Kitchen Princess Review

Finally, I was able to find a few manga series that really caught my eye at my local library. One of those was Kitchen Princess. Kitchen Princess is a shojo manga that was released in 2004. In this series, Najika Kazami is an orphan girl who really enjoys cooking. More than that, she has a very attuned palate that allows her to recreate any dish after only having it once. She decides to leave the children’s home in order to find her “Flan Prince”, a boy who saved her from drowning when she was a child. Her plan is to attend the school in which the spoon that was left to her by her Flan Prince is distributed. Upon arrival at the school, Najika meets two boys, Sora and Daichi. These brothers are quick to see the potential in Najika and it isn’t long before feelings get involved. The three become very close, and they begin to learn that not everything is so simple. Filled with love, loss, and even betrayal, Kitchen Princess follows Najika and her journey to find her Flan Prince and and the path to true friendship.

I have found it to be really difficult for me to find the time to read, and when I do I am just not feeling it. However, when I finally decided to pick up Kitchen Princess (probably like 2 weeks after I got it from the library), I couldn’t put them down. I ended up reading all 10 volumes in about a day and a half. It really had me invested in the story from the get go. I usually try to pick who I wanna support in a love triangle, but I couldn’t figure out who she would end up with or who I WANTED Najika to end up with. The characters were so well done, I honestly was rooting for both Sora and Daichi through the entire series. Even when the twist happens towards the end, I couldn’t help but still wish there was a way for things to work out.

Another thing that I really liked was that each chapter was named after a food dish, and at the end of those chapters the recipe was given so you could make the dishes yourself. I feel like this was an amazing idea, it honestly to me, helped bring the characters to life. If I were to makes the dishes that are at the end of the chapters, it would make me feel as if I was a part of the Najika, Daichi, and Sora’s world. I just thought it was super clever (and it’s never a bad thing to have recipes on hand).

I found myself going through all the emotions with these characters. They were super relatable and at times I got so immersed in the story, that you could forget that it is just a book. I HIGHLY recommend reading Kitchen Princess if you are into the Romance Shojo manga. There was never a time that I was bored with reading it. Everything was smooth and immersive. It had everything that I could ever want in a book. The characters were super relatable. I couldn’t tell what was going to happen next, and it was constantly keeping me engaged. Kitchen Princess might be one of the best manga I have ever read, and it is so underrated. So, if you think this manga may be something that you would like to read, GO GET IT NOW!!! It is a very good story, and totally worth the read!