Chocolat

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'Chocolat' may not strike you as a particularly interesting story, but it's the characters and the superb art that make this manga great. Before you read this review, you should keep in mind that there will be spoilers, although minor ones.

The plot is quite original with a former yakuza boss suddenly buying a house to start his own bakery. The cause of his sudden change of heart is due to his wife's death and the love she had for cakes.

However, the story isn't really about him, as it mostly revolves around a young girl named Tatsumi Chiyoko who is forced to live with this very ... "special" man and his former yakuza gang.

Chiyoko has just been abandoned by her father, who criminals are after because of a big debt her father left behind. Later on, Chiyoko actually turns out to be the daughter of the boss' deceased wife. The boss is overjoyed about having a daughter even if Chiyoko may not have as strong feelings for him (they're not blood-related, you see).

Another main character is Katou Ichigo, an ex-inmate, who seems to have a difficult past and who shares a deep loyalty to his former boss.

This bizarre family go through hardships together as their pasts unfold.

The art was what orginially caught my eye; it's absolutely brilliant and clean. The mangaka knows how to use shadows and different effects to his advantage. The characters' design are also beautiful, yet simple. Also, the backgrounds are vivid and artistic. It's not some "flowers-power-love"-backgrounds here, no.

As for the characters, they are what makes this manga so interesting - they all have very strong personalities and are what makes the story go forward. They're hilarious, but can still be serious. I felt that the mangaka was keeping it real, even if the story and characters might go overboard sometimes, and I like when it's kept real -- you can relate to that.

The enjoyment was a bit mediocre in the beginning, since I didn't feel that strong about the manga then. But after a while, it grew on me as the pace of the story picked up. I would advise you not to abandon this manga until you've read at least 10 chapters - I promise you it's worth it!

Overall, this is a very good manga which is both hilarious and sober. It's a balance between the two so that it won't get too serious or too flimsy. If you have the patience, you should read it, and if not, well give it a try and see if you like it. I think that everyone can appreciate this manga, whether you are a typical shoujo- or shounenreader as it's for both "groups".

Such a slice of life type manga. I definitely enjoyed this story.

Story:
You have our main character Chiyoko Tatsumi who's life is turned upside down because her dad's company went into debt. She now moves into a house full of a bunch of ex-mafia member that live in a bakery shop owned by the ex-mafia leader. The story focuses on her & the lives of these individuals and how they live with one another while their pasts are revealed, bringing them closer together. The story can get serious at times despite the comedy and I think the mangaka did an amazing job at blending in ... the whole mafia scenario. The pacing of this story is not rushed, not too slow, but pretty good. Filled with so much comedy & life lessons. It's heartwarming & mildly filled with feels.

Characters:
At first, our main character is extremely immature, tsundere mostly, but definitely matures later on in the story. The character development is really well done. The other characters she lives with, Kuri, Ichigo, Amon, Matsukichi, Shuuzo are all great. The comedy is so funny and the art expresses it so well. My favorite is Shuuzo LOL. The art is amazing in this story!! I am glad to have come across this manga.

I definitely would say if you need a manga to read, this one is a go to. 73 chapters, not too many pages so you could finish it within 1-2 days & filled with the importance of what it means to be a family and what is a family. I enjoyed it up until the end! You will not be left hanging. There's also a J-drama that has been made off of this story :3.

tl;dr: A manga that despite seeming plot focused didn't really seem like it had any sort of direction but instead just randomly did arbitrary things.

This manga was really random. The characters didn't feel consistent in their personalities at all, so development and relationship development was all arbitrary. The plot also went randomly all over the place, with essentially no overarching plot, and individual episodes being really different in tone and topic with not really any overlap or things carrying over and a lot of events and developments that were ultimately completely pointless. Even looked at on their own, the individual episodes were only okay. The comedy was decent at times, but how ... it came and went diminished its value because it often felt out of place. The pacing was also really random, skipping around randomly. The ending was just as random as everything else, wherein I suppose it resolved the one plot thread that needed to be resolved, but really it didn't matter at all because it's not like there was any reason to get invested in that at all, and hence of course said ending didn't have any impact. Just all around it didn't feel like the manga had any focus or any idea what kind of story it wanted to tell at all, and though there were some solid points, in the end, it didn't really feel like it told anything of value. The art also wasn't very good. 

Chocolat has gorgeous art, fun characters, and a random, nonsensical storyline.

It's definitely a fun read, filled with jokes. But the humor sometimes shows up in places that make it hard to take the rest of what's happening. The plot also didn't make too much sense: elements from Ichigo's dark past kept being thrown in but not really resolved, and at one point it's mentioned that he's a brawling genius but then this thread abruptly ends. The character development also didn't seem genuine; for example, the part about Chiyoko and her father toward the end was very sudden.

I feel like this manga was trying to be ... too many things at once (comedy, romance, fighting) but ultimately never found a focus.