Dec 08
28
Title: Kitchen Princess Vol 2
Manga by: Natsumi Ando
Story by: Miyuki Kobayashi
Publisher: Del Rey
ISBN: 97810345496591
May Contain Spoilers
My biggest complaint with Kitchen Princess are the cardboard characters. Najika is the nicest girl around, even when her nasty rival, Akane, verbally abuses her and even resorts to a little face-slapping to make sure everybody knows that she hates Najika. Akane wants Najika to leave Seika Academy, and who can blame her? Akane is so mean and petty that Sora and Daichi are quickly drawn to the sweet Najika, leaving Akane gnashing her teeth in solitude.
Najika is searching for her flan prince, the boy who saved her from drowning when she was a young girl. Thinking that she’ll find him at Seika Academy, she leaves her comfort zone in Hokkaido and journeys all by herself to Tokyo. Things aren’t quite the same in bustling Tokyo as they were in Hokkaido, and Najika finds herself ignored and disliked by her classmates. All because they believe that she isn’t talented enough to attend their school. I wonder if it’s really worth putting up with all of spoiled and overindulged kids in order to find her flan prince.
Akane hates Najika so much that in this volume, she decides to stop eating, especially anything that was prepared by her rival. She thinks that she’s too good for Najika’s cuisine, and that in order to win Daichi’s love, she has to be skinnier than anybody else. Plus, she wants to be a supermodel, and everyone knows that they all have eating disorders. This storyline would have worked better for me if I gave a fig about Akane’s well being. As it is, she’s such a snot that the thought of her departure from the series made me hope that she never ate again. I couldn’t care less what happened to her, and I thought Najika was a bit of a sap for continually trying to get her to eat.
Grade: C+
Rated for Teen
I read the first three volumes of Kitchen Princess and was underwhelmed. Then I went back and read some of the later volumes and found myself enjoying it more, in a total brain candy fluff sort of way.
I agree with the post above. I found the first three "Kitchen Princess" volumes to be mediocre shoujo fluff. Even so, I kept on reading hoping it’d get better. And it did! It wasn’t ’til the 4th volume I had a "Hell yeah!" moment (finally, the main character fights back!) and it gets more interesting from there. It’s still, in a whole, shoujo fluff but after reading the 8th volume, I’m still rather curious to see what happens next.
[...] The Bonds of Reasoning, vol. 3 of Croquis Pop, and Y Square Plus. Julie is not too impressed with vol. 2 of Kitchen Princess at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Kris takes a look at Red Blinds the Foolish, Anima, and vol. 1 of Kyo [...]
I think Kitchen Princess is an acquired taste? Excuse the pun ^-^ I really love baking, so this manga definately hits a chord with me, I like how the recipes are included in the back of each volume for everything Najika makes. Microwave cupcakes are an amazing idea ^-^ I didn’t think the characters were cardboard, but again I think this is a matter of opinion. Perhaps I relate better because I agree with the notion (however shojo fluff it may be) that making people smile through food really is one of the best feelings!
I wouldn’t write this manga off though, its definately one of my favourites!