Kitchen Princess
Kitchen Princess is a Shoujo Manga written by Miyuki Kobayashi and drawn by Natsumi Andō. The story follows Najika Kazami, a cooking student who enrolls at Seika Academy to find her "flan prince", a mysterious boy who rescued her from drowning and fed her the flan in question, and who she believes to be a student at said school. Along the way she meets several hot guys and cooks many delicious desserts. Romance (and recipes) ensue. The series is available in English through Del Rey.
The artist, Natsumi Ando, also wrote and drew Arisa.
This series contains examples of:
- Alpha Bitch: Akane before her Heel Face Turn, and some of her friends even afterward.
- Becoming the Mask: Sora.
- Big Bad: The school's director.
- Big Eater: Najika.
- Break the Cutie: Najika gets hit with quite a bit.
- Break the Haughty: Akane, Seiya, and the director get hit with this.
- Brilliant but Lazy: Fujita. Oh so very much.
- Contrived Clumsiness: Akane seems nice, but she's actually a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing. While they're eating lunch together, she purposely knocks Najika's lunch onto her dress, then gets upset and causes her friends to turn on the girl.
- Cooking Duel: The literal version, multiple times.
- Deconstructed Trope: Sora is this to the Shallow Love Interest. He's supportive of Najika no matter what, and knows just what to say to help cheer her up... and then it's revealed he was told to get close to her to further the director's goals. However, he reveals that he really did fall for Najika, showing his Hidden Depths and Becoming the Mask.
- Defeat Means Friendship: In a sense with Akane and Seiya.
- Despair Event Horizon: Sora's death leaves Najika so traumatized that she loses her sense of taste. Thankfully, she got better.
- Dropped a Bridge On Him: Sora.
- Knowing that this was planned from the very beginning is of little condolence.
- Earn Your Happy Ending
- First Guy Wins: The Flan Prince, who turns out to be Daichi.
- Food Porn
- Heel Face Turn: Akane, as well as Seiya to some extent.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All the manga chapters are titled "Najika and [food]."
- Impossibly Delicious Food
- Jerk With a Heart of Gold: Daichi.
- Kids Are Cruel: Najika just can't seem to catch a break!
- Love Redeems: Between Daichi and his father.
- Love Triangle: Najika, Sora, Daichi, and Akane make more of a Love Quadrangle. Later Sora is replaced with Seiya.
- Memento MacGuffin: The spoon the Flan Prince gave Najika. Also functions as an Orphan's Plot Trinket.
- Omake: In the form of recipes for some of the desserts and other dishes Najika cooks in the series.
- And there's the occasional 4 panel comic between chapters.
- Pair the Spares: Akane and Seiya as of the bonus chapter of the last volume.
- The Pollyanna: Najika. Full stop.
- Sacred First Kiss: Daichi kisses Najika, but later denies that it meant anything and claims he was only trying to one-up his brother. Which is a lie. Najika then runs off crying because it was her first kiss.
- Shallow Love Interest: Sora seems to be this, but he has Hidden Depths.
- Supreme Chef: Najika, of course. Later comes Seiya, and Fujita even used to work at a three-star Parisian restaurant.
- Teen Idol: Akane.
- Trauma Induced Amnesia: Daichi suffered this after his mother's death, forgetting what happened and about going to Hokkaido entirely.
- Tsundere: Akane and Daichi.
- Was It All a Lie: Najika asks this of Sora after finding out she was being used by him and the director.
- Well Done Son Guy: Sora and Daichi both have shades of this.