Ryou Machiko is the quintessential Minor Living Alone. Her parents left her on a business trip when she was eight, entrusting her to her grandmother. But after Ryou's grandmother's recent death, she has been living and cooking on her own, and compares herself unfavourably to grandmother's cooking. It's at this time her cousin Kirin Morino started staying in her apartment during weekends to attend the same art-stream Cram School Ryou attends, and later Shiina, another Cram Schoolmate, also joins in. How does this help with Ryou's loneliness—and cooking?
Gourmet Girl GraffitiOther Titles is a yonkoma by Makoto Kawai, which was serialized in Manga Time Kirara Miracle! from 2012 to 2016. It also received an animated adaptation during the winter 2015 anime season by Studio Shaft.
Crunchyroll is streaming the anime, which can be viewed here
for folks living in the US and Canada.
Gourmet Girl Graffiti provides examples of the following tropes:
- Alliterative Title: Crunchyroll's title Gourmet Girl Graffiti.
- Art Shift: All cases of Orgasmically Delicious are in a more detailed, realistic, hand-drawn style.
- Bathtub Scene: Episode 6, when Ryou and Kirin attempted to wash away the sweat
- Blue with Shock: Kirin has this several times in episode 7.
- Big Eater: In addition to Kirin generally, the entire main trio when the food is good enough. See episode 3. Special mention goes to Shiina, who suggests going out for pancakes or crepes after eating about 6 kinds of rice omelette for "breakfast."
- Big Fancy House: Shiina's mansion.
- Brutal Honesty:
- Shiina does this towards Kirin in episode 7, when she suggests to Ryou that they'll do the cooking. She then points out how she saw how Kirin freeloads off her cousin, and doesn't even lift a finger to help her at all, even washing the dishes afterwards. Though these statements hit her pretty hard, Kirin is swayed after Shiina tells her Ryou might enjoy their cooking too.
- Tsuyuko gives a harsh critique of Kirin's and Shiina's cooking in episode 7. However, she also says it tastes good. This in stark contrast to Ryou's review, where she liked it quite a bit.
- Call-Back: Ryou makes the daikon and yellowtail dish in episode 12 that she made back in the first episode. When she samples it, she notes that it's not very good despite the smell. But unlike the first time around, she finally realizes it was sharing the food with someone else that made it taste as good as when her grandmother made it when Kirin eats it with her.
- Central Theme: The experience of food is better when shared.
- Chromosome Casting: All recurring characters are female.
- Couch Gag: The preview for the next episode usually does things or feature characters within that episode.
- In episode 1, Kirin and Ryou simply sing the tune and spin in conjunction with it.
- In episode 2, Shiina joins the two girls.
- During episode 3, the character from the movie the girls watched in the episode spins around with food on his head and hands. Ryou watches in suspense to see if he drops the plates.
- In episode 4, the shopkeeper in that episode notices a young Ryou unable to choose between two items. He then does a little hand movement to distract her.
- In episode 5, Shiina's mother dances to the song. Shiina then draws her mother, who then goes over to look at her drawing.
- In episode 6, Kirin sings and dances like in episode 1, though in a towel, while a nervous Ryou hides just offscreen. Kirin pulls out a popsicle to draw her out, but Ryou's towel comes off just as she jumps for it. Kirin then jumps in front to block viewers from seeing Ryou naked.
- During episode 7, Kirin and Shiina do the singing/dancing, while Tsuyuko stands in the middle. She pulls a fan out and spins with the girls right before it ends, with Shiina's mother popping out at the last second to record it.
- In episode 8, Kirin and Ryou are running, and attempt to spin during that section of the song. Ryou however, is unable to keep up, and gradually falls behind, but still attempts to do the spin during the appropriate time. However, due to her exhaustion, she's off by a second.
- In episode 9, Akira, Ryou's aunt, and Kirin's mother take over the dancing portion. Kirin and Ryou just watch them until the very end, when they join in on the spin as well.
- In episode 10, it starts with Kirin and Ryou as back in the first episode, but then the camera starts panning lower, as if to go into Yuki's apartment which is below Ryou's. Yuki watches them, and attempts to dance, but is too shy to do much. Kirin then pops her head down, and both she and Ryou jump down and spin her briefly towards the ending of the preview.
- In episode 11, Kirin, Ryou, Shiina, and Yuki all sing and dance together. Shiina starts dancing a brief moment after Ryou and Kirin, while Yuki starts shortly after Shiina does. Despite that they spin in unison during the appropriate sections of the song.
