Manga Review - Mixed Vegetables, vol. 4

Mixed Vegetables, vol. 4
By: Ayumi Komura
North American Publisher: Shojo Beat

I was starting to lose interest in this manga very quickly when I first started reading it. One of my guilty pleasures is cooking manga; I absolutely love to read all sorts of manga about cooking and food! So when I first heard about this shojo a while ago, I was very, very excited. After the second volume I almost didn't pick up the third. Now though, I'm really glad I stuck with it.

Volume four really is the best of the series so far. The characters are becoming a lot more relatable, and the story lines are not as jumbled as they were at first. Overall, things are a lot more enjoyable.

For those who haven't read Mixed Vegetables yet, the story is about two students, Hanayu, and Hayato. Hanayu is a young girl who dreams of being a sushi chef, but is afraid her father will deny his request in order to follow in his footsteps of being a pastry chef. Hayato is her classmate, and in a similar situation. He longs of being a pastry chef, but comes from a long line of sushi chefs.

In this volume, we finally find out why Hayato longs to be a pastry chef, and also get to see behind Hanayu and Hayato's sensei's tough exterior. The different chapters flow so well together, and in the end a revelation is made that really gives you hope for both Hayato and Hanayu. Will Hanayu finally reveal her true feelings to Hayato after learning this new bit of information? Or will it cause her to hold her tongue even more?

I'm looking forward to volume five. If it improves even more than volume four I'd definitely say it's a series worth picking up. Right now? It's worth a read during those slow weeks. But it is improving, now might be a good point to jump on!