キッチンのお姫さま/Kitchen no Ohimesama 06
Kitchen Princess Volume 06 Manga Review

Kitchen Princess Volume 6 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:

Sora is taken to the hospital after being hit by the car and Najika heads there as well. The critically injured Sora manages to thank Najika and tell her he’s not her Flan Prince before dying. The stunned Najika tries to carry on getting ready for the final round of the cooking competition for Sora’s sake but discovers she’s lost her sense of taste and smell, something that has made her such a gifted cook. Daichi also takes Sora’s death hard and he has a talk with Fujita. Meanwhile, despite losing her sense of taste, Najika feels Sora’s presence and makes her dessert for the competition. She passes out and is taken to the hospital and loses the competition.

When Najika comes back to school and attempts to pay her respects to Sora, the girls of the school reject her and the director, Sora and Daichi’s father, attempts to kick her out of the academy. As a result, Daichi decides to make sure that Najika does not get kicked out. Akane makes some food for Najika to help her and gets Najika to agree to go to a doctor’s appointment. Daichi offers to submit to his father in exchange for Najika’s remaining in the academy. The Director approves but when he and Akane go to tell Najika the news, they find that she’s left on her own accord.

Najika pays a visit to her old home before moving on and eventually being found by Daichi. Daichi returns with her to her former home where the current owner lets them in. Since Najika has lost her scholarship, she’s transferred from the special class to a regular class. Further, she’s forced to leave the dorms for a cramped space in the attic of Fujita’s diner. Akane pays Najika a visit and is shocked by Najika’s living conditions. She also informs Najika about the changes in Daichi, who has become very serious. However, Daichi still takes time to visit the Fujita Diner where Fujita teases him a bit over his feelings for Najika.

Meanwhile, a boy who looks like Sora pays a visit to Fujita Diner and doesn’t have good things to say about Najika’s food.

Thoughts/Review: So, Kobayashi-sensei really killed Sora. Del Rey’s massive spoilers in the previous volume aside, I have to say that killing a main character is not the way I expected things to go. Granted, killing Sora resolves the love triangle between Sora, Daichi, and Najika but that seems rather a harsh way of going about the resolution. ^_^; Certainly, Sora’s death makes this manga turn very angst-filled with Daichi and Najika having their personal crisis as a result. That’s not a slam but just a notation.

Still, after having been Najika’s Flan Prince last volume, Sora’s revelation that he’s not the Flan Prince made me roll my eyes. It almost felt like a plot twist just to have a plot twist and carry on the manga. So, if Sora isn’t the Flan Prince, I guess that Daichi wins by defaut. With his new responsibilities, I guess that’s the conflict that will keep him and Najika at some distance. Plus, there’s that new boy who shows up at the end of this volume.

Considering Kobayashi-sensei did a side story featuring a ghost, I suppose that Sora’s ghost really did inspire Najika to make her entry into the cooking competition.

Akane begins to slide into the role of Najika’s best friend, something that has been forming for a while. She’s there for Najika after Sora’s death and again after Najika is kicked out of the school’s dorms and out of the special class. I suppose this means that future volumes will have them get closer.

On the Del Rey side, their chapter preview in volume 5 really was a major spoiler since it showed Sora dying in the hospital. That’s just so wrong to have such a major spoiler, even if it does happen in the first chapter of volume 6.

After the omake chapter, Del Rey includes the standard translator notes, recipes for dishes made in this volume, and of course a preview of the next volume. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to be too spoiler-filled which is good.

So, we have a gloomy, depressing manga volume thanks to Sora having been killed and his father taking it out on Najika (and Daichi to an extent).