SoraRabbit Short Hop 026: Bunny Snacks Part 5

Title card. (Credit: Umibird, Coffee Break Scanlations)

I‘m back with another installment of my coverage and review of Taberareusa, AKA the adorable manga about rabbits reincarnating as food and eating themselves! Trust me, it’s way cuter than it sounds. Here are the previous installments:

SoraRabbit Short Hop 014: Bunny Snacks Part 1

SoraRabbit Short Hop 015: Bunny Snacks Part 2

SoraRabbit Short Hop 022: Bunny Snacks Part 3

SoraRabbit Short Hop 023: Bunny Snacks Part 4

If you haven’t read any of those, have no fear because I’m here with the best recap ever, Previously on Taberareusa!

I'm so good at recaps. (Credit: Umibird, Coffee Break Scanlations)

So the trip through the reincarnation loops has gotten more difficult, even as they’re leveling up and becoming more complex. Ucha Chan, the reborn version of the pink-haired villain girl/former rabbit has appeared to sabotage them, separate Rabbit Son from Rabbit Dad, and keep Dad stuck as adorable food forever. Son has raced off to find his mom, Pigeon Wife was a cat, and Pigeon Senpai was following her around, trying to catch up.

Haha wiener bunny. (Credit: Umibird, Coffee Break Scanlations)

In the next lifetime, things have changed. Rabbit Dad has progressed to the point of being more complex food… namely a wiener. Bura Chan is a bell pepper and Pigeon Wife is a slice of pumpkin. She didn’t eat enough before fainting as a cat, despite her husband’s help, so she regressed back to food. Rabbit Son is nowhere to be seen, since they were separated. Dad is happy to be a wiener and thinks he’ll be a delicious one, especially if paired with beer. Bura Chan feels the need to remind him that he’s an herbivore.

He has a point. (Credit: Umibird, Coffee Break Scanlations)

The animal/food have found themselves at a teenage girl’s barbeque. Ucha Chan is a baked potato and is still trying to sabotage Dad. She blows on the flames and they engulf Pigeon Wife. Before she’s burnt up, she’s rescued by a very familiar-looking pigeon!

!!! (Credit: Umibird, Coffee Break Scanlations)

Yes, it’s our old friend Pigeon Senpai. After his wife fell unconscious, he ate as much creampuff as he could and fell asleep, reborn into a pigeon form so he could help his wife. From his story, the experience with Pigeon Wife, and witnessing Rabbit Son falling asleep last time, Rabbit Dad has an epiphany. He realizes that if they fall asleep with an empty stomach, they regress. If they fall asleep after eating a lot, they advance to the next form. So it’s not necessarily death that does it, as indicated by the start of the series. (I had been wondering about that because sometimes they exited their lives very suddenly and not through dying.)

Bura Chan tries desperately to get Rabbit Dad’s attention, since she split up him and Son to eliminate the competition. But since Pigeon Senpai hadn’t seen Son yet, Dad was too worried to focus on her. One of the girls grabs Pigeon-Senpai to get the pumpkin back and Bura Chan thinks about how the pigeon couple intruded on the loop. (So whatever plan Ucha has, it did not include the birds.)

How is he just as cute as a bat?! (Credit: Umibird, Coffee Break Scanlations)

And for now, we leave Pigeon Senpai struggling in the girl’s grasp to catch up on where Son went. He’s now been reborn as a cute little bat! He’s scared and alone, feeling guilty for leaving Dad behind. He realizes he’s hungry and finds the first problem of this new body… he can’t eat himself anymore and isn’t sure what a bat eats.

Haha, so disturbing. (Credit: Umibird, Coffee Break Scanlations)

He can’t bring himself to drink blood, but luckily he finds some berries. He gets distracted by being able to fly and then sets off to find his mom, who Bura had tricked him into thinking was someplace warm with a lot of trees. Bat Son wanders aimlessly until he finds Pigeon Senpai, who comforts him. He explains that Rabbit Dad won’t be mad at being left behind and will help find Mom. Also, he explains, there’s no point wandering around without more intel. After searching for a bit, they find the barbeque, which brings us back up to current time.

