Kaori Monchi notes in the beginning of this manga that her little brother pasted the screentones. I’m not sure how old this kid is but I wonder if his friends at school know that he helps his older sister out with her gay porn stories?
Kaori Monchi is mainly known for Hey Class President!, a pretty rare and sought-after 5-vol series on the 801 Media imprint. Wagamama Kitchen is her other, lesser known English license and doesn’t actually have anything to do with cooking so I have no idea why they named it this. I started it and thought it would be going in the sell pile but it grew on me, and in the end I liked enough about it to want to hold onto it. There’s something about it that is endearing that I can’t quite put my finger on.
There’s two stories, a teacher x student and then an adult couple in their late 20s. The second one was a comedy while the first was sort of serious. It stars high school student Takashi and a young teacher named Wakana-san, who were childhood friends that used to kiss on the lips “for fun.” Takashi has loved and yearned for Wakana ever since then, but Wakana doesn’t appear to have taken it as seriously as Takashi did – on the surface anyway.
Wakana-san doesn’t really have any interest in dating a student and brushes Takashi off despite their history – but later in the story we see Wakana-san’s inner thoughts alongside Takashi’s and we see how much he is struggling to stay professional and overcome his long-buried feelings for Takashi. This, of course, doesn’t work in the end, with this being a yaoi and all.
Teacher x student stories are usually a little bit icky to me but this one wasn’t, perhaps because of the characters being childhood friends and Takashi being a very forward uke, so it didn’t feel like it had the kind of rapey power imbalance that teacher-coming-onto-student (no pun intended) stories usually do.
The second story stars freelance character designer Naoto-san and a guy named Kumaki-kun who helps Naoto-san fix things like his copier because he’s good with tech. It didn’t ever say how they met but Kumaki pursues Naoto and invites him over to his place to show him how a computer works (in 2005? lol) and then Naoto finds some of Kumaki’s gay porn mags and realizes that Kumaki is hot for him.
Naoto seems to be questioning his sexuality and tepidly gets involved with the horny Kumaki, and the core conflict of their relationship is Kumaki always trying to get in his pants while Naoto wants to take things slower.
It’s mainly a comedy story and I thought the humor bits were pretty funny and the couple had fun chemistry and personalities; Kumaki was a live wire while being secretly self-conscious and Naoto was reserved and unsure at first but finds his confidence and takes the lead at the end.
The only thing I really didn’t like about this story was that it had a blue-balls ending. The two MCs end up in a hotel room together and then the book ends. No continuation or part 2 later on either. Like, bruh…where’s my ending sex scene? Both stories had what I’d consider an acceptable amount of sex and intimate moments even though I think it just felt like more in hindsight, so I wasn’t too annoyed, but it was sort of a downer.
Kaori Monchi is a bit of a guilty pleasure, I fully acknowledge that neither her art nor stories are all that amazing and her paneling is laid out like a small newspaper half the time. But her comedy bits can be pretty funny and her art has like a ‘adorably sloppy’ look to it that I find cute and appealing. No doubt many fujos would disagree, but i’m not sure if I have a minority opinion here or not. She doesn’t really draw dicks but she nails the facial expressions which is something I almost care about more than dick since that will be censored anyway, and she also draws a lot of intimate, sweet moments between the couples outside of sex too.
I’ve read two of her other non-licensed stories that have been scanlated, one which heavily featured rape called Imadoki no Shisunki that I probably wouldn’t recommend unless you really like this trope even though it was decently written, and Daini Button Kudasai which was a great comedy about a high school couple trying to have sex for the first time but don’t know how and end up using condensed milk as lube at one point. It was sexy, funny, and cute and would recommend it if you like her art style. I’m really looking forward to reading Hey Class President! too, judging by how sought-after it is I’m guessing it’s a really good one!
TL;DR A student x teacher story where the uke takes the lead and then a comedy about a newly-dating adult couple, one always horny and the other wanting to take it slower. Both were pretty formulaic story-wise but I thought they had cute art and character chemistry, and the second one had good comedy moments but not a good ending. Monchi-sensei has a sketchy art style that is sort of “charmingly sloppy” that appeals to me personally, but others may be turned off by either this or her raunchy sense of humor. If you’re not though I’d also recommend her work Daini Button Kudasai which is fully scanlated, about a high school couple struggling to lose their virginity to each other without much success that genuinely had me cackling.