- Cram School: Ryou, Kirin and Shiina all goes to one to prepare for art school entrance. In fact, this is how they knew each other.
- Credits Running Sequence: Ryou and Kirin do this in the opening.
- Crystal-Ball Scheduling: In episode 4, Ryou texts Kirin and Shiina since neither girl is able to spend time with her that weekend. She then starts getting paranoid thinking about if she should be expecting instant replies back from them and decides to watch tv instead. The talk show she watches ends up with two guests teasing each other about that exact scenario she was thinking about, prompting her to turn it off.
- Death Glare: Shiina does this towards a random couple leaving the train station at the end of episode 5 after having eaten too much of Ryou's food and feeling a little sick from it. As they talk about what to eat that night, she doesn't seem too comfortable listening to it and glances their way with this look.
- Death Is a Sad Thing: After her grandmother's death, Ryou falls into melancholy and struggles to cook dishes that she finds tasty.
- Didn't Think This Through: Akira, Ryou's aunt, attempts to surprise her in episode 12 by grabbing her arm as she opens the door to her apartment. However, Ryou is understandably shocked and scared, so her first instinct is to slam the door in the face of the person grabbing her arm. Akira apologizes and sports a bandage on her face in the next scene.
- Dirty Old Woman: Kirin uses this briefly to Ryou in episode 6, wanting to see and fondle the latter's breasts while they're wearing nothing but a towel.
- Disappeared Dad: We have seen Kirin's dad on-screen. Ryou's is offscreen, but at least he has been referred to. Shiina's dad, however, was never mentioned.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Several scenes can make some people question what the animators were going for, even without the Orgasmically Delicious responses. Only made worse when food is filled with creamy cheese with just the right consistency.
- Dream Sequence: While trying to study for entrance exams in episode 11, she fell asleep and dreamt the studying materials turning into a monster and falling on her body.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Ryou has a bizzare dream in episode 4 where she's eating some food offered by students who have pieces of food for a head. Later that episode she gets to eat the food concerned.
- Early-Bird Cameo:
- Yuki-sensei only appeared in the manga in Chapter 15. In the anime, she already has given a line and Boss Subtitles in episode 1, which adopts the first two chapters.
- Shiina is slightly better; she first appeared in Chapter 3 and, like Yuki, already introduced in the first episode.
- Tsuyuko appears in the opening credits, but is only introduced in Episode 5.
- Erotic Eating: Frequently borders on this, and occasionally crosses the border, if just barely:
- In episode 2, Akira feeds a mochi to Ryou. She forcefully and suggestively jams the food down her throat.
- Another example is in episode 6, when Ryou and Kirin eats ice cream popsicles in a hot, steamy bathtub.
- Fanservice: Obviously, there's the Bathtub Scene in episode 6. A more subtle example, however, appears in episode 10; Studio Shaft have Ryou wear something of a corset which does wonders to accentuate her breast.
- Feminine Women Can Cook: Ryou's grandmother taught Ryou to cook exactly for this reason. This is why Ryou wondered if she'll become a bad housewife in the beginning of the series as she found she cooking has not been as good lately.
- Food as Bribe:
- Generally speaking, Kirin, being Obsessed with Food, can easily be bribed with food.
- In episode 4, Ryou, wanting Kirin to stay with her at the following weekend despite having no Cram School, proposed cooking a full-course Chinese meal. Kirin's parents won by the counter-offer of a dinner at a three-star Chinese restaurant.
- In episode 11b Kirin had a fight with Shiina. So when Shiina offered to share her lunch with Kirin, Kirin refused, saying she has her pride. After Shiina announced the lunch was cooked by Tsuyuko, however... Kirin comes back.
- Used in the next episode preview skit at the end of episode 6. Kirin and Ryou are still in their bath towels while doing the singing, but Ryou is hiding just off screen. Kirin then pulls out a popsicle and throws it at her to get Ryou to come. Unfortunately her towel falls off as she jumps at the popsicle, and Kirin leaps towards her in an attempt to cover her.
- Generally speaking, Kirin, being Obsessed with Food, can easily be bribed with food.
- Food Porn: Once an Episode.
