Kitchen Princess

Kitchen Princess

Cover of the first volume of the English release of Kitchen Princess as published by Del Rey
キッチンのお姫さま
(Kitchen no Ohime-sama)
Genre Cooking, romance, drama, slice of life
Manga
Written by Miyuki Kobayashi
Illustrated by Natsumi Andō
Published by Kodansha
English publisher Del Rey
Demographic Shōjo
Magazine Nakayoshi
Original run February 4, 2005 – 2008
Volumes 10 (List of volumes)
Anime and Manga Portal

Kitchen Princess (キッチンのお姫さま Kitchin no Ohime-sama?) is a shōjo manga series written by Miyuki Kobayashi and drawn by Natsumi Andō. It won the Kodansha Manga Award for children's manga in 2006.[1] and is published by Kodansha in Japan and by Del Rey Manga in the USA.

As the main character is a chef, the recipes for anything that she cooks are included in the back of the manga volumes as an omake ("bonus" or "extra").

A light novel was released called Kitchen Princess - Search for the Angel Cake in 2008 after the original manga finished. A three volume omnibus edition is set to be released in June 2012 by Kodansha Comics USA.

Contents

Plot

Najika Kazami, an orphan of two famous pastry chefs from Hokkaidō with a talent for cooking, transfers to Seika Academy over director's recommendation to chase her dream of being a great chef, and to find her "Flan Prince", a boy that saved her from falling into a river and gave her a cup of flan with a silver spoon with the school's emblem on it. At the time, she promised him she would make the most delicious dessert in the world when they met again. As Najika matured, she developed a unique sense of taste that allowed her to know every ingredient and technique used in the cooking. After she is placed into Class A, the special class for students with special talents and fame, Najika becomes the target of bullying by teen model Akane Kishida and her friends. Najika does manage to befriend Sora and Daichi Kitazawa, both of whom seem to be candidates for the Flan Prince and are the sons of Mr. Kitazawa, the school director. It appears that Sora is the Flan Prince. As the story progresses, both brothers fall in love with her,and is revealed to Najika that Akane is in love with Daichi, who thinks that Najika is in love with him. Najika reveals to Akane that she is actually in love with Sora, and after the explaining Akane and Najika become best friends. Soon before this it is revealed that Daichi is in love with Najika (which makes Akane really sad later in the series)and then over jealousy of Sora, Daichi kissed Najika unexpectantly and after wound up hurting her feelings by saying that the kiss was for nothing. When Najika is entered for the second round of her cooking competition, Najika turns out to have tendonitis and starts having trouble with holding her cooking tools and ingriedients, Daichi soon comes to the rescue by doing first aid on her hand, (he knew already because he saw how Najika had been holding her tools and ingredients practicing and was worried and asked Fujita what was happening who also knew himself.). After the first aid Daichi asked for forgiveness from Najika for what happened a few days before and Najika forgives him. Najika enters the third round of her cooking contest at one point and because Sora wants to help her, he buys her special ingredients and while delivering them to her gets run over by a truck and dies. He confesses to not being her Flan Prince before his death. Najika then loses her sense of taste (which she later regains in the story). She becomes shunned and left out because they say she killed Sora. A new transfer student named Seiya that looks exactly like Sora enters the school, and also manages to fall in love with Najika (while she starts to fall on love with Daichi) albeit them being rivals. He makes her a flan that tastes exactly like the one she ate when she was six, leading her to believe he is the Flan Prince. Later it is revealed that he isn't. In the end, it turns out that Daichi is the Flan Prince. He lost part of his memory after his mother was killed while they were in Hokkaido when he was young while trying to help him and Sora and his father lied to him about it in order not to traumatize him. He regains the memory after smelling a native plant to Hokkaido and faints. Daichi had given the flan that Seiya made to Najika. Later, Najika wins the contest and fulfills her promise to Daichi, making him creme brulee.

