The Drops of God Volume 1
Written by Tadashi Agi
Art by Shu Okimoto
"When world-renowned wine critic Yukata Kanzaki passes away, his will reveals that his fortune of a wine collection isn't bequeathed as a matter of course to his only son, who in a snub went to work sales at a beer company. To come into the inheritance, Shizuku must identify - in competition with a stellar young critic - twelve heaven-sent wines whose impressions the will describes in flowing terms..."
Forgive me for coming into this manga a little late. I know that many critics praised this manga as the biggest thing since sliced bread last year, but I finally bought the series during a Vertical Inc. sale on Right Stuf not too long ago and finally got around to reading it. I'm not exactly the target audience here. I'm not a legal drinker, and I've only had a few sips of wine in my 19 years of life. Am I fit to review this? Well, I can't say if the wine facts in the series are accurate, but wine lovers seem to have no issue with how wine is described in this series, so how would a wine philistine such as myself react to this?
I'll make a brief comparison between The Drops of God and Toriko. While both series are dramatically different in tone, the former being a seinen series about wine connoisseurs competing for an inheritence and the latter being a shonen action series about people getting stronger through eating tons of food, both are laudable for their in-depth descriptions of food. Both convey the feeling of taste to the reader strongly, as if the reader were able to taste the food themselves. Fitting for the demographic, Drops of God's descriptions of wine are elegant and nuanced, comparing the taste of certain wines to paintings, historical events, and even the awesomeness of a Queen concert, backing up the the descriptions with gorgeous illustrations to maximize the experience. The writing and artwork are in perfect synch during these scenes and I can't get enough of them.
The story is rather straight-forward, though it does take a few turns. Shizuku Kanzaki is the son of a world-renowned wine critic, a rock star of the wine world. Obviously he has some big shoes to fill, and has been raised from childhood to become a wine critic with as much finesse and skill as his father, being forced to smell stuff such as wine and even leather belts to help develop his senses. The problem is, Shizuku has never had a glass of wine in his life until after the death of his father. Because he was forced to train his entire life, Shizuku developed a hatred for wine and decided to work for a beer company instead. He finally does try some wine, and his first wine is good enough to inspire Shizuku to obtain his father's wine collection and find the legendary 12 wines, referred to as "the 12 Apostles". His natural talents give him an edge in the competition, but his lack of wine study holds him back. This is where Miyabi Shinohara comes in.
Miyabi is a wine sommelier in training. She's very knowledgeable on different kinds of wines, the vintners that created them, and various other wine facts that the average wine drinker might not know. She's useful for expositing information on wine to the reader, but she has some dimensions beyond that. She makes for a good companion to Shizuku's natural wine skills, and it's always nice to have a competent female lead that doesn't exist to titillate the reader.
Facing Shizuku in the competition for his father's inheritance is Tomine Issei, a young wine critic who has been nicknamed "Prince of Wine". He was adopted as Yukata Kanzaki's son a week before his death, but Issei admits he only did this to inherit Kanzaki's priceless wine collection. Issei is intentionally unlikable, very snobby towards Shizuku's layman experience with wine. He has the skills to back up his snobbery, able to defeat Shizuku in the first tasting test of the competition. He trains hard to hone his skills, even going so far as to taste dirt from different wine vineyards to distinguish their quality.
There are plenty of other characters who make appearances in this lengthy first volume, some of whom are renowned wine critics themselves. There's Mr. Fujieda, a bar owner and teacher of Miyabi's, who comes to the aid of Shizuku several times, and it's because of him that Shizuku tries wine. Another notable character is Honma, an Italian-obsessed employee of the wine division Shizuku is transferred to who antagonizes Shizuku for his love of French wine and tries to woo Miyabi in a very creepy manner. The minor conflicts might distract from the main plot a bit, but they help develop Shizuku on his path to becoming a master of wine critique.
This manga lives up to the hype. Even a wine newbie like me enjoyed this manga, due to its enthusiasm and intelligent description of its subject. The most important aspect of any manga focused on a particular subject, whether it be sports or food, is to get the reader interested in the subject as well by making it as appealing as possible, and this manga succeeds at doing just that. If you have no interest in wine or outright hate it, you might want to skip it because so much time is dedicating to describing wine in great detail, but if you want a mature series with adult characters and a great combination of art and storytelling, I'd say check it out. It might even convince non-wine drinkers to take an interest in wine.
BUY IT!
(Explanation of the rating system: Instead of a numbered scale, I use a simple three-tiered system: buy it, rent it, and avoid it. It's fairly self-explanatory.)
The Drops of God is currently available from Vertical, Inc. The first four volumes have been released, with the fifth one coming out October 30th of this year.
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