Komomo Confiserie

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Upon first glance, I assumed this manga would be similiar to Yumeiro Patissiere. A cute shoujo about pastries and maybe a hint of love? NOPE! Not even close. While it holds a bakery theme, there are so many more apsects to this series that I would never even have guessed. This manga has surprised me so much in just 13 chapters, alone!

STORY - The story starts off with young 6 year old Komomo, a stuck-up brat whose family is forunate. She's the princess of her family, and gets anything she wants. But what she treasures most, is the head chefs son--his pastries at least! ... Young Komomo often bullied him as a child to make these pastries. Years pass, Natsu & his father leave Komomo's home to France. In the meantime, Komomo's family goes bankrupt, and she is sent to live with family in a normal home, and even work a part-time job?! With Komomo's attitude, how will this work out? Soon she learns that Natsu will be moving back to Japan the next day, and is seeking her out for revenge!

ART - The art style is perfectly fitting for what need be. I didn't personally find anything about it special or super attractive, but I'm sure fans of Minami Maki will be very pleased.

CHARACTERS - Komomo is the spoiled princess of a rich family, that is until they grow bankrupt and she is set to living a life of a commoner. While she is given many chances with part-time jobs, her obnoxious side and inability to lift a muscle gets he kicked out of the house and out of all her jobs. With nothing left but to depend on Natsu, despite his harsh treatings, she soon learns her place. While her personality comes off as annoying very early one given the right circumstances you will come to understand her more and she will grow on you. After time, her attitude mostly drops, though she knows nothing about the world, and is plenty naive. She never acted out of malice, but due to the misguided belief that she should have everything she wants--because she had always had this. With Natsu's help, she learns basic communication, friendship, understanding, and soon maybe even a little harsh love?

**Natsu** A strange one. He put up with Komomo's atttitude as a kid, and would always bake pastries for her. His pastries were often thrown out by the maids and other chefs due to being burnt or not up to the standard set by the household, but Komomo always felt they were the best. When he comes back to Japan, he welcomes Komomo to his home and bakery to help her out by allowing her a place to stay and a job, when she has nowhere else to go. Don't be fooled by his kindness, he has an awful sadist quality of always wanting to bully or make Komomo cry. Despite this, he always tries to do the best for her, and guide her about the world.

ENJOYMENT/OVERALL - I was ready to drop this series by the third chapter. Hating both the beginning personalities of Natsu & Komomo. Nobody really wants to read something when they can't feel in the place of the characters. You get tired of the brat, and even though she may deserve to be bullied back, it's not something you enjoy seeing long and run out. And this series will give you just that. As time progresses, Komomo drops the spoiled princess act, and slowly learns to understand some human communication. While she still is ignorant, her personality in tact with Natsu's insane lust to bully her and watch her facial expressions is just demented. The greatest thing in the series is the relationship between Natsu & Komomo. The comedy between them, the weird S&M vibe, and the slight tinge of romance. With their extreme personalities in perfect balance of eachother you'll come to love the demented relationship between the two. While the series still has ways to go, only being on the 13th chapter, I hope you choose to give it a chance.

Ninjanime's Manga Reviews:

Komomo Confiserie:

Author: Maki Minami

Status: Completed

Length: 5 Volumes, 30 Chapters

... Released: Spring 2013-Winter 2014

Genres: Comedy, Romance, Shojo

Serialisation: Hana To Yume

The cutest Shojo Manga I've ever read?

Out shopping I found some Manga in a quiet low-key store. One of which was the first volume of a series called Komomo Confiserie. The Shojo lover inside me didn't think twice, the cover alone was enough to have me pick it up. Immediately I proceeded to read the series but little did I know how good it was gonna be. Reading it I couldn't put it down because of how wholesome and cute the story was. It gave me Maid Sama and Yoru Cafe vibes except set around much younger and less mature characters. I'd love to read more stories like this in the future cause cute and wholesome romance stories are my second favourite type of romance.

Plot: Komomo Ninomiya spent her childhood living like a princess. In times of loneliness, she found solace in pastries made by Natsu Azumi, son of the family chef. Natsu's confections were neither particularly tasty nor pretty, yet they filled Komomo with overwhelming warmth. After Natsu leaves with his father for France, Komomo spends the next 10 years in luxury, until her father's business goes bankrupt. Demoted from a super princess to super poor, Komomo must now work part time jobs to get by. Her fortunes begin to change after an encounter with Natsu who offers her a job at his confectionery Meli Melo. The current Natsu is entirely different from how he used to be. Only his confections have not changed. With their positions as master and servant reversed, what awaits the patissier and princess?

Story: Komomo Confiserie presents an interesting story. While it's common in most Shojo stories to have a protagonist that has a chance encounter with a boy. But in Komomo Confiserie that is already established in the story. It begins with the backstory of the heroine so after a time skip it's not as if the main couple are meeting for the first time. Throughout it's presented as a story about a girl uneducated about what's it's like to be someone of low standing. A girl who's never experienced love that ends up falling in love. Throughout it's a sweet and wholesome story and aimed more at the cuter aspects of a Shojo story rather than the more romantic and dramatic ones. It paces quite nicely and doesn't feel short.

