Aspiring Chef and Aspiring Actor End Up Living Together
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Warning:
This review will contain spoilers for the manga and anime series Prince of Recipes. While the manga may vary slightly from all other forms of media, it may have similar story elements and could be considered spoilers.
Content Warning: There may be references to manipulation, overwork, mentions of gambling, excessive drinking, kissing without consent, cheating (not between the main couples), violence, divorce, child neglect, disordered eating, implied death, and strained familial relationships, as they appear in the manga.
Synopsis:
Sakai is struggling. He lives far away from his school, which means waking up at the butt crack of dawn, traveling into the city, attending classes, working, and then heading back home to do it all over again the next day. It’s too much, and it results in him passing out while at his culinary school. Something has to change, so he starts hunting for cheap lodgings. Through a friend, he hears about a house with three other men. The friend is moving out of his room, giving Sakai the opportunity to move in.
After a quick tour of the immaculate house, Sakai is ready to move in. But on the day of, he finds an absolute pigsty, and the missing roommates come meandering in, talking about how their former roommate, the man whose room Sakai took, gave them all coupons to go out to eat. Unfortunately, his new roommates are wholly uninterested in cleaning, much less anything else, but Sakai is determined to make this work. So, he does what he does best, winning them over by cooking for them.
This goes very well, especially for Shohei, an aspiring actor. The two have big dreams, and now that they are living together, this passion is only growing. But what starts as a passion for their work is steadily becoming a passion for each other.
Review:
I have to admit, I have become a sucker for Junko. Their art style is certainly not the cleanest, and there are glaring issues I have repeatedly had with it, but it is so endearing to me. The lips, in particular, look super weird, and that’s consistent across all of their titles. However, unlike in their other titles, I feel like this one has issues with “same-face syndrome.” Of course, that’s not the case with Yasuhisa, probably the most unique character design I’ve seen from Junko, but the other three look very similar. It’s unfortunate to see, but if you like Junko, I can’t imagine you’d dislike this.
Story-wise, the beginning is very strong. It takes its time to the point that Sakai’s love interest, Shohei, doesn’t feel like a love interest at all. That may seem weird, but I think this actually gives room for Sakai to breathe as a character. We learn who he is and really learn to love him before we see who he ultimately falls in love with, which I really appreciated. I imagine some people will be thrown off by this and dislike it, but it’s pretty unique to me, so I was a fan.
However, as much as I love how drawn out the beginning is, because it establishes our main character, this is a single volume. That may not sound like a big deal, but when the first half of the volume has almost zero romance, that doesn’t bode well for the balance of the overall narrative. By the time the two start courting each other, the volume is nearly over. So, it ends up being a romance speedrun, which is unfortunate, especially since it started off so strongly. It tries to remedy some of this by doing the whole “oh, we met when we were kids and didn’t realize it” trope at the very end, which felt more shoehorned in than it did intentional.
Unfortunately, there is also a side couple between Yasuhisa and Tsubasa. Surprisingly, by the end, I actually liked them more, despite them having 2.3 panels total (this is an exaggeration, but still, it’s not much). The reason they are stronger as a couple is that their history together is established much earlier. They actually were childhood friends, and it didn’t feel like a shoehorned flashback. I would love a spin-off for them because they remain unresolved until the very end, but they felt like the most concrete couple. It’s almost more disappointing how they end than the main couple.
Results:
This had so much potential. I really loved Sakai, and loved his dynamic with Shohei, but this was meant to be so much longer. The beginning felt like the start of a slow-burning romance, but midway through, it’s clear that they were trying to rush to the end to make sure they could fit it all into a single volume. Add in an unfinished side couple, and it’s even worse. I would love a spin-off, but as it stands, this is very disappointing.
Have you read Prince of Recipes? If so, what do you think? Do you agree with my assessment? Do you not? Let me know, and comment below!