A girl holding a bat who’s actually a rabbit holding a pumpkin slice who’s actually a pigeon. (Credit: Umibird, Coffee Break Scanlations)

Pigeon Senpai lies to Rabbit Dad that he hasn’t seen Son, knowing that Son will need to reveal himself on his own terms. Pigeon keeps getting caught by the girl as he tries to save his wife and everyone realizes he can’t fly. (In the woods he told Son if he flew, he’d be too fast to keep up with.)

Rabbit Son comes to the rescue and saves Pigeon Wife, but falls into a different girl’s grasp. Dad recognizes him right away and is happy to see him, but is prevented from helping by Ucha Chan.

Rips himself in half to see his son. That’s a true father. (Credit: Umibird, Coffee Break Scanlations)

Rabbit Dad uin-uins his whole body and rips himself in half, flying to a pile of marshmallows near his son. They have a tearful reunion and Son apologizes for gorging himself to catch up to his mom. Hearing this, Dad is ashamed that he hasn’t been trying hard enough and starts frantically eating marshmallows, even though he doesn’t like sweets. (I really wonder what the girls think about their hotdog flying around and eating marshmallows.)

He flyin. (Credit: Umibird, Coffee Break Scanlations)

Although Dad and Son try to make Ucha Chan feel better, she freezes them out, thinking that even though she turned herself into food, she’s still an outsider. Son flies Dad and Pigeon Wife off until he runs out of strength and starts to fall. They’re rescued by Pigeon Senpai, who can fly now for some reason. He promises to eat Dad so he can move on to the next life and also promises to make it quick so it won’t hurt him. Dad wants to eat some berries first, because he has to catch up to Son.

Dad just got chewed up. (Credit: Umibird, Coffee Break Scanlations)

In the next life there’s a brief interlude where Rabbit Dad is a gummy rabbit and the other three bunnies are cavity-causing bacteria in someone’s mouth. Son doesn’t want to dig into teeth with his sickle, but Bura Chan is really vibing with the darkness of the scenario. Ucha Chan appears as a mad scientist and made a cavity-inducing spray out of Dad’s corpse. Pigeon Senpai appears as toothpaste.

It turned out, though, that this was just a nightmare Son was having just before reincarnating.

What a twist! (Credit: Umibird, Coffee Break Scanlations)

After this interlude we get the Pigeon couple’s backstory. In a twist that was foreshadowed but I still didn’t see coming, it turns out that before he died, Pigeon Senpai was actually a penguin! This explains why he took some time to learn how to fly, and why Bura mentioned that he looks more like a penguin when he was reborn as fried dough and grew hands and feet. (See last post.) In his previous life he was named Royal and was looked up to by everyone in the penguin habitat at the zoo. He longed to know what human life was like, however.

Penguins are so cute. (Credit: Umibird, Coffee Break Scanlations)

One day a starving pigeon fell into his flippers. All he had to offer her was a corndog that a zoo patron had thrown into the pen. He fed it to the pigeon and was instantly smitten with her. She regaled him with stories of all the human food you can find lying around as a pigeon. He promises to give her more food if she’ll come back now and then with more stories.

Awwww! (Credit: Umibird, Coffee Break Scanlations)

She starts coming every day with more food-related stories. The zoo installs a pigeon electric shock fence and she gets startled and stuck in the fence. Royal saves her from a crow and says that he’s left his pen since the other penguins are upset with him. He just wants to be with her. She explains she was kicked out of her flock for being too day-dreamy. He asks her to marry him with a bouquet of popcorn. She’s doubtful since he’s a penguin. He promises to somehow become a pigeon and starts saying “coo-coo” instead of “pen”. Sadly, the next day they’re caught in a typhoon and can’t find any food, so they starve and their reincarnation journey begins.

I really liked this arc. The fact that he was a penguin was great to me. If there’s an animal I love as much as rabbits, it’s penguins, so to see both in this comic made me happy. Also I was relieved that it was just their backstory. My translation listed this arc as “Pigeon Memorial” so I was afraid that the pigeons were leaving the story for good at this point.

They look so happy. (Credit: Umibird, Coffee Break Scanlations)

After this there’s a bit of an epilogue where we get a lot of plot progression. Pigeon Wife/pumpkin slice gets the parfait she’s been dreaming about since before she died the first time. It’s given to her by the human version of Rabbit Mom who came to this café because the parfaits are said to make wishes come true. She’s still hoping to find her family.

