2026 REREAD: My new summary of the whole series:
I reread all ten volumes of 'Kitchen Princess' today, and...it is not nearly as good as I remember, I'm afraid.
It is not really fresh or original - it is very 2000s shoujo manga, containing practically every shoujo manga trope, cliché, and character stereotype, too exhausting, disheartening and redundant for me to list.
The problem with 'Kitchen Princess' isn't that it's cheesy and silly - in fact, I'd say those are positives - it's that it's rather shallow, predictable and typical. One reason to be disconcerted by it is it is a profoundly sexist product of its time: one example of this out of many is that every single decision the female MC, Najika, makes throughout the entire series is because of a boy. A boy always saves her, helps her out, encourages her, motivates her, uses her, gaslights her, sneaks around behind her back to manipulate events to make her life easier - without her having to put in the effort, thus robbing her of agency in her own story, making her look like a damsel in distress whose only talent and contribution is cooking. No matter the boy in 'Kitchen Princess''s love square, he is the catalyst for everything good or bad that happens to Najika.
She has no female friends - no real, true ones anyway - and she's one of the very few female characters who even has a name. The only positive and living female influence in her life is her elderly guardian back home in Hokkaido, and she's not in the series much (another example could be the female food critic who praises Najija, but she shows up far later on, and it's too little, too late).
One of the things that makes 'Kitchen Princess' stand out from other shoujo manga series of its zeitgeist is the sudden tragedy - the death of a main character - halfway through, but even that ends up being ridiculously melodramatic and absurd, and it becomes "fixed" and "dealt with" in the laziest, safest, most random and nonsensical ways, ultimately making the death kind of pointless. So the manga remains "safe", easy, and "Welp, never mind! No need to mind! You can forget about this and that!".
There are plot holes, contrivances, and underdeveloped character and plot details galore, plus inconsistencies; though a little of those could be due to English translation errors, admittedly.
Without a doubt one of the best things about 'Kitchen Princess' is the artwork of the food dishes, and the accompanying recipes. Everything looks so delicious! Every dessert looks irresistibly cute and delicious! There is useful, insightful info on each dish, in the in-story dialogue, and the actual recipes, which I'm sure will be helpful as well as enjoyable for any reader who likes cooking and baking.
I also admit that the kiss at the end of volume ten made me melt, but it doesn't make up for all the clichés and clumsiness of the characterisation and storytelling that came before it.
'Kitchen Princess' is yet another manga series I enjoyed as a teenager, which I no longer find to be as good or worth my time as an adult. It's sad. Maybe a lot of manga and anime from the 2000s and older are just trash meant only to appeal to the naïve, impressionable youth who don't know any better yet? Wow I'm cynical and jaded, and full of the disappointments and disillusionments that come with adulthood. So far 'Sailor Moon' and some 'Madoka Magica' adaptations and spinoffs are the only completed manga series left from my youth that I like.
Still, 'Kitchen Princess' is cute and, well, sweet in almost every way. It can be pleasing, delightful and endearing, if you can get past the 2000s shallow, annoying and predictable triteness, and sexism. There are things about it that have not aged well. And things that frustrate me considerably.
It's not for me anymore, so I'm giving the series away.
Sorry, teenage manga-and-anime-fan Artemis.
Final Score: 3/5
Original Review:
This is a manga series cute enough to eat, like a creamy Ricotta cheesecake. It is the sweetest, snuggliest, loveliest, most delicious shoujo manga I've ever read - purely to be read to take the place of eating comfort food. By the moon and the stars I feel stupid just typing up those words, but I can't think of a more fitting description of 'Kitchen Princess', even if each chapter of all 10 volumes really did offer up a dessert - like a strawberry truffle or a crème caramel. The artwork fits the cooking-story perfectly, with each dish looking good enough to taste. Natsumi Ando-san practically compels her readers to want to try cooking or baking her protagonist's multiple recipes themselves. Scrumptious!
Is there much need to add anything else? If my opening paragraph has made you hungry enough to at least be curious about 'Kitchen Princess', then chances are you may love it if you try a slice. It is, in my opinion, also one of the most underrated manga I've read.
On the surface, aside from the academy setting and talent competition side dish of things, the story is fairly, typically shoujo. There's a saintly female orphan protagonist, a love triangle with a brooding, dark-haired boy vs a more open and understanding blonde-haired boy, a mean girl and her cronies, and a mystery surrounding the heroine encountering a faceless boy in her childhood and so she dedicates her entire life to finding him.
Sounds standard, and it is. But no cliché in 'Kitchen Princess' is portrayed badly, and none of them are annoying there. Mainly because of the endearing and charismatic cast.
The heroine, Najika, is impossible not to love and admire - for her adorable personality and her endurance to be a top cook and to help those she loves and those she feels needs it. She does not want to find her childhood prince at the Seika Academy just for "true love", but for him to try her goal of a perfect dish. Not only is Najika a talented chef like her late famous parents (but not without effort and hard work), she's a wonderful person; whose flaws stem from her naivety, but she refuses to let her shortcomings get in the way of her dreams. She is a friend to all, and if her friendship is magical, so is her cooking!
The two love triangle boys, Sora and Daichi, are brothers. And there is a dark, deep-rooted reason for their differences in personality and their conflict with one another. The mean girl, Akane, is a Defrosting Ice Queen who grows a heart through her eventual friendship with Najika, and even she becomes likeable.
Plus, halfway through the series, 'Kitchen Princess' takes a surprisingly dark turn for a shoujo manga aimed at young girls. At its emotional storytelling heart is a warmth and comfort that proceeds from suffering and loss.
But aside from its moments of melancholy and tragedy, it is so cute! The artwork, man. The artwork! Desserts truly can look as good as they do in 'Kitchen Princess'!
Well that's all, my friends. Consider 'Kitchen Princess' highly recommended. It's all kinds of flavoursome, and contains just the right amount of sugary-sweetness without being too saccharine. It has its layers of dark chocolate too; but with no sticky sourness or bitterness. A fine cuisine.
(Okay Artemis, enough of the food and cooking metaphors now.)
Hmmmmm, writing this lame-menu-disguised-as-a-review has made me peckish. I crave yummy cake. Time to Ready-Steady-Cook-it into the kitchen, take out a Delia Smith recipe book (or reread 'Kitchen Princess' - either works), and see what puddings I can make for my family and moi.
(Seriously Art, stop it.)
(Alright, temptation wins. Here's one more cooking reference.)
Err, Bon appétit.
Final Score: 5/5
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