Ayumi Komura

In some ways, volume 2 is an improvement upon volume 1. In other ways, it's worse.

The scene that began the volume was shocking, probably the most exciting moment in the series so far. Hayato revealed himself to be just as selfish and manipulative as Hanayu. Perhaps more so, considering that he briefly entertained the thought of doing away with Hanayu's little brother so that there would be no one else who could potentially inherit Hanayu's parents' bakery.

However, as great at this scene show more was, there were two problems with it. One, it should have happened at the end of the first volume. And two, it was almost too effective at making Hayato unlikeable.

There wasn't really much about volume 1 to inspire readers to continue on. Having nice, safe, bland Hayato suddenly reveal his true self at the end of the volume would have made for a fantastic cliffhanger. It would have been a risky move, but, I think, an effective one.

Of course, this being a romance series, Komura had to somehow turn Hayato into a viable love interest again. She didn't accomplish that quite as smoothly as I would have liked, and I'm still not sure I understand the thought process that inspired Hanayu to chase after Hayato, apologize to him, forgive him, and become friends with him again.

So, with this volume the full premise is finally clear. Hanayu is the daughter of a pastry chef and will be expected to one day inherit her parents' bakery, but what she really wants is to become a sushi chef. She has a little brother who could potentially inherit it in her place, but he has the makings of a pro baseball player, so she doesn't want to do that to him. Hayato is the only son of a sushi chef and is expected to one day inherit his parents' sushi restaurant, but what he really wants is to become a pastry chef.

Neither one of them feels like they can tell their parents. I haven't seen much of Hayato's parents yet, but Hanayu's seem pretty nice and laid back. I wanted to shake her when she talked about not wanting to ruin her brother's dream. What, did that mean her brother's dream was more important than hers? I continued to wish she'd just talk to her parents about all of this. It's always possible her dad has an enthusiastic apprentice who could inherit the bakery. Heck, if both Hayato and Hanayu talked to their parents, maybe Hayato could be that enthusiastic apprentice.

As over-the-top as Hanayu's obsession with sushi could occasionally be, I could still believe in her dream more than I could in Hayato's. Supposedly, he really wanted to be a pastry chef. Fine. There were signs of it even in volume 1. Just like Hanayu made sushi when she was supposed to be doing other things, Hayato made desserts.

However, whereas Hanayu had spent years secretly learning to make sushi and making fish-based meals at home whenever she could find an excuse to do so, Hayato didn't even have access to an oven. If he had been even half as obsessed with baking as Hanayu was with sushi, I would think he'd have talked his way into a kindly neighbor's house to use their oven.

Then there was this, said by Hayato to Hanayu: “I've never been to your bakery. It's embarrassing for a guy to be seen in such a dainty place.”

You've got to be kidding me. How am I supposed to believe that he wants to be a pastry chef as much as Hanayu wants to be a sushi chef when he's embarrassed to even go to a bakery on his own?

One area where volume 2 was definitely an improvement upon volume 1 was the increased number of food illustrations. In this volume, several students, including Hanayu and Hayato, had to participate in a make-up exam that involved baking and decorating cakes. The resulting cakes were lovely – I'd love to try a slice of Hanayu's bitter chocolate cake. A visit to Hanayu's parents' bakery resulted in more pretty dessert illustrations, and Hayato's efforts to recreate the sushi-style rolled omelets that inspired Hanayu to become a sushi chef rounded the volume off. The egg roll omelet with aojiso leaves and cheese made my mouth water, and that's with me not having a clue what it would even taste like.

I'm now officially finished with all the volumes of Mixed Vegetables that I own. If I had more volumes, I'd probably read on, but I don't know that the series is good enough for me to go to the effort of continuing it via interlibrary loan. I realized, somewhere in the middle of this volume, that I ship Ichii (Hanayu's more normal and down-to-earth best friend) and Matsuyama (Hayato's quiet and nearly invisible best friend) more than I do Hanayu and Hayato.

Extras:

There are full-page comic-style author's notes after each chapter, short author's notes at the beginning of each chapter, a couple pages of translator's notes, and a 1-page bonus comic. In one of the comic-style author's notes, Komura tried to explain what sort of hairstyle Hanayu has. I've seen this cited in other reviews for this series, and I have to agree - Komura's character drawings aren't always very consistent, and it can be hard to tell some of her characters apart. My biggest problem in this volume was telling Hanayu and Matsuyama apart, particularly in the simpler, more comedic panels.

(Original review, with read-alikes and watch-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

Hanayu agrees to a radish peeling competition against Hayato. If he wins, she has to feed him pastries. If she wins, he'll tell her why he wants to be a pastry chef. Hanayu desperately wants to win, but can she manage it, considering that Hayato's job at the sushi restaurant involves peeling radishes?

Then the story moves on to Saki for the bulk of the volume. He had a crush on his homeroom teacher in high school...who is now Hanayu and Hayato's homeroom teacher, Miss Matsuzaka. Also, he show more never really got past his crush. However, he can't bring himself to see her, because he's convinced that he's only a bad memory for her, a student who ignored her and did something she considered to be a foolish mistake.

The volume wraps up with a flashback to Hayato's mother's first meeting with Hayato's grandfather.

