First, I'd like to say that I am a very open-minded person when it comes to what's marketed at who and I won't let my sex decide what entertains me. I've enjoyed the occassional romance and chick flick, is all I'm saying. Granted, while I will lean more towards Chuck Norris vs. Cyborg Hitler mounted on an Undead Bear, a manga about cooking sounded interesting to me. And y'know what? I WAS WRONG!
So, as you can see, I think that the series blows. Let's dive right into the art first...
Y'see? See what I just did? I just showed you what every single character looks like! It goes without saying that character design is lousy, as all characters of the same age group and sex have the exact same face and none of them have distinct features. That makes it really hard to keep track of who's who, especially if the characters change hairstyles and clothing.
The style is standard manga, with nothing distinct about it. Not much else to say about the art, but those are two big issues! The characters all look the same and the art has no personal touch. But what's good about the art? It's, urhm, clean?
Now onto my favorite part; the writing. The writing would make it hard for even Nicholas Sparks to keep his lunch down. It's overloaded with sentimentality to the point of exploding with a heavy helping of stupid and just a wee hint of sexism.
Let's start with the least problematic, the sexism. Before we start, I'd like to state that I by no means suffer from MGS (Male Guilt Syndrome) and I will be very slow to call something sexist. Perhaps sexism would be too strong of a word, but still... The main character, Najika, wants to perfect her cooking skills. Why? To impress a boy (now a young man) who gave her some flan she really like. And one of two of the boys she meets at her new school MAY be the "Flan Prince," so love interest!
Basically, her entire life, her ambitions and her dreams all revolve around a man. She doesn't wanna become a cook just for the sake of being one, because everyone knows women can't get motiviated unless there's a man on the line! Perhaps I am exaggerating and there's nothing wrong with a girl wanting a boyfriend, but still... If that's her life, I'm leaning towards sexism. Chef Ramsay, she ain't.
Finally, the sentimentality and the stupid. First, look above for what I called the love interest. The "Flan Prince." That term is used frequently by Najika and each time it's spoken, a golden heart turns to steel. It is so stupid, my rolling eyes have enough power to pull a train.
Above: Who the Flan Prince grew up to be.
And since it's about cooking, it's going to be a lot about Najika making people happy. One little arc revolves around the mean girl (who, along with her group of indentical friends, picked on Najika for no apparent reason) gets a bad case of the binge and purge, and now she can't keep anything down! Najika deduces that the only way to get her to eat something is with an exact replication of the mean girl's late grandmother's peach pie! And it works! *blarf* Okay, I use the term "Grandma's apple pie" frequently to describe something overly sentimental. And this arc only changed the fruit!
If the above arc isn't enough to convince you that it's overloaded with sentimental bullshit, then you'll enjoy the series! It's as high as I can go and nothing I say can convince you. And, the first bit of stupid I was hit with in the series was when Najika descirbes her orphanage, say it's a place for "orphans without parents." Y'know, as opposed to orphans WITH parents. It could just be the translater, but still, I'm shocked for it not convincing me to turn back.
Also, the characters aren't that great either. Najika is your typical kind-hearted and somewhat clutzy shojo protagonist, the two love interests are your typical shojo love interests and the mean girl... well, she does go through changes, but that's not enough to keep me interested! The writings bad, the art is severly lacking and I can barely keep my lunch down.
On a positive note, the author of this piece knew nothing of cooking before she began writing. However, she thought of some rather creative and convincing recipes throughout the book and if she hadn't told the reader, I woulda guessed she was a chef before taking on a manga career.
Other than that, it blows. I managed to satisfy my need for a cooking manga by reading a shonen or boy's manga about it... one with superhumans and giant beasts!
It's called Toriko. It ain't perfect, but I can keep my lunch down while reading it. It won't decieve me with its cuteness.
