The Kajiki Chef: Divine Cuisine (Kajiki no Ryourinin) is a manga written and illustrated by Sanami Suzuki, known for her work on the Black★Rock Shooter manga, Innocent Soul. It was serialized online in Shonen Jump + from July 2021 to April 2023.
In a fantastical version of Japan, the creatures known as kajiki freely roam about the land and wander the skies. Though their size and supernatural abilities may be intimidating, they are sought out by all kinds of people as their resemblance to ordinary animals and vegetables is no coincidence: their moniker means "The Divine Food" and were said to be made by the gods to provide the ingredients for the most heavenly feast possible. Not only do they taste as incredible as their name would suggest, every single kind of kajiki is said to have some kind of miraculous healing ability.
Young chef Toya Yasoya lives out an ordinary life as adopted son of the Yasoya family and restaurant in a small town with his childhood friend, Izayoi Kukui, the young heiress of the noble Kukui household. When one day a kajiki salmon shark bites off Izayoi's arm, Toya awakens and forms a bond with the steel knife tsukomogami Hihiirokane in order to kill the shark and feed its divine flesh to Izayoi to heal her. Toya now sets out to hunt down as many kajiki as possible in the hopes that one of them will have the ability to restore Izayoi's missing arm.
First published on July 21, 2021 in Japan, the manga was given an English localization on February 2022 via Shueisha's Manga Plus
service.
This manga has the following examples:
- Childhood Friends: Toya and Izayoi have known each other since a very young age. Their friendship formed out of a mutual reciprocation with Toya's lack of care towards Izayoi's title and Izayoi's unadulterated love for Toya's passionately made food, regardless of how imperfect the food is.
- Country Mouse: Toya and Izayoi move from their small seaside town to the big city of Tokyo in chapter 12, with Toya overwhelmed by the city's size and number of people moving about in it.
- Fantastic Fruits and Vegetables: Kajiki don't just come in the form of animals as chapter 5 demonstrates with giant cabbage kajiki.
- Flying Seafood Special: Kajiki sea life freely swims in the air and generally don't seem to care about human life or structures. The one exception is the giant octopus shinkaigyo from chapter 7 which is simply so huge that its tentacles drag on the ground.
- Food Porn: Suzuki draws the food with lavish detail and the first panel of chapter 1 immediately sets the bar with a lovingly drawn breakfast bento as Toya describes the food he's about to eat.
- Historical Domain Character: Soji Okita of The Shinsengumi is revealed in Hihiirokane's memories to be Toya's grandfather in chapter 16.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: Atara comments that they won't find many swordfish kajiki to hunt swimming together because they don't form schools, only for a giant school of swordfish to float by in chapter 14.
- Meaningful Name: Toya is explicitly noted to be named as such because he is expected to be the 18th generation head of Yasoyas running the restaurant.
- Power Dyes Your Hair: Toya's hair changes from black to white when wielding Hihiirokane.
- Ship Tease: Toya and Izayoi are frequently teased as a couple and noted by other characters to have an adorable dynamic.
- Youkai: Tsukomogami are commonplace and are the main tools of various characters to hunt down kajiki.
