Kitchen Princess

Brief Summary: An orphan girl who's very talented in cooking/baking enrolls in a school for chefs to find the boy that saved her from drowning many years ago.

I don't know if I could give a proper review of this seeing as how I read vols 3 and 5 and skipped all else. I couldn't resist and wiki'd it before I started and realised that there's something that happens later I'm not quite sure I like but it's just a personal preference cos I'm such a sucker for happy endings.

The drawing is very cute and sweet and plus, all the characters' eyes are drawn in (ok, another personal preference. ;p). However, the art doesn't go into details and is not very intricate. Besides the pastries, details on clothes and backgrounds are close to nil. In fact, if you notice, most of the panes have no backgrounds at all, except some splotches. But then again, quite a few manga series don't have backgrounds. The two main male characters are cute, but could be twins if not for the difference in hair color. Generally, probably because they are around 14 years old, the characters look very young and child-like. They are the very typical Jap anime/manga cutesies.

The story is quite simple up to vol.5 but I read from the author's notes that from there onwards, she is heading it in another direction. I can't give more details without spoiling but there is a major happening in Vol. 5 that may take the overall story a notch up in complication.

The recipes of the pastries/cakes/etc that are featured in the story are found at the back of the book, together with a few pages preview of the next volume, the latter albeit in Japanese.

I don't have the urge to finish this at the moment.

My Rating:
Story: B-
Art: B+
Recommended? Very simple, sweet story of a girl and two cute boys.

More info:
Wikipedia
Vol. 4 Review and Vol. 6 Review at Comics Worth Reading
Vol. 4 Review at Manga Life


Visit the forum to discuss this!