grandma's death. She re-opens the traditional irori, a traditional Japanese open hearth. She reunites with her childhood friend and the manga follows the two (as well as people around them). The characters have a good dynamic and are well matched. They are also NOT dense when it comes to love, they do pick things up rather fast, and they don't sit on them which is refreshing. Art style is beautiful, soft and detailed. A lot of thought goes not only in drawing the characters but also in "background"; the room and items. This is a good example of a "classical", well drawn manga, not an epic manga like the more known ones, but rather that type of quiet, ambiental, beautifully drawn manga that's soothing but not boring, mature but not heavy, and light while not cheap.