I went into Mixed Vegetables with absolutely no expectations. For whatever reason I wasnt expecting to be super interested in it and even kind of expected it to be boring. However I was pleasantly surprised. Id even go so far as to call Mixed Vegetables refreshing with its goal oriented characters. Hanayu is the daughter of a pastry chef but she longs to be a sushi chef. Hayato is the son of a sushi chef but what he really wants to do is bake cakes as a pastry chef. Hanayu decides that she needs to marry into Hayatos family business in order to achieve her dreams and thus begins the love story between two ambitious people striving to become successful in their own chosen type of cooking. Mixed Vegetables is at its best when it focuses on the characters goals. Hanayu and Hayato are both expected to take over their family businesses. Theyre both pretending they want to follow in their parents footsteps for the sake of other people. Hanayu is willing to take over the pastry shop if it means that her beloved little brother can follow his dream and use his talents as a baseball player to the extent hes meant to. Hayato is burdened by the loss of his grandfather and feels like he is obligated to take over the sushi shop to fulfill the promise he made regardless of what he really wants. https://m.mediaamazon.com/images/I/71XZeLliqML.ACUF10001000QL80.jpg Theres a lot of familial pressure and expectations at play. The characters are going against their family traditions to pursue something different. They risk upsetting their beloved families by rejecting the crafts that their families have upheld for generations. Both of them may lose their freedom to choose their own futures. Hanayu had a major event where she fell in love with sushi. When she had it for the first time it was magical and it remained something unique and fascinating. However Hayato just wanted to bake pastries because they had the flavors he liked the best. I loved how he didnt have to have some huge inspiring reason for choosing his path for his dreams to be valid. It generally felt like a refreshing shoujo where the characters goals took the center stage. Their dreams and relationship with each other are what is important. There wasnt much shallow drama and there werent any love triangles and its not like I dislike petty drama or love triangles but it can be nice to read something without them for a change. It felt unique to read about two characters who were that goal oriented and still in love. https://www.heartofmanga.com/wpcontent/uploads/2011/08/mixvegcouple1.jpg I loved how Hanayu was not shafted the whole time and forced to support Hayato from the sidelines like she would if this were a shounen. Hanayu is our main character and the focus of the story is her burgeoning career as a sushi chef. However I did feel like Hayato was shafted for the majority of the story up until the end. I legitimately was worried that he would end up sacrificing his dream of being a patissier to stay by Hanayus side and that hed give up since so little thought was put into his dream after Hanayu started working at Hayatos familys shop. Fortunately he receives a very satisfying ending and I think he and Hanayu made the right decision with their relationship in the end even if it was only a temporary change since I dont think that Hayato could continue to grow if he forever stayed by Hanayus side. It is just frustrating when youre unsure if a character will be forced to give up something so important in exchange for romantic feelings. I didnt really care for the story as much when Hanayu started working at the sushi shop honestly since everything related to the school was dropped completely. Their friends began as such promising characters only for them to be almost completely removed from the story and be paired up romantically the most forced way possible. They could have been cute if they had proper interactions. I also just couldnt bring myself to care about the story as much during the sushi shop arc in general. I kept thinking about the early chapters with the characters and their little rivalry and how great everyones chemistry was there while the sushi shop stuff felt more dramatic and I didnt like the new characters as much as the old ones. Hanayu is a great character. Shes straightforward and a bit silly in the beginning but shes always been a tough person. She does mature quite a bit when she gains more opportunities to reach her goals but she also regresses and becomes more selfish even if she is able to catch herself before her selfishness causes irreparable damage. Shes kind but ambitious and her ambition can sometimes get in the way making her think of herself and her dreams before others. https://somoskudasai.com/wpcontent/uploads/2020/02/portadamixedvegetables.jpg Hanayu initially saw Hayato as a rival and someone to convince to fall in love with her to achieve her goals. However Hayato had similar feelings towards Hanayu. Hes kinder and more selfsacrificing than Hanayu but he has a propensity for bottling up his feelings. He has a lot of unaddressed guilt and regrets attached to his grandfathers death and thats what keeps him attached to the sushi shop. The art wasnt my favorite personally. There were some shots of the characters like Hanayu that were really nice but in general it wasnt my style. It was really distinct and creative but I found it to be on the ugly side personally but I know it would be more appealing to others. Its the large noses and slanted eyes that I find unappealing I think. I did like Hanayus sense of style and the detailed chapter pages though. Id say that Mixed Vegetables is flawed but unique and engaging. It loses steam later on but it manages to stick the landing in a way that makes the best of the tumultuous later bit. I hope I can read more career focused shoujo because this one just had a completely different feeling than other series Ive read before. It may not be as good as my beloved Kitchen Princess but its a solid cooking manga for sure.