キッチンのお姫さま/Kitchen no Ohimesama 02
Kitchen Princess Volume 02 Manga Review

Kitchen Princess Volume 2 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 RAKUTEN.COM (formerly BUY.COM)
–> Purchase Kitchen Princess Omnibus Vol. 1 from BARNES & NOBLE
–> Purchase Kitchen Princess Omnibus Vol. 1 from RIGHTSTUF!

*WILL CONTAIN MILD SPOILERS!*

Story-wise, Daichi and Sora convince Najika to stay at school as Sora knows hat Najika’s skill is her incredible sense of taste. Akane and her friends still do not accept Najika, so a cooking competition is arranged with Najika going against a master chef from Catina’s that Akane has chosen. With a Canina cake as the dish to make, it seems that the Catina chef will win but when given only cheap ingredients with which to work with, Najika ends up winning. Her win causes Fujita’s Diner to gain more student traffic.

Daichi and Najika come upon one of Akane’s photo shoots were a hungry Akane eats a cake made by Najika, thinking it was from Daichi. Learning the truth, she lashes out at Najika for taking Daichi away from her and throws up the food. As time goes on, Akane’s obsession with staying thin becomes bulimia and this is recognized by Najika. Najika gets Sora and Daichi to help her make Akane’s favorite desert (peach pie), one her grandmother used to make. It takes some time but eventually Najika gets it right. Going to Akane’s house, Najika literally drags Akane out of bed where Sora and Daichi are waiting. She reluctantly tries some of Najika’s pie and discovers it to be the same as her grandmother’s, a feat even her mother couldn’t match. Akane cannot deny how good the pie is.

Being a shoujo manga, I guess Kobayashi-sensei felt it was important to address eating disorders to young teen girls. Since teen models and idols are very much in demand in Japan, it is not unreasonable in my mind to see that such a model would be at Najika’s school, especially since it is a prestigious one. However, I’m guessing that in a small country like Japan, having some connection to and idol/model; whether through a friend, relative, or because they attend your school; is not out of the question and thus makes a nice vehicle to warn young girls about bulimia.

Based on Akane’s eating of Najika’s pie at the end, combined with Najika’s constant pressing forward to be nice to Akane and Fujita Diner’s growth of customers because of Najika, I suspect that we’ll see Akane completely break down and become Najika’s friend. I could always be wrong though since a shoujo heroine needs someone to try to keep her down.

This manga still amuses me in how so much of everything revolves around cooking. *lol* Well, it is a cooking manga but since this is my first foray into this type of manga, I can’t help but find it amusing.

Speaking of cooking, recipes this time include chocolate macaroons, strawberry shortcake, cake of rice, yogurt mousse, peach pie, rainbow soda, magic iced coffee, and a yogurt drink. If I had more time, I might try one of these just for the heck of it.

There’s only one page of translator notes this volume, but I suppose they aren’t really needed that much. Either that, or the translator isn’t big on doing them.

Speaking of the translator, I’m glad to see the term “aniki” survive. This form of “brother” is different from the “(o)niichan/(o)niisan/(o)niisama” forms for “brother” and so for me, it is nifty that it is retained.

So, Kitchen Princess does show itself to be interesting, though clearly I’m not the target audience. ^_^;