We last left Shizuku and Issei facing a challenge from a secret cabal of wine experts whose self-appointed role is to preserve Yutaka Kanzaki's true goal – the perfection of the “mariage” of wine and food. In Volume two, to be seen as worthy of the challenge of finding “The Drops of God,” Issei and Shizuku must first pass a preliminary test, consisting of cheeses to be paired with wines from Yutaka's collection. Each competitor must then do a presentation about that mariage and convince the cabal to let them through to the next round.

Volume two was enraging, and I am about to be insufferable (more than usual), so if wine and cheese talk bores you, move on now.

Shizuku's presentation hinges on a pairing with Comté cheese, which, of course, is, like all cheeses, incredibly complex. But also, I have eaten a lot of Comté, most of it in Normandy, and I can absolutely state to you that it pairs well with just about any wine we picked up at the local store as we tooled around France. There are perfect pairings, but Comté went well with just about anything. We ate a lot of it.

Shizuku's presentation wows his audience and is called perfect, until Issei gets a better-than-perfect score, with his pairing of a stinky cheese with a wine from Nuit-Saint-Georges (a town I have actually been to, to see a Mithraic temple, of all things) that would, if you could get it today, be upwards of US$250. Beaune wines are fantastic, even the village wines that they serve to the tourists. We sampled quite a bit of Grand Cru while we were there, and friends, it is not that hard to pair wine with food. Seriously. Beaune wines go well with a fine meal (I still dream of that duck at the little roadside place) and whatever nonsense we had at tourist trap du jour.

So, as I am watching Issei writhing in the throes of his current winegasm, it suddenly dawned on me…Drops of God: Mariage is just Yu-Gi-Oh! with wine. And now I can never read it the same.

At the end of Volume two, bartender Fujieda, our on-the-street psychopomp, offers a piece of advice that I considered profound – mariage is not about ingredients, it is about the meal. In this ever-more-complicated story about pairing wine and food, Issei is always a sour note to my palate. His wine acumen may be brilliant, but as a character, he is as intolerable as a cut-rate Kaiba. You can tell me he's a genius, but god, what a bore.

As a result, Volume three comes as a relief from Issei and his melodrama, to return to real-world melodrama. Western izakaya Mama-Miya is conveniently once again in need of the extremely specific skillset that Shizuku is attempting to build. A major food & wine contest is about to begin, and this little restaurant could reach new heights of success if they win. Of course, the judges are corrupt. The whole thing is a setup from the beginning, and Shizuku and the gang will have to face Issei eventually.

I loved how Shizuku's theatrical descriptions of the mariage become the shorthand for the dish. This wine starts soft and velvety, like a newborn fawn, but, when paired with wagyu beef curry, it becomes a powerful buck, so the dish becomes known as “growing fawn” curry. This, and the use of snarky hashtags online during the contest, struck me as the real part of the story.

And, along with the save-the-little-guy-of-the-day plot, Shizuku's supporting cast from Drops of God have returned. This is important because Shizuku doesn't have the personality to carry this story by himself. Immediately, he and sommelier-in-training Miyabi are incapable of speaking of their obvious feelings, leaving their emotions simmering under the surface like every classic shonen battle story. It's childish, but we don't have time for romance here, when there is wine and food to be paired, no matter how absurd the reason.

In the meantime, the challenges will get harder, pairings will focus on quotidian foods, like curry and sushi, which are, legitimately, complicated to pair with wine. You can imagine how incredibly pleased I was that the book agreed with me that Gewürztraminer pairs well with curry. Hah! I guess I learned something after all from this ridiculousness.

Volume three ends with a delightful interview with the brother and sister team who create under the name Tadashi Agi. They take their drinking very seriously and were only dragged into this manga because readers kept asking them what wine would pair best with food. Since that was my favorite part, I also want to thank all those readers. Otherwise, we'd have to deal with more Issei, and I'd never learn what obscure form of sushi will pair best with a wine I have no intention of buying. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go find some Comté and a wine to pair with it for lunch.