I have previously reviewed Volume 1 and a combined review of Volumes 5 and 6 in the series. Kitchen Princess starts with the main protagonist, Najika, changing schools to find her flan prince. A boy that saved her life by offering flan and hope when Najika was at her darkest after becoming orphaned at a young age. She was raised by Hagio-Sensei in Lavender House, a group home for orphaned children in Hokkaido, Japan. Najika has a natural talent in the kitchen. With one taste she can name all the ingredients in a recipe. After eating a dish once, she can recreate it perfectly, even if many years have passed since eating the food. Upon arriving at the school, Najika quickly becomes involved in a love triangle between two brothers, Sora and Daichi, either of who might be her prince! Sora is the perfect elder son while Daichi is a bit of a wild boy who barely speaks to their father and lives away from home in the school dorms. Mean girl ringleader, Akane, takes an instant disliking of Najika due the attention Najika is getting, particularly from Daichi. Through it all, Najika retains close ties with Hagio-Sensei and the other children living at Lavender House by regularly speaking with them on the phone.
This situation fluctuates but maintains a steady course in shojo manga tropes. Then in the middle of the series Kitchen Princess takes a dark turn with the death of Sora. On his deathbed, Sora, confesses that he lied and is not Najika’s flan prince. In the wake of that tragedy, it is revealed that Daichi had repressed the memory of involvement in his mother’s accidental death, while the family visited Hokkaido when he was a child. Erasing from memory the time he spent there. We learn this is part of the tension between Daichi and his father.
To add drama, a new student arrives at the school, arrogant, competitive, baking genius, Seiya. He quickly becomes entangled with Najika, and a new candidate for flan prince. Seiya starts off incredibly antagonistic to Najika, seeing her as competition at school and in baking competitions. Over time, her sweet nature and generous heart wins Seiya over and he becomes the third side of the love triangle with Najika and Daichi. Najika’s earnest charms are impossible to resist so eventually mean girl Akane becomes a dear friend.
During this time, Daichi learns that Sora lied about being the flan prince to protect Daichi from the memory of being in Hokkaido, where their mother died. This meant Sora and Daichi had both been in Hokkaido when Najika met her flan prince. As Sora admitted lying, did that mean Daichi was the flan prince? A wrench is thrown in that idea when she tastes Seiya’s flan. Her perfect food recall tells her that this is exactly the same as the flan served to her by the flan prince. However, her feelings for Daichi are too strong and she admits to loving him. Feeling a sense of duty to Sora or some b.s., Daichi rejects her. Probably because plot said this needed to happen for dramatic tension.
Heart broken Najika throws herself into preparing for her next competition to win the title of World Junior Pastry Chef Competition. After previously being pitted against one another, Najika and Seiya have become partners in helping each other get ready to compete. Because Najika loves Daichi unrequitedly, she attempts to repair the relationship between father and son. When Daichi becomes ill, his father reaches out to Najika and asks her to take him soup. This thawing of relations is aided by Najika teaching the father to cook paella, a dish that is best shared. When father and son sit down and share the paella together, they realize that they need to put past hurts aside and work to be a family again. As an aside, this manga is constantly solving problems through food. Also, each book has recipes in the back for the featured dishes and desserts in the story.
Upon arriving in Paris, Seiya asks Najika if she would be his girlfriend. He has fallen for her and thinks they would complement each other perfectly since they share the same goals of being master pastry chefs. She gently turns him down saying that she cares for Daichi too much. Seiya is disappointed but resigned. At this moment the phone rings and Najika learns that Hagio-Sensei has had something happen with her heart and been rushed to surgery. There is a 50% chance she may not survive. Najika’s immediate reaction is to leave Paris and fly home to Hokkaido. At first Seiya doesn’t understand how she could throw this opportunity away then he remembers Akane chiding him about not understanding other’s feelings. Seiya flurries into action and tells Najika to head to the airport, he would take care of the rest.
Members of Lavender House joyfully greet Najika, as she fortunately arrives before Hagio-Sensei wakes from a successful surgery. A nurse mentions a boy who stayed with Hagio-Sensei throughout the night but wasn’t in the waiting room anymore. Intrigued, Najika leaves the hospital and is surprised to find Daichi. Members of Lavender House had contacted the school looking for Najika. Knowing how important Hagio-Sensei is to Najika, Daichi flew to Hokkaido be at her side in Najika’s stead. Daichi declares his love to an overjoyed Najika as a rainbow shines over the new couple.
A kiss and hug later, they join everyone back in Hagio-Sensei’s hospital room. Coincidentally, the results of the World Junior Pastry Chef competition are being announced. Seiya has won for a dessert he has named “Najika”. It features his stunning sugar sculpture on top, that he created to show off his technique, but under it was the cake that Najika had intended on using in the competition. He said it was her win as much as it was his. However, he looked forward to when they would compete again so he could properly win.
During his post award interview, Seiya is asked what the first snack was that he made. His response, flan. In fact his parents were so proud they would serve Seiya’s flan to hotel guests. The hotel that Daichi’s family had stayed at in Hokkaido. Suddenly it all makes sense. Seiya made the flan that Daichi then gave to Najika on that fateful day. One treat had brought so many together, as that flan spawned Najika’s search and the friends she made as a result.
In a short story at the end of volume ten, Seiya and Akane have a happily ever after too. Seiya thanks Akane for helping calm his nerves before the competition, saying it helped him win and he would treat her when back in Japan. Akane throws herself into her modeling work to show Seiya she has been productive too while he was gone. She accepts a job that wants her to show up with a homemade treat. She can’t get in touch with Najika and when she reaches out to Seiya finds out that he is going to be delayed coming home. She hangs up in a huff and refuses to answer his calls. At the loss of contact with Akane, Seiya realizes he has come to love her, so he rushes back to Japan and comes to Akane’s rescue by bringing her a homemade dessert to use. At the touching gesture, Akane’s feelings for Seiya begin to bloom and then he kisses her. The two have an awkwardly cute moment and the final page shows Seiya walking up to Akane with a bouquet of flowers and a cake.
The series is rated 13+ by the publishers Del Rey and Kodansha. After reading the first volume, I determined that my seven year old could read it. Once she had permission to read, I only ever skimmed the books to keep an eye on the story. However, she loved the books and would read an entire manga on the way home from the library before I could even look at it. Up through volume four, the story was progressing as I expected. I did not see the character death coming. But then when my daughter read the fifth volume with Sora’s death in it, she very soberly told me that someone dies and she wanted me to read it. After doing so, I asked if she wanted to talk about it. Her response was no, she just wanted someone else to experience the same thing, so she wouldn’t be the only person carrying the feeling of Sora’s death. I asked if she wanted to quit reading the series and she said no, that she wanted to finish it and see where the story goes.
And she has, several times over. She read volumes seven through ten a couple of times each before returning them to the library. She particularly likes volume ten and has read it about five times now. Due to character death I can see why the publishers ranked this at 13+ but it was accessible and enjoyed by a seven year old first grader.