キッチンのお姫さま/Kitchen no Ohimesama 08
Kitchen Princess Volume 08 Manga Review

Kitchen Princess Volume 8 is now included in Kitchen Princess Omnibus Volume 4.  It is no longer for sale as an individual volume.

–> Purchase Kitchen Princess Omnibus Vol. 4 from RAKUTEN.COM (formerly BUY.COM)
–> Purchase Kitchen Princess Omnibus Vol. 4 from BARNES & NOBLE
–> Purchase Kitchen Princess Omnibus Vol. 4 from RIGHTSTUF!

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

After pondering if Seiya is her Flan Prince, Najika gets angry with him when he badmouths the Lavender House orphanage. Food critic Yoriko is at the academy and for an event that the school will be holding, Najika has been selected along with Seiya to prepare the snacks for the High Tea. However, Najika is having difficulties getting in touch with Lavender House and the Director reveals that Lavender House is being shut down by Seiya’s family, thanks to an agreement he has with them (the Mizuno Group). However, should Najika take a dive on the High Tea event, the Director will cancel his contract with the Mizuno Group.

Najika is depressed as she wonders what to do while those around her are excited for her because she’s in the event. As Najika is coming to a conclusion, Daichi discovers what his father is up to and finds out that Najika is about to destroy her notes to prepare for the High Tea event. Daichi pleads with Najika to not do this and he makes a visit to Seiya to ask a favor. On the day of the event, the Director wants Najika to act normal but is frustrated when Seiya shows up with the deed for Lavender House. Seiya doesn’t want the Director’s cheat, so the Director gives Seiya a warning as well.

Hagio-sensei shows up and after Najika understands that Daichi was involved in resolving the Lavender House issue, she works on preparing her dishes for the High Tea. Seiya’s dishes are exquisite but Najika’s are impressive in their own ways, especially with the special touches she puts in. When the powerful people at the event decided that Seiya and Najika are equal winners, the Director is angry even though the academy gets some additional sponsorship. Seiya is also displeased at not defeating Najika, leading Haigo-sensei to have a chat with him about the secret of Najika’s success. Haigo-sensei spends the night with Najika and they have a chat about the fact that she will one day fall in love and get married.

After Daichi praises Najika and tells her to follow her dreams, Najika finds herself affected by this and unable to look at him, especially as he’s helping at the Fujita Diner. Seiya also decides to help in order to study Najika, so Fujita puts him to work cleaning dishes. Despite his grumblings, Seiya does a good job and Najika talks Fujita into allowing Seiya prepare a dessert. Seiya learns the joy of cooking for others as a result and decides to ask Najika out as the Director attempts to put a wedge between Daichi and Najika by pointing out that he thinks Seiya and Najika are a good match.

Thoughts/Review: I gotta say that Daichi’s father’s actions just make me cringe. They are so cliched, but then Kitchen Princess isn’t a title directed at me. Granted, his anger at Najika over Sora could plausibly make him act like a punk, but I keep thinking, “you are the adult and Najika is a kid.” How pathetic it must be to live such a life where you blame some sweet girl for your troubles as an adult. Actually, what made it worse is that because the Director has this childish vendetta against Najika, he’s angry to have his school succeed in part because of her. Maybe this is a Japanese thing, I don’t know. I do understand that parents can live through their children AND that there are nut jobs out there who do the stupidest things while completely justifying their unjustifiable behavior.

That aside, Kobayashi-sensei is again pushing the Seiya-Daichi-Najika love triangle but it doesn’t work they way it did for the Sora-Daichi-Najika triangle. I don’t buy into this idea of Seiya actually liking Najika and I don’t buy into the idea of her liking him that way. I could buy into the idea of Najika and Daichi liking each other, but at the same time, I keep thinking, “what about Sora?” Meh.

On the Del Rey front, standard stuff applies — Japanese honorifics are retained, there are translator notes, and the recipes for the various dishes made in the volume are given. Del Rey also takes an added step of including some color stickers.

Two more volumes to get through, y’all. *lol* Well, it isn’t that bad and I’m sure my niece(s) will love this when they are of age.