What do you get when you mix two high school cooking students, pastry, sushi and a love triangle? Mixed Vegetables Volume 6 is what you get. Hanayu Ashitaba is the daughter of a well known pastry chef and all she really wants to do is be a Sushi Chef. Hayato Hyuga is the son of a prestigious Sushi restaurant owner and all he wants to be is a pastry chef. They both become very close and find that there is something deeper between them. Hanayu, gets a job working at Sushidokoro Hyuga to learn the trade. She and Hayato also attend the same cooking high school. There is one small twist, one of her father's employees, Maezawa, is also after Hanayu's affection.

Highlights

Volume six revolves around end of the year exams and Hanayu's promise that she will not fail any of her exams because she is spending too much time working at Sushidokoro Hyuga. She does fail an exam and feels as though she should have to live up to her promise. This causes a bit of a disturbance and Hayato chases after her and impulsively asks her to marry him. This does not go over very well and he slinks back home where his mother lets him have it for being so foolish. He finds that Hanayu left all of her papers there and he sees that she is 4th in the class and wonders why she would fail the exam.

They find out later that it is because she spent all night working on a wedding cake because Maezawa fell ill and she had to cover for him. Once everything comes to light, Hanayu gets her job back and the two young lovers start to patch everything up.

The remainder of the volume covers a trip to the beach and begins to draw a few lines in the sand for Hayato and Maezawa regarding their relationship with Hanayu. 

Overall

It appears as though the use of cooking is becoming a much bigger vehicle to build a story around. I am sure that it is thanks to shows like Iron Chef that had a huge following in Japan and then in America when it was dubbed and presented by Food Network for the American audience. This 8 volume series ran from 2005 to 2007 which happens to be the years that Iron Chef was at its peak in Japan. Nonetheless, this story could be written around anything, the use of cooking as the backbone is not required. 

I did find the writing to be decent for a shojo manga. It was not too sweet and also made the relationships very clear. It also provides a solid understanding of the awkward 15 year old teenager and being able to communicate real feelings. I found it frustrating and also refreshing to see these two characters have such a hard time making themselves understood. All too often in real life, the truth only comes out in the heat of an emotional exchange. I am not saying that this volume was about the struggles of the emotional interplay between these two youngsters, but there were moments that gave way to this type of exchange.

I cannot say that this is for everyone, but I think that there are a lot of 12 to 18 year old girls will enjoy this series. The artwork is good enough to keep your eyes moving through the pages and the dialogue also kept pace fairly well.

ComicsOnline gives Mixed Vegetables Volume 6, 3.5 out of 5 Manhan Quanxi.