キッチンのお姫さま/Kitchen no Ohimesama 07
Kitchen Princess Volume 07 Manga Review

Kitchen Princess Volume 7 is now included in Kitchen Princess Omnibus Volume 3. It is out of print as an individual volume.

–> Purchase Kitchen Princess Omnibus Vol. 3 from RAKUTEN.COM (formerly BUY.COM)
–> Purchase Kitchen Princess Omnibus Vol. 3 from BARNES & NOBLE
–> Purchase Kitchen Princess Omnibus Vol. 3 from RIGHTSTUF!

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Transfer student Seiya, whom Najika finds similar in appearance to Sora, sets himself up as a rival of Najika after being critical of her cooking. At a party he throws to celebrate his transfer to the academy, Seiya gets angry with a girl who doesn’t like something he’s made, setting up a showdown between himself and Najika who defends the girl. The food for their competition are madeleines and Najika’s close companions worry about her chances since Seiya can afford the very best of ingredients.

On the day of the competition, the student judge panel all like Seiya’s madeleines but each one has a different reaction to Najika’s madeleines. Seiya scoffs at what he considers to be Najika’s failure to make a consistent madeleine but when the judges all pick Najika’s as their favorite, Seiya dismisses their opinion as being unsophisticated. When noted food critic KISHI Yoriko gets to sample, Seiya thinks he’s won until she tries Najika’s and Najika wins. Yoriko realizes that Najika custom made each madeleine for each judge. Najika confirms this, explaining that she was able to determine the student judges tastes based on their orders at Fujita Diner. Yoriko tells Seiya that in an official cooking competition, he would have won but Najika wins for doing what she was asked to do — make something each judge would like.

The Director is unhappy at this turn of events and Fujita is dismayed that Najika turned down the offer to have a new kitchen installed in his cafe. Since Seiya is from Hokkaido, Najika even made a special madeleine for him. Seiya is frustrated since he is reminded of when he saw a smiling Najika cooking at the orphanage as a kid when he was forced to become a chef as a kid. The Director is not pleased with Seiya and wants him to crush Najika.

Seiya issues a new challenge to Najika and encounters Akane, whom he has a brief clash with. Akane works hard on making a desert for Daichi so she can confess. While she prepares, she overhears Daichi and the Director talk and learns why Daichi has changed so much since Sora’s death — to allow Najika to stay at school. Akane picks her dessert and serves it to Daichi with her confession. He eats it but tells her he only likes Najika. She accepts his answer and upon leaving Daichi, she encounters Seiya, who has overheard the whole thing. Despite their previous clash, Seiya understands Akane because they are so much alike. As such, he encourages her to cry and she does.

Akane pays Najika a visit at the diner where Najika isn’t feeling 100%. Akane makes sure to declare her friendship for Najika before having a chat with Daichi. Daichi tells her he does care about her but as family. Akane is now OK with that role in Daichi’s life. Meanwhile, Najika goes to a ramen shop to enter an eating contest for ¥30,000. The event disturbs Seiya, who’s across the street and he’s not happy to see Najika at the heart of things. The two end up going to a cheesecake place for another eating competition. Seiya reveals he knew of Najika from their childhood but Najika’s illness catches up to her. Seiya takes her to her place and in her delirium, she mistakes him for Sora again. She then wonders if Seiya might be her Flan Prince.

Thoughts/Review: I guess Kobayashi-sensei is bound and determined to make some sort of love-triangle between Najika, Daichi, and Seiya. I say this because of Seiya’s convenient connection to Hokkaido and having seen a cheerful, young Najika cooking when he found the pressures to be a master chef at the same age a chore. However, that just makes them rivals but with Kobayashi-sensei having Sora tell Najika that he was NOT the Flan Prince she sought, suddenly, we have Najika wondering if Seiya could be the one after he lets her know that he’d observed her as a kid. Frankly, it doesn’t work for me but I don’t know how the shoujo crowd would see it.

On the other hand, the love-triangle between Akane, Daichi, and Najika appears to be resolved all nicely so that all are just good friends. Ain’t life sweet? ^_~

One thing I did like was seeing how Akane and Seiya were pushed by their parents into their current roles. While there’s nothing wrong with a parent wanting their child to be the best, in the case of both Akane and Seiya, it goes beyond that. It is as if their parents are using their children to live vicariously through them. Sadly, that is something that does happen too often I think.

On the Del Rey side, it is a standard release — honorifics, some translator notes, and the recipes for the different food items made in this volume.

Looks like three more volumes for me to read. After this, I think I’ll be shoujo‘d out for a while. ^_~