- Force Feeding: Played for Laughs in Chapter 3/ Episode 2. Akira enters the scene and stuck a Cherry Blossom mochi into Ryou's mouth in a sexually suggestive manner.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: During episode 9, in a blink and you'll miss it moment, Shiina and her mother appear on the television very briefly when the announcers on tv mention the new year while Kirin is attempting to feed Ryou.
- Freudian Excuse: In episode 11, Kirin wakes up a napping Ryou for some ramen. A drowsy Ryou mistakes her cousin for her mother, and starts clinging on like a little girl, saying how much she missed her and how she's grown up now. She notices a moment later that her "mother" is a lot smaller than she remembers, then fully wakes up and realizes it's Kirin. Out of embarrassment, Ryou ends up hugging Kirin very tightly, to the point that she can't breathe.
- The Glomp:
- Akira does this to Ryou in episode 2 at the park.
- Ryou does this to Shiina in episode 11 after finding out the latter got accepted into high school. Which wasn't the reaction a jealous Kirin was hoping for.
- Green Rooming: Several characters are introduced in the first episode, and then aren't seen again for a few episodes:
- Shiina is shown looking at Ryou while she talks to some of her classmates. Ryou and Kirin spot her drawing pictures of people at park during the cherry blossom viewing and teases Kirin a little about the food Ryou often brings to school.
- Yuki is seen from time to time, and peeks at Kirin outside her apartment in episode 2. However, she's not properly introduced until around episode 10.
- Growling Gut: Ryou's stomach in episode 12 during her graduation ceremony. It's so loud that even Kirin heard it sitting way in the back in the family members section.
- Harsh Word Impact: Ryou gives Kirin one in chapter 25, when she told Kirin she won't be able to spend the long weekend with the latter as her work was selected for an exhibit out of Tokyo. The speech bubble stroke through Kirin's head.
- Helping Would Be Killstealing:
- Tsuyuko, Shiina's maid, prevents Ryou from helping Kirin and Shiina after they drop some ingredients onto the ground in episode 7. The girls also insist she don't help them, as they want to cook for her this time around. Ryou can't help but feel useless since she normally does everything herself. So naturally the two have a lot of trouble, such as accidentally burning some of the fish, and later breaking dishes while trying to clean them.
- Played for Laughs in episode 11b. Kirin asks Shiina to pray for their success in passing the entrance exams for high school. She says that's a bad idea, and that you should rely on yourself rather than gods or other people praying for your sake. The sun shining behind her makes it look like she's imparting cosmic wisdom, and both Kirin and Ryou are "blinded" by her words. Or the sunlight.
- Hereditary Hairstyle: Females from the extended Machiko-Morino household (Ryou, her mother Midori, her aunts Akira and Rin note and Ryou's grandmother) all have brown hair and curls that looks like downplayed Ojou Ringlets.
- Heroic BSoD: Ryou pretty had a nervous breakdown in the beginning of episode 4 when Kirin isn't going to come over for that weekend due to there being no classes, and her parents going to eat at a three star Chinese restaurant. She starts wondering how she used to spend her weekends before Kirin came over regularly.
- Holy Backlight: When Shiina lectures Kirin and Ryou about Helping Would Be Kill Stealing in episode 11b, the sun is shining behind her makes it look like she's imparting cosmic wisdom, and both Kirin and Ryou are "blinded".
- Hypocritical Humour: In episode 6, Shiina enters Ryou's apartment just to find Ryou having a stomachache from the indigestion because the latter ate eel rice, ice cream, and red bean and rice cake soup in the same meal. After complaining Ryou of having such weird food combinations, Shiina asked Kirin if there are extra helpings of the red bean and rice cake soup.
- Imagine Spot: In chapter 13 and episode 11 of the anime, it was revealed Ryou's parents wanted to get Ryou a bodyguard when they went overseas, but was refused by Grandmother. Kirin briefly thought about how would Ryou different if she had a live-in bodyguard.
- Insane Troll Logic: Kirin rubs her hands on Shiina in episode 11 while accusing her of somehow cheating and getting accepted into high school, despite her saying otherwise. Ryou however, can't stand watching it, and joins in on the rubbing as it looks fun. When questioned about it, Kirin says they want some of Shiina's "fortune" to rub off on them, hence the happily touching her.
- Internal Monologue: Since Yuki is painfully shy, a lot of the thoughts were presented this way.