Characters: Komomo the heroine is a really well developed Shojo protagonist. Over the course of the series she discovers what life is really like after having been in the upper class for her entire childhood. After meeting Natsu she learns all about having real friends and about falling in love. It's almost as if she goes through everything a Shojo protagonist does but being young and inexperienced means she's experiencing everything from the bottom up. She says she loves Natsu's confections but ends up discovering she likes him too. If an Anime had a protagonist like this it could make for a really cute and wholesome story.
Natsu is an interesting character also. He is your typical Shojo male character but he has some backstory with Komomo that sorta reasons with why he treats her the way he does. As a child he's the innocent one looked down on but as an adult it's he who looks down on Komomo. It's as if the roles have been reversed. As mean as he is he cares for Komomo and wants the best for her. As a child she was the only one who would acknowledge his confections and enjoy them so much.
The side characters are great too, they play really good supporting roles while overall not getting in the way of the main 2 characters. They manage to help Komomo grow and develop a lot during the course of the story.

Art & Author: Komomo Confiserie has some of the most beautiful art I've seen in a Shojo Manga. My first story by Maki Minami and I absolutely love her artstyle. It's perfect for such a cute story and it works really well. I can see the emotion in her characters because of the way she draws them. When things were hard on the main character I genuinely felt bad for her because of the feeling and expression put into her when the panel was drawn. She draws her characters all very equally well. Of course the heroine gets special treatment. Maki Minami has this way of writing that could get you invested in any story easily regardless of what it's about. I really wanna go and check out more of her series now. I think romance is something she definitely excels at, especially less serious and more wholesome romance.

Trivia about Maki Minami: You might not know but Maki Minami is the creator of the series Special A which has also been given a TV Anime adaptation. She's known for doing a lot of single volume/one shot romance stories. The story and art for all of her series is done by her.

Conclusion: After finishing Komomo Confiserie I immediately wanted to read similar stories to this. It's a cute romance story but a different kind of cute romance. It reminds me of how much I love Anime such as Kamisama Kiss and Kakuriyo Bed And Breakfast For Spirits. I enjoyed this a lot and I'm so glad I have the physical copy too. It makes me happy underrated and shorter series are being brought over to the west. The spoiled princess and the confections maker, if you like cute and whole romances I would definitely recommend this to you. Surprisingly I give this an 8/10, looking back I've enjoyed reading this more than I have with most of my 7/10 series. There were even times I was disappointed to have to put down the book. Go read Komomo Confiserie, you won't be disappointed!

Kokomo confiserie isn’t really outstanding in any one aspect, and is a little shaky when it comes to some of the happenings in the story being a little odd or without much depth. Character development isn’t always amazing (but Komomo’s is rather decent), but the characters themselves are memorable and likable, and the manga generally managed to hit a lot of the right notes for me. Though I can’t give it more than a 7, enjoyment-wise it’s an 8 for me.

What I really liked was Komomo’s character. She starts off really spoiled, annoying even, but within a few chapters she starts to learn about everything ... and becomes much more palatable. What I like is that she doesn’t just become a normal boring girl after losing her rich girl status, she remains a rather odd girl that has a bit of weird sensibilities, but manages to be endearing. Komomo has her innocence and is lacking in worldly knowledge, but she’s really a girl that manages to see the important things and can stand up for herself and others at all the right times, in a way consistent with her character and not just thrown in unnaturally. Her inner strength is something admirable, and her contentment and appreciation for her new current life was a joy to watch. The “rich spoiled girl” that is pure, strong, selfish and selfless at the same time was the main draw of the story for sure. Really a good girl.

I also rather like Natsu. I thought it’d quickly go down the revenge but slowly fall in love route, but I’m glad it didn’t and it evolved into something cute and precious to them both. Their relationship was rather nice to watch and much based on enjoying each other’s company rather than throwing in heart pounding moments, so it was a cute and sweet thing.

The side characters were for the most part not annoying either(maybe one), and even if they were it quickly passes as the story doesn’t drag on with the matter, which is a relief. New story plots unfortunately just come and go and gets solved rather quickly without that much impact, some a little odd and hasty while others not too impressively at best. But because it’s not too draggy, and the characters are enjoyable despite the story leaving a little to be desired, I can easily forgive most of the story (which is not that bad, just typical and not that memorable), and enjoy the ride. Enjoyment wise, it was pretty fun without any overly annoying bits.

The romance isn’t that prominent if you’re someone who needs lots of lovey interactions or heart pounding moments. But if you’re sick of manga relying on kabedons or whatever forceful sexual tension stuff without any real feelings behind it, and instead prefer something more fluffy, cute and innocent, where you can truly see the characters treat each other as precious beings in their lives, then this is pretty nice.

Overall, if you liked the characters in special a/seiyuu ka! (author’s previous work) but felt the story took too long to get anywhere in those works due to too many distractions, I think you’ll enjoy this for similarly endearing characters and a much shorter run time. It’s not amazing and the plot and ending could have been done better, but it’s an enjoyable, stress-free read nonetheless. (For what it’s worth, I think Komomo ends up being my most liked character in these three works personality wise)

If you wanna laugh and stifle your giggles while reading a cute comedy romance storyline, komomo confiserie is your ideal manga!

After reading countless of manga, i was surprised that there was a manga this good that i haven't read yet (like 10/10 material). At first you may feel that the manga is a bit random and the art is a bit rough, but do not lose hope! the scans will get better so that you can truly enjoy the art (i took several screenshots :P) and you will find yourself attached to the main heroine Komomo! I LOVEE HERRRRRRRRR!! which is quite rare if ... you ask me that the female lead is your favorite character in a shoujo manga >.< she isn't annoying at all, strong and soo funnyyyyy!! really i spent half of my time laughing out loud while reading this manga (got some few funny looks from my family :P).

all in all, this manga is worth the read and deserves a 10/10 :P