Characters

Najika is an orphan from Hokkaidō who lost both her parents in an accident at a very young age. Najika has been searching for her "Flan Prince", a boy that had saved her from drowning in Hokkaido when she was young. The boy had given her flan after rescuing her and inspired her to be a chef. Before he disappeared she promised to make him the best tasting dessert in the world. As time went on Najika became very good at cooking and eventually transferred to Seika Academy when she discovered that the spoon her Flan Prince left her is unique to that school. She meets two boys named Daichi, who doesn't live in the dorms, and Sora, who is the student body president, on her first day at school. Najika is placed in the Special class, where each student has a unique talent. Through many obstacles and competitions, Najika proves herself as a talented chef. She initially has a crush on Sora, who claims to be her "Flan Prince" not knowing that Daichi had fallen in love with her. She eventually falls in love with Sora, who says that he is her Flan Prince. In the moments before Sora's death, Sora confesses that he lied about being her prince, and it is later revealed that he did so to try to keep Daichi from remembering their mother's death. In shock about Sora's death she loses her sense of taste and her place in Seika Academy, but soon thanks to Daichi she regains her place in Seika Academy but with certain conditions from the director, Daichi's father. Najika soon gets her sense of taste back. With Daichi supporting her from the sidelines she starts to fall in love with Daichi. It is later revealed that Daichi is her true "Flan Prince". When Najika discovers this, she fulfilled her promise to Daichi that she made six years ago.
Sora is Daichi's older brother and Najika's initial love interest. Contrast to Daichi, Sora is kind and a gentleman to Najika. He is the substitute director of Seika Academy. Like Daichi, he is very popular with the girls, who get jealous of the attention he shows Najika. He quickly falls in love with Najika and always says encouraging words to her. He even lies about being her "Flan Prince". He dies from a car crash, when he was struck by a truck as he crossed the street to deliver some beans to Najika. In his last moments, he admitts to Najika that he lied to her because he wanted to be her prince. It is later revealed that he lied also because he didn't want Daichi to remember their mother's death from a trip to Hokkaido six years ago.
Daichi is Sora's younger brother, and the first person Najika met when she came to Seika Academy. In the beginning of the story, he tends to call her "monkey" because she fell out of a tree and landed on Daichi. He falls in love with Najika later on in the series even though she is in love with Sora, though he kisses her once unexpectedly to express his attraction to her. After Sora's death, he is unable to bring himself to act on those feelings and refuses Najika's feelings at first, though he gives in to his father's demands to try to protect Najika from being kicked out of the school and becomes the student body president to replace Sora. It turned out that Daichi had amnesia and forgot about his mother's death when he was seven. After he remembers his mother's death, which happened on his family trip to Hokkaido, he also remembers that he was Najika's "Flan Prince", and accepts her feelings for him.
Akane is a popular young model who strives to be a super model like her mother was. She initially hates Najika due to her jealousy over Daichi. After she goes on an extreme diet and loses her ability to eat, Najika re-creates a long-lost peach pie recipe many times made made by Akane's grandmother which helps her regain her appetite. Akane softens towards Najika, eventually becoming best friends with her despite Akane's feelings for Daichi. Akane comes to support Najika in both her competition and in her relationship with Daichi. She and Seiya Mizuno begin a relationship in the bonus story in Volume 10.
Seiya is a junior pastry chef and the son of the head of the Mizuno group. He grew up in Hokkaido like Najika but spent most of his time baking and learning from the best chefs. His father barely spent time with him so he was quite lonely for most of his life. He told Najika that whenever he was sad, he would go to Lavender House and look through the window and watch her bake. He resents Najika at first and tries many attempts to beat her in contests but slowly warms up to her and falls in love with her. He is described as a jerky kind a guy who is quite conceited. But after a while when he tried to pursue Najika, he gives up when he realizes she loves Daichi. Seiya had made the flan that Daiichi gave Najika after saving her. In the Bonus story, he and Akane begin a romantic relationship.

References

  1. ^ "過去の受賞者一覧 : 講談社漫画賞 : 講談社「おもしろくて、ためになる」出版を" (in Japanese). Kodansha. http://www.kodansha.co.jp/award/archive/manga.html. Retrieved 2007-08-21. 

Further reading

External links