Kasaix: Hello, friends of Doujins! Recently, I’ve decided to take a closer look at some of our favorite works with some of our favorite artists. A critical eye cast upon these works by very creative and talented people, judging their story, characters, and art style and, where necessary, seeing where some interesting changes would have been made by these very artists.
Our second go around is with our friend ttrop, a solid artist I’ve talked with before, going over Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer. Hell’s Kitchen was a very interesting manga following a high school student who is coached in cooking to impress a girl he happens to like, though his coach wants to eat his soul. Here’s a quick summary:
“Dogma, the Earl of Poor eating comes to train high school student Satoru into the perfect chef. But what awaits Satoru at the end of his training is only death. His teacher is not an ordinary noble but a demon from hell who promises to eat his soul, spiced with a lifetime of cooking expertise. Will Satoru abandon his normal life to become the puppet of this demonic earl? How will he cope with his life's expiry tag?
Let's have a taste of this Heresy Gourmet!”
Let’s get started on this. Before we dive into the meat of the series, what is your overall take on Hell’s Kitchen?
ttrop: very fun full of colourful cast and unlike any cooking manga i have read until now. very good underdog story
Kasaix: I could see that. Before we get fans' hopes up, you mentioned that the magazine that printed Hell's Kitchen shut down before it could finish its' run. Did it end on a cliffhanger?
ttrop: it ended on a cliffhanger of all cliffhangers, it ended with introducing few new characters 1 demon like our main character dogma and his servent, and our main character satoru about to take a challenge of his life time
Kasaix: Ouch! I could only imagine the pain of fans following along with the series. 13 volumes, 53 chapters, printed between Feb 4, 2010 to Aug 19, 2014. That's a long time to follow a story to just abruptly end.
ttrop: well there is a spin off manga that follows the story of the newly introduced demon and his servent
i have my fingers crossed it crosses over with hells kitchen
but hasn't got the biggest attention
Kasaix: Here's hoping it gives Hell's Kitchen some kind of satisfying ending in one way or another.
Let's talk about the story. At first glance, it's a supernatural cooking manga, though given the summary, it's a bit more than that, right?
ttrop: yes while it is supernatural as in one of the main character dogma is a demon from hell the story itself is pretty well grounded for a manga. how satoru the main character who has 0 interest in anything, suddenly cooking is well connected with the love interest who loves eating and his dream becomes wanting to feed her tasty things he cooked himself, as the demon who is attached to satoru dogma wants to mold satoru in to the perfect chef and eat his soul.
and satoru is well aware of dogmas intention with him, but he falls in love with cooking and can't stop himself
Kasaix: Satoru knows that Dogma wants to eat him, but he loves cooking, and wants to impress the girl so much he's fine getting eaten? Admirable. Is Dogma evil, or is he more neutral?
ttrop: he is more on the side of doesn’t really give a fuck unless it can make satoru grow as a chef
but i guess he doesn't do anything evil just a bit of slap stick with satoru
Kasaix: Haha nice. Now the girl Satoru is taken with, what's her name? Is she aware Satoru likes her, and how does she feel about that?
ttrop: the girl she is pretty dense and only cares about eating tasty foods, she is aware of satoru and what he is doing but she just want him to cook tasty thing for her, but more interesting "love interest" would be Minami Sagane the knife loving girl who is in love with satoru
Kasaix: That's nice. All said, are the characters likeable? Would you change anything about them?
ttrop: all the characters are very likeable they all bring something different to the table, i like how everyone cooks with these flashy and cool skills while satoru cooks like any normal person. the bad guys are also fun diverse folks who brings something special as well
not to mention the girls are drawn all really cute too
Kasaix: That's great. It's becoming more and more sad that such a great manga was shot. The story sounds just as interesting. Are you happy with the story, or are there a few things you would change?
ttrop: during the science division ark, making all foods in to rations making cooking pointless, but the drama there seemed a bit forced but the ark itself is good also the introduction of best girl saionji mai
but i love the attention to detail he puts in in the background characters, in the first few chapters we see a lot of the main cast in the background before they are even introduced
it’s always fun looking at the background characters
Kasaix: You said the girls looked cute, so as an artist yourself, what do you make of them? Would you change anything?
ttrop: man the artist was on point with the girls in the manga i think there will be at least 1 girl somebody will enjoy. tho it needed more female teachers
Kasaix: There should always be more female teachers.
That covers the general topics of Hell's Kitchen that can be covered without spoiling too much. What are your final thoughts about this series?
ttrop: i wish i could see how it ended, the story was moving along so nicely and i was enjoying every moment of it it such shame to see it go like this, i come back to the series every now and then and read it since i have the physical copies in my room and it never gets boring to me
Kasaix: It sounds amazing, and if there's any justice in this world, it gets the ending it deserves.
Thanks for hanging out again ttrop. You made me, and I'm sure others, want to look into this series.
ttrop: also just learned spin off series ended with vol 3 lol
welp my hopes and dream are dead
Kasaix: Oh that's a crying shame. Did it get a proper ending?
ttrop: not sure very little info about it probably why it ended so fast
Kasaix: Damn.
ttrop: i also think the story writer and the artist have parted ways
lol
Kasaix: Wow so this really is a done thing. I think this was more "obituary" than "deep dive", unless it's a metaphorical grave we dove into.
ttrop: we took a deep dive into a grave
a grave full of hopes and dreams
Another platter-sized thanks to ttrop for hanging out. If you want to read my first interview with him, HERE is the link. If you'd like to see more deep dives into other series with other artists, let us know in the comments below!