This comic gets so violent. (Credit: Umibird, Coffee Break Scanlations)

Meanwhile Ucha is a human again and found Bura Chan as a glob of ice cream on top of a parfait at the same café. In here we learn that Bura is actually a part of Ucha’d psyche, appearing to her when she was still a rabbit and showing her to the reincarnation doors. He warns her that she’s breaking the rules and it’s damaging her. A crack appears on her cheek, which she covers with a band-aid. She eats Bura to shut him up. Suddenly Human Rabbit Mom approaches her, saying they need to have a chat. (Sadly, as of now, we have no idea what they talked about.)

Rabbit Dad as handsome juice was great but I went with this shot. (Credit: Umibird, Coffee Break Scanlations)

In the rabbit’s next proper life, Rabbit Dad is a banana that gets turned into ikeman juice. (Handsome guy.) This makes him weirdly attractive but still a rabbit. Bura is “beautiful lady” juice and made of carrots, which gets Rabbit Dad excited. Bura is further traumatized by Dad’s request to “have a lick”. Son is an apple slice and is turned into juice too. They’re finally reunited.

Probably the only time Son will “uin-uin”. (Credit: Umibird, Coffee Break Scanlations)

We jump to their next life where the Pigeon couple are chocolate on top of a latte at “Starbo”, a Starbucks-like coffee shop. Rabbit Dad and Son have been combined into a chocolate mint latte. (Dad was the mint flavoring and Son the cream.) Since they share a body, Son is able to eat for both of them. Pigeon Senpai reveals that he thinks he met Rabbit Mom.

In a flashback we learn that Mom noticed the pumpkin ate some of the parfait and wonders if it’s like what happened to her, which confirms that she has all her memories from before. This is what tipped Pigeon Senpai off that it’s her. Pigeon starved himself so that he could rejoin his wife and tell the rabbits what he’d learned. They think Bura knows where Mom went since he was there too, but he’s a cat now and claims not to know anything. (He did get eaten before Mom approached the table.) Bura decides to become human so he can protect Ucha.

This cracked me up. (Credit: Umibird, Coffee Break Scanlations)

Bura Cat is starving and worried that he’s going to turn back into food. Another cat appears wearing a bunny hood and Bura instantly recognizes him as Rabbit Dad. Son is there too, as a kitten. And this is where I really started questioning the way this manga works. Bura had just left the coffee shop where they were lattes and now Dad is a full-grown cat belonging to a teen girl. Are they jumping along the timeline? Did Dad hijack this cat’s body? I’m so confused. It’s cute though.

Just three cats who used to be food, which used to be bunnies. (Credit: Umibird, Coffee Break Scanlations)

After a couple of missteps in finding food, they run across a girl who has made bread especially for cats and Son’s cute charms convince her to feed the three strays. It’s not enough food for them, though, so they wander looking for more. It looks like Dad and Son are doomed to fall asleep on empty stomachs and turn back into food. Bura, however, is scooped up and brought to an elderly couple. The woman is strangely familiar…

Bura finally got those bangs he wanted. (Credit: Umibird, Comico)

And that’s as far as the translation I was reading goes. It was last updated June of 2022, so I’m certain it’s been abandoned, which is sad. I haven’t quite figured out the Comico site, where this was originally posted. (I want to learn how to tip the author!) But I did manage to sign up and every so often I get a free credit to read a chapter. I’ve been using this for another project that I’ll reveal possibly next year, but while I was at it, I did peek in on Chapter 66. Although I can’t read Kanji well yet, I got the gist of it.

She can catch souls! (Credit: Umibird, Comico)

Bura Chan the cat has been taken in by the old woman from previous chapters and her husband. They feed him and somehow the old woman is able to catch his soul before it floats away to be reborn. Bura finds himself reborn as what I assume (due to her tears) is her deceased son? So now he can run off and protect Ucha as he planned.