This was actually fairly decent, despite spending most of its time on a storyline that made me a little uncomfortable. The older I get, the less I seem to like age-gap romances. Or possibly it's more power imbalance romances? At any rate, Saki used to be Miss Matsuzaka's student. There was no indication that they had an inappropriate relationship, although Saki's crush on her was probably pretty obvious. The author made an effort to establish some emotional distance - Miss Matsuzaka opted to start calling Saki "Saki," explicitly categorizing "Ishinagi" as her former student. Also, she didn't let him confess his feelings to her, so it's not like they immediately hooked up. That said, they essentially had a date by the end of the volume, and she was still "Sensei" to him (and kind of intimidated him). So yeah, still a little weird.

I think this is the first time that the ending of a volume in this series has left me really wanting to continue on. I'm curious as to why Hayato still wants to take over his family's sushi shop, even as he keeps saying he wants to be a pastry chef. Especially now that we know his family would be fine with it. Part of me suspects that the answer is something silly, like he feels he owes it to his family or something even though they've told him it's fine. I also wonder about the explanation he gave Hanayu for why he wants to be a pastry chef - it was an incredibly weak reason, and normally I'd suspect him of lying, except that it fits with the general lack of real effort he seems to have put into achieving his supposed dream.

Either Komura has some interesting surprises in store for readers, or it's all paper thin nonsense designed to provide an easier route to what seems to be the happiest romantic ending: Hayato and Hanayu getting married and running a sushi restaurant together. Hayato running a pastry shop and Hanayu running a sushi shop is also a possibility, I suppose, but I still can't imagine Hayato doing it. He may enjoy eating pastries, but so far I haven't seen much evidence that he enjoys making them even half as much as Hanayu enjoys making sushi. It looks like the series is out of print now, and I don't really buy digital manga, so here's hoping that interlibrary loan checkouts or online spoilers can tell me what's up with Hayato.

Extras:

A "story thus far" page, author notes at the beginning of each chapter, author sidebars, a few comics devoted to the author's love of the Yakult Swallows (a baseball team), a bonus manga in which Miss Matsuzaka essentially tricks Saki into a date, and two pages of translator's notes.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

I haven't read one of these in over a year but I was still able to pick up right where I left off and easily fall back into the story. Hayato explains why he feels like he must stay with sushi b/c of his grandfather and decides that he will help Hana with her dream instead. They are both working at the sushi place and finals are coming up. Hana makes a deal that she will do it all, work at the sushi place, help at the bakery and pass all of her finals.

I love food based manga but this still show more feels very Romeo and Juliet even though they are together and working at the sushi place. Not sure how I feel about that vibe. I will probably check the next one out. show less

I reviewed the first two volumes of this series ages ago. For those who need a refresher: Hanayu is a pastry chef's daughter but secretly dreams of being a sushi chef, and Hayato is a sushi chef's son who secretly dreams of being a pastry chef. At the end of the previous volume, Hanayu learned that the sushi chef who made the first sushi she ever ate and who inspired her dream was Hayato's father.

In this volume, Hayato takes Hanayu to his family's sushi restaurant. Hayato's father takes an show more immediate shine to her and tells her she can work part-time at his restaurant. It's an exciting offer and prompts Hanayu to finally tell her father about her dream. Unfortunately, the news doesn't go over well, and Hanayu spends much of the volume worrying that she's being selfish and letting her father and her younger brother (who has the makings of a pro baseball player, as long as he's not expected to inherit the bakery) down. Meanwhile, Hayato still needs to tell his father about his dream, but can he go through with it after seeing how things went for Hanayu?

Ugh. Hanayu's father disappointed me in this volume. I thought he was more easy-going than that. At least it didn't take him too long to start to unbend. And Hanayu's little brother's reaction to the whole thing was sweet.

I liked this quote (although it's a bit awkwardly worded) from Matsuzaka, Hanayu's teacher: “We adults are hopeless. Because we have a little more experience, we tend to look into the future. And we try to push you toward the path that offers the least chance of failure.” (59) It was said by way of apology after telling Hanayu to give up on her dream, and it reminded me of something my mom once told me. However, I did think it was odd that Matsuzaka hadn't already figured out Hanayu's desire to be a sushi chef, what with Hanayu turning every cooking assignment into something sushi-related.

The end of the volume showed Hanayu working at the sushi shop for the first time...as a waitress. Hanayu didn't seem particularly surprised or disappointed, so I guess this was expected? Even if Hanayu wasn't disappointed, I was, a little, especially when her first day mostly involved smiling a lot and dealing with a grabby customer.

Hmm. The main reason I read this volume was because I stumbled across it in a bargain bin. Volume 3 didn't do much to change my opinion that this is a “meh” series – not exactly bad, but forgettable. I'm kind of amazed that Komura managed to stretch this series out to 8 volumes, since all that's really left is for Hayato to tell his father that he wants to be a pastry chef and for everyone to decide what they're going to do about the two family-owned shops. I predict that Hanayu and Hayato will marry and become the heirs of each other's family shops.

At the moment, I don't plan on making any kind of special effort to continue reading this series. If I stumble across volume 4 at some point, I'll read it, but I have plenty of other manga series I'm looking forward to reading more.

Extras:

Several author sidebars, a 3-page flashback manga showing Hayato's father's POV of little Hanayu's first visit to a sushi shop, and 2 pages of translator's notes.

(Original review, with read-alikes and watch-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less