I've finally gotten around to reading the first few volumes of Miyuki Kobayashi and Natsumi Ando's manga Kitchen Princess, winner of the Kodansha Manga Award for children's manga in 2006.

Kitchen Princess is the story of Najika Kazami, the orphaned daughter of two world-class pastry chefs. Najika has a nearly magical sense of taste and smell, and her culinary skills earn her a place at Seika Academy, an escalator school in Tokyo. While Najika's biggest dream is to follow in her parents' footsteps, she also hopes to find her "Flan Prince"--a boy who saved her from drowning when she was a child, and comforted her with a cup of flan and a spoon with the Seika Academy logo on it.

While a lot of Kitchen Princess feels familiar (there's a love triangle, and several pastry competition scenes), the author tosses in some serious curve balls, including a bulimia storyline and the death of a central character. The story's combination of shojo-style angst and shonen-style competition, combined with these unexpected plot twists, elevates Kitchen Princess from mediocrity--not that Najika isn't a likable enough figure in her own right, but I've read plenty of manga about a fish out of water with a remarkable gift.

Labels: Book Reviews, manga