キッチンのお姫さま/Kitchen no Ohimesama 01
Kitchen Princess Volume 01 Manga Review

Kitchen Princess Volume 1 is now included in Kitchen Princess Omnibus Volume 1. It is out of print as an individual volume.

–> Purchase Kitchen Princess Omnibus Vol. 1 from Amazon.com

*MAY CONTAIN MILD SPOILERS!*

I’ve read a few shoujo titles in my life, both normal shoujo (Fruits Basket) and mahou shoujo (Cardcaptor Sakura). I’ve never read a cooking manga before, much less a shoujo cooking manga. However, of all the manga that has been recommended to me, I decided to give Kitchen Princess a try and thus try a shoujo cooking manga.

Story wise, we have the young teen orphan named Najika who gets accepted into the prestigious Seika Academy and into the special class. Part of her desire to get into this school is that she was saved from drowning as a child by a boy she calls her Flan Prince, whom afterward gave her his flan snack and a silver spoon from Seika Academy. Her arrival at the school is not met with acceptance by many of the other girls, including the model Akane. This is exasperated when popular male brothers and fellow students Sora and Daichi take an interest in Najika.

Akane, in an attempt to hurt Najika, pretends to be her friend and refers Najika to the rundown Fujita eatery for Najika to practice her cooking. The chef there gives her a chance and when Sora shows up, Najika turns the place into a much nicer establishment, impressing both Sora and Daichi. Akane continues to try to bring down Najika by pretending to be Najika’s friend in private, but to the others, pretending to be a victim of Najika’s scheming. Eventually, she comes out and tells Najika that she’s always hated Najika and accuses Najika of theft over the silver spoon from her youth. Najika decides she may not belong and plans to leave the school, causing Sora and Daichi to ask her to stay.

Shounen titles seem to have a common set of items that define it, whether it is an action title or a comedy title. With Kitchen Princess, I’m starting to see a potential pattern emerging to define a shoujo common set of items. First is the orphaned Najika — the lonely girl who tries to be cheerful in spite of things. Next is the hot guys showing interest in the lonely heroine, which causes a new set of problems for her. Finally, the heroine has some sort of special gift, in the case of Kitchen Princess, an ability to remember every taste Najika has ever experienced and to be able to recreate that in the kitchen.

Still, despite what appears to be some shoujo cliches in this manga, I admit to a certain level of interest in the story and we’ll see where it goes.

On the subject of a cooking manga, I’m amused at how cooking is worked into the story. So whenever Najika creates some special dish, the recipe for it can be found at the back of the manga. This volume has flan, taramasalata, rainbow jelly, Christmas cookies, and onion gratin soup. If I’m bored, I may try to make one of these sometime. ^_^

So I’ve started my first venture into a shoujo cooking manga. What fun lies in store for me next volume?