Handsome bunny juice. (Credit: Umibird, Coffee Break Scanlations)

So that is the first 66 chapters of this unique manga. There are 153 in all, plus an epilogue. So there’s a lot more story to go, but sadly this is the end of my Bunny Snacks series of posts. Until I get more translation, or an English released version, this is sadly where I have to leave the story for now. But let’s talk a bit about it, as this will probably be my last coverage of the series. (In this form anyway.)

While the story is mainly concerned with different kinds of food and the humorous personalities of the characters, there is a lot more to it than just the surface. We’ve seen a gradually unfolding mystery involving a rabbit outside of their family, mysterious doors and rules, and a complicated reincarnation cycle working outside the bounds of life and time. The story has recurring themes of breaking the rules and not fitting in… as seen with Royal the Penguin and the nameless Pigeon Wife being ostracized by their respective flocks. Ucha (or whatever her real name is) is putting herself at physical risk by breaking some rules we’re not yet privy to. By switching back and forth between the reincarnation cycle and her new life as a human, she seems to be risking her life and physical form.

Bura is a good example too. He wants to be a moody teenager with bangs who wears black and writes poetry. Even Rabbit Dad gets caught up in his whims of wanting to be adored by strangers and considered cool and attractive. The whole comic hinges on breaking the rules set up by society and exploring the unknown and forbidden. The whole quest for Rabbit Mom is due to her obsession with humanity— both the culture and food— and Son’s wish to try new tasty human foods that rabbits wouldn’t normally eat. Rabbit Dad is forced outside of his culinary comfort zone time and again in order to keep his family together.

The comic is also about being true to your own reality. Rabbit Dad is weirdly at ease in each life as long as Son is there and he has his long ears with his uin-uin power. The rabbits would be happy in any form as long as they have each other and lots of food to eat, but their end goal is reuniting with Rabbit Mom. Bura just wants to be with Ucha. Ucha will risk anything to be close to Rabbit Dad. Royal identifies as a pigeon to the point that he managed to be reincarnated in that form. It became who he is because it’s the form his love takes, and he was never really comfortable as a penguin anyway.

Rabbit Dad is skilled. (Credit: Umibird, Coffee Break Scanlations)

So, yes, this cute rabbit comic is deeper than it seems. It’s amusing, adorable, and intriguing. There is a great story here, although the rules of their world are a bit confusing. (I’m still trying to figure out how Rabbit Dad and Son ended up as cats so fast and were able to catch up with Bura.) They seem to keep reincarnating in the same geographical area and encountering the same people. My peek into the next chapter reveals there is a deeper reason for the old lady to keep coming back and for Bura to have been caught in her orbit. I really wish I could read all of it! But what I have read has given me a lot of enjoyment and five posts of content.

The comic has also opened my horizons. I learned a lot about food and some bits of Japanese culture I hadn’t known before. I was driven to try different foods that I hadn’t given a chance before. I even tried making yakimochi, although that didn’t turn out so well. I’ll try again soon with different seasonings and toppings. And I’m determined to make decent onigiri someday. (Mine keeps falling apart!)

I’m very curious to see where the story of Taberareusa is ultimately heading and I hope we someday get a full translation. Or that I get proficient enough to be able to read it for myself. Hey, it gives me more incentive to work hard in my studies!

Taberareusa is one of those comics that seems like it wouldn’t possibly work, but somehow the cuteness, the tender story, the humor, and the jarring violence blend together to make something really special. I’m so glad that I found it and I hope someday to be able to read it all the way through.

Bunnies like nanners. (Credit: Umibird, Coffee Break Scanlations)

So until such a time, we shall have to leave Rabbit Dad and Rabbit Son as cats, Pigeon Senpai and Wife as a latte, and Bura as a Bishōnen anime boy. I’ll be eagerly awaiting more translation or news of a release. But as a tiny hint referencing that project I mentioned earlier, this may not be the last of Taberareusa you see from me...

Oh, and now I’ll need something else to give me my cuteness fix as I wait impatiently for Season 3 of Bananya. (Which was announced recently. I’m excited!) If anyone has any suggestions of cute wholesome media, please share them with me and I’ll check them out! Thank you so much for reading, I appreciate you all, and I’ll be back soon with more hidden treasures.

Bye Rabbit Son! (Credit: Umibird, Coffee Break Scanlations)