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lead=yes is a Japanese manga series written by Miyuki Kobayashi and illustrated by Natsumi Andō. Appearing as a serial in Kodansha's manga magazine Nakayoshi from the September 2004 to the October 2008 issues, its forty-seven chapters were compiled into ten bound volumes. It also includes recipes for each featured dish at the end of each chapter. The series marked the first time that Ando illustrated a manga that was not also written by her. Set in modern-day Japan, Kitchen Princess follows Najika Kazami, a cheerful thirteen-year-old girl who searches for her "flan prince", a boy who rescued her from drowning as a young girl and brought a little happiness to her life after her parents' death. In March 2008, Kodansha published a related light novel, Kitchen Princess: Search for the Angel Cake, written by Kobayashi and illustrated by Ando.
In 2006, Del Rey Manga licensed the series for an English-language translation in North America. It published the ten volumes from January 2007 to July 2009. Following Kodansha's decision to publish in North America through an imprint, Kodansha USA released a four-volume omnibus edition from June 2012 to June 2013. The series has been well received by English-language readers, with the appearance of three volumes and one omnibus on various bestseller lists and the series appearing twice on ICv2's annual list of the top twenty-five manga properties. Critical reception ranged from positive to lukewarm, and the series won the 2006 Kodansha Manga Award for children's manga.
Najika falls in love with Sora after he tells her that he is her flan prince, but he dies after being struck by a truck while on a journey to deliver some ingredients to Najika. In his final moments, admits that he lied about being her flan prince, having fallen in love with her. She Ageusia out of sorrow, but quickly recovers it. After Sora's death, Daichi is unable to bring himself to act on his love for her, though he gives in to his father's demands to protect Najika from being kicked out of the school and becomes the student body president to replace Sora. Wealthy and conceited junior pastry chef Mizuno Seiya also begins to attend the school, where he clashes with Najika, whom he had watched bake as a young girl at the orphanage. Seiya eventually falls in love with her, and tries to romantically pursue her, although he gives up when he realizes that she loves Daichi. After Daichi recovers a repressed memory of his mother's death during a family trip to Hokkaidō—which Sora attempted to protect him from by lying about being Najika's flan prince—he remembers that he is actually her flan prince, having given her a flan made by Seiya, and accepts her feelings for him. A joyful Najika fulfills her promise to him by making him a crème brûlée.
At the 2006 Comic-Con, Del Rey Manga announced that it had licensed Kitchen Princess for an English-language translation in North America. Del Rey published the volumes from January 30, 2007, to July 7, 2009. Following Kodansha's decision to publish its titles in North America through an imprint, including those formerly licensed to Del Rey Manga, Kodansha USA later published a four-volume omnibus edition of Kitchen Princess from June 5, 2012, to June 18, 2013. Digital editions of the series have also been published by Kodansha in the United Kingdom. The series has also been licensed in Hong Kong, Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan.
Kitchen Princess won the Kodansha Manga Award for children's manga in 2006. The series has received a range of reviews, from positive to lukewarm. Publishers Weekly enjoyed that Najika was not given a magical power and had to keep improving her cooking skills. Although the reviewer for School Library Journal described the series as "a perfectly ordinary romance manga," he praised Nunzio Defilippis and Christina Weir's adaptation of the manga. Deb Aoki of About.com listed the manga as one of the best shōjo series. Jason Thompson rated the series 3.5 out of 4 stars, describing it as "a quick, delightful read." Another reviewer for Publishers Weekly, Johanna Draper Carlsen, wrote that she found the manga reminiscent of the romantic comedy film Simply Irresistible (1999) and that the manga contained conventional shōjo aspects. In a later review of the second volume, she described the series as "entertaining enough, but it’s fluffy and forgettable (like so many of the mousse items and drinks Najika makes). The volumes already feel familiar, even as I’m reading them for the first time." Mania Entertainment's Sakura Eries expressed her lukewarm feelings towards the first volume, writing that the reader's suspension of disbelief was vital to enjoying the manga. She disliked the two-dimensional characterization and Ando's illustrations of the characters, but felt that the food was well-drawn. Comparing the series to others in the cooking genre, she wrote that it differed in that "cooking is Najika's expression of self and her means of creating relationships and drawing others to common ground (like the estranged Kitazawa Brothers)." In follow-up reviews of the second and third volumes, she remained lukewarm to the series; she praised Kobayashi's portrayal of Akane's eating disorder but disliked how Najika's quest to find her flan prince seemed to become more of a side-plot. Carlo Santos of Anime News Network praised Najika as a likeable protagonist and the characterizations as believable. He enjoyed the plot and recipes, although he wrote that the character designs lacked creativity, and criticized the plot clichés and the antagonists' weak characterization. He had mixed feelings about the fourth volume's emphasis on conventional shōjo romance and at the cost of its cooking aspect. He found the artwork conventional, though able to convey emotion. He wrote that the fifth volume finally balanced the romance and cooking elements, although he disliked the inclusion of a side story, preferring another chapter instead. In his review of the seventh volume, he concluded: "this series takes the hoariest elements of the romance/drama/cooking genres and still manages to come up with something greater than the sum of its parts."
Reviews of the light novel varied. Draper Carlsen wrote that the characters and premise lacked the strength to make the novel compelling, though she felt that the response of others may differ. Grading the novel a B, Eries wrote that the novel would appeal to fans of the manga, although she found the story arcs varying in quality and content, from junior-high school romance to philosophy on death.
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