Thursday, January 22, 2009

Kitchen Princess

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: ,

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Why is the "story by" credit so much smaller than the "manga by" credit? Is it a remake of another story?

3:54 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't think so. Maybe the manga artist is the bigger selling point?

8:47 PM

 

Post a Comment

<< Home




Have a piece of book-related news? Send it our way!
Links

wordcandy.net

wordcandy.net Bookcrossing bookshelf

Girl Detective

Mysterious Mysteries

A Study in Sherlock

OldCookbooks.com

sfsignal

MangaBlog

Austen Blog


Previous Posts

Any (moderately) rich Austen fans out there?

Birthday gifts

Inauguration Day Reading, Part II

Inauguration Day Reading, Part I

So wrong...

Perfumania

But will there be snacks?

Meg Cabot gives back

Kiss Me Kill Me, by Lauren Henderson

So pretty...


Archives



Powered by Blogger