- Iyashikei: While being in Kirara make it likely to be this, most Western viewers agree this is a "comfy" series.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Though she never specifically address viewers, Ryou often holds ingredients or dishes she made towards the camera.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Apparently Kirin told everyone but Ryou she was moving in with her in episode 12. The latter is quite surprised when many of the characters start showing up to help with the move. In her defense, Kirin swears she did tell Ryou about it. As for Akira, she also forgot due to looking for the present from Ryou's grandmother to give her on her graduation day.
- Lonely Together: This is how Ryou and Shiina started to share lunches in the first place; both were Eating Lunch Alone at the art prep.
- Loophole Abuse: After Kirin goes back home in episode 3, she tells Shiina and Ryou not to eat any cakes without her. Shiina immediately suggests pancakes, stating that they're technically not cakes. However, Ryou then gets a text message from Kirin telling them not to eat any pancakes either, causing Shiina to let off an annoyed grunt.
- Market-Based Title: Manga calls it Happy Cooking Graffiti, anime calls it Koufuku Graffiti, and when Crunchyroll streams it, they decided to call it Gourmet Girl Graffiti.
- Memento MacGuffin: In Chapter 15/ Episode 12, Akira gives Ryou the apron that Ryou's late grandmother made from the Kappogi the latter used to wear. Since Ryou was raised by the said grandmother, she treated it as a representation of her grandmother.
- Mundane Made Awesome:
- Kirin eating somen noodles in episode 5 right before the opening credits plays.
- Ryou seems to be running rather quickly in slow motion during episode 8 due to her training and inspiration from Kirin. However, her classmates notice she is actually moving quite slow when the camera angle switches.
- Naked Apron: When Akira told Ryou Kirin maybe staying with her in the weekends in episode/chapter 1, Ryou said her cooking may not be good enough for Kirin. Akira said any problems with cooking can be made up by this trope.
- New Year Has Come: The theme of Episode 9.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In episode 9, Kirin's mother tells her to get a seat reserved on the train. Kirin mentions she's already done it and continues watching television. Unfortunately when they get to the station, it's completely full, and Kirin is forced to wait another hour for the next train since she didn't bother getting a ticket.
- Noodle Incident:
- Shiina mentions that she spends time with her family and that crazy things go on at her house in episode 9 as to why she wouldn't be spending time with Ryou and Kirin. However, it's never seen nor mentioned what exactly goes on there.
- Kirin attempts to find out what Ryou's parents do to justify their protracted Parental Abandonment. However, both her mother, and Ryou herself, give her the runaround, and says something along the lines that they're very important workers in whatever field they do. Kirin wisely decides not to pry any further.
- One-Note Cook:
- Kirin's mother only cooks fried produce. In chapter 17, Kirin mentioned she freaked out a few days before she moves to Ryou's apartment when her mother made perfect tempura.
- Averted with Kirin and Shiina. They learn to prepare a couple of dishes, if somewhat marginally in some cases, after realizing they don't want to make Ryou cook all the time for them.
- Orgasmically Delicious: Once an Episode. Technically, usually a lot more than once an episode. One major draw of this series. It has been noted by people around the main cast (Ryou, Kirin, Shiina, and later Yuki) that this is not the usual response to food.
- Parlor Games: Ryou and Kirin played shiritori while waiting for the bathtub to fill in Episode 6.
- Placeholder Titles: The early ending credits shows scenes seen earlier in that episode, such as Kirin's neighbors and parents preparing for a festival in episode 2. By episode 3 a regular ending appears, and is used for the rest of the series. And in episode 12, the ending sequence is replaced with scenes used throughout the show while the ending song is played.
- Pun-Based Title: The Japanese word for "happiness" and "appetite" happened to be pronounced the same way, as "Koufuku"note . The Japanese written title actually have one kanji taken from the two words to make the point across.
- Reality Is Unrealistic: Discussed in episode 3. The girls mention seeing various foods in manga, but note that when they attempt to make it look like in the pictures, it never turns out that way.
- School Festival: Episode 8 has a sports festival, though it's subverted as they don't show much from it other than Ryou running in one of the events.
- Schoolgirl Series: Zigzagged. Averted before chapter 14 as the main cast were in different schools, but played straight thereafter as they were admitted to the high school, and Kirin moved in with Ryou.
- Serious Business:
- Shiina and Kirin get ingredients for rice omelets in episode 3 after watching a movie where one is eaten. They apparently got very little sleep before running off to the store to buy some. Later Ryou makes several of them in an attempt to make one they saw in the movie, but fails repeatedly. Shiina and Kirin suggest she give up, but she insists on doing it.
- At the end of episode 7, Kirin mentions that she thought of saury all day in class that she swore she could smell it. Ryou then does what appears to be The Glomp, but it turns out she was just smelling her cousin's clothing, and realizes that the smell of the fish was still on her. She then tells Kirin to apologize to whoever was sitting next to her on the train due to the smell.
- Kirin ends up buying quite a few charms to help her with the passing the entrance exam for high school. Shiina comments on that, then notices Ryou carrying a large bag of them as well.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Chapter 26. The school notify students on parents' day the school apparently wanted to know about the student' career plans, and Ryou's indecision over it drove the plot, even including a phone call from her mom Midori. On the actual day it turns out the school wasn't pressing anyone at all.
- Shopping Montage: A variant of this happens in Episodes 6 and 8 when Kirin and Ryou go grocery shopping together.
- Sick Episode:
- Shiina gets sick in episode 4 after getting some water splashed on her, and thus is unable to visit Ryou.
- Ryou feels a little under the weather in episode 6 due to a combination of taking a long bath, combined with eating various dishes that don't normally do too well with each other.
- Slice of Life: Slice of life cooking and eating together.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: Shiina does this to Ryou in the supermarket in Episode 9.
- Super-Deformed: In the anime's next episode previews the cast is drawn in this style.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: In episode 3, Kirin asks Shiina to come over to Ryou's apartment and help cook some food to cheer her up. However, when Ryou asks Shiina why she's coming over, Kirin tries to silence her, and says instead that Shiina is coming over to eat some food, lest some aliens kidnap her. Ryou finds the explanation dubious and wonders what Kirin is really up to, but lets it slide, and even jokes about it later.
- Tastes Like Friendship: Happens a lot, and probably the main point of the tale. Episode 10 plays this trope the straightest.
- Tempting Fate:
- In episode 4, Shiina is decked out in quite a bit of rain gear in addition to having an umbrella. She says getting even a little bit of water on her will make her very sick, hence why she's taking extreme precautions. She mentions she should be okay with all of this stuff on, only to then get splashed on by a car as it drives by.
- Kirin mentions she already has a reserve ticket for the train in episode 9. Later on the way to the station she mentions she actually didn't get one yet, but figures they live in an isolated town, so there should be plenty of space on the train. Then as they get there, it's completely full, and she has to wait for the next train.
- Theme Naming: Mythological creature plus location in this case, as parts of the the cousins' names can be translated as "Dragon of the Town" and "Kirin of the Forest".
- Took the Wife's Name: Implied. Ryou and her maternal aunt share a surname, which means Ryou's father adopted the latter's wife's surname after marriage.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Ryou loves inari sushi.
- Training from Hell:
- Played for Laughs in episode 7 while Kirin and Shiina try to wash dishes under Tsuyuko's instructions. They break a lot of them, and Shiina accidentally gets dishwater splashed on her.
- Played for Laughs again in episode 8, this time with Kirin trying to help Ryou exercise in preparation for the sports festival. At one point, Kirin spikes a volleyball rather hard into a concrete wall, causing it to crater slightly when the ball hits the wall.
- True Companions: Tsuyuko suggests Ryou stop trying to be so self-sufficient, and to ask her friends for help once in a while in episode 6, while she watches Kirin and Shiina barbecue some fish.
- Unmoving Plaid: Several patterns, especially those on the characters' outfits, in the anime.
- Unnamed Parent: No parents were named, the only exceptions being Kirin's mom, Rin and Ryou's mother, Midori.
- Wham Line: Shiina gives one in episode 7, when she tells Ryou that she and Kirin will be doing the cooking that week. After Kirin protests, Shiina gives her a Brutal Honesty speech which changes her mind on the subject.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Mostly Played for Laughs in episode 11. Kirin gets quite jealous that Shiina already got accepted into high school after passing a recommendation exam instead, while she and Ryou have yet to take their entrance exams for it. Kirin later tries rubbing Shiina's body in the hopes of getting some of her "fortune" to rub off on them. Ryou joins in after seeing how fun it looks.
- Who Would Be Stupid Enough?: In Chapter 14/ Episode 11b, Shiina was disgusted to see Kirin buying quite a few charms to help her with the passing the high school entrance exam. Thinking Ryou won't do this, Shiina turns around and see Ryou also buys a bagful of charms.
- Yonkoma: Enforced; it's an non-Forward Kirara series after all.
