Customer Reviews

Princess Princess Plus

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After many promises from Digital Manga that they actually were going to bring us this extra (Plus) volume of the Princess Princess manga series, it is finally here. I think any enthusiasm I might have had over its release would have better been served if this book had come out within six months of the end of the original series publication in English, instead of the year and a half that we have actually been waiting. As a result, while it was easy enough to get back into the groove of things (the characters were all memorable enough that they didn't need to be reintroduced), I found myself rather bored with the antics of the new princesses.

It's not a step down in quality or anything from the original series and if you liked the original series you'll enjoy this one, but Izumi and Matsuoka don't have the depth or likability in one volume that Tohru and Yuujirou developed with their readers over the course of five. The plot and character development is immediately apparent and its predictability lends itself to less than exciting plot developments. Even when the former princesses make their appearances to try to help the situation (it's your standard "rich and genki personality clashing with impoverised and stoic" plotline), they only sort of add some nostalgic comic relief (mostly at the expense of Mikoto).

My biggest complaint about this title, though, is actually an aesthetic one. The newest imprint of Digital Manga, Doki Doki, is the localizer of this volume, which is different from the original series, which was a DMP title. This means that the book size is different from all of my other Princess Princess books. This is going to look out of synch on my bookshelf. In addition, it seems that Digital Manga has now completely divested itself of the extra cost of dust jackets, but has not decreased the price per volume of their books. In general, I don't really care about the less product for the same amount of money (though I would have liked to continue to see color pages like many 801 Media titles have), but in this specific title's case, I really enjoyed being able to take off the dust jackets and read the Prince Prince one page comics on the covers of the books. In this new, smaller book the Prince Prince comics are in the back, behind all the authors notes, four panel comics and other extras. They're sort of anti-climactic to read this way.

As for the art, I'm not into the feminine shojo bishonen style or over-emphasis on fashions, but Mikiyo Tsuda's art is attractive enough to keep me interested. She does have good attention to detail and her characters are all distinctive enough to tell apart most of the time. Certainly, the quality is not any less than the previous Princess Princess books, so fans of Tsuda's style have nothing to fear. However, and as Tsuda admits in the afterward, she really did not have enough opportunities to show the new princesses in the act of being princesses, so there are sparse opportunities to see them cross-dressing, which quite honestly is the series' defining quality. Its general absense makes this title read more like your standard rich/poor shojo comedy than its quirky niche self.

I would recommend this title only to fans of the original five volumes. If you weren't that into the original story, you could pass this over and not be missing anything. I also don't feel as though it could stand on its own to those unfamiliar with the original story, especially considering no effort was made to rehash the princess system or reintroduce any of the characters, except when Tohru and Yuujirou tell Matsuoka about their family lives (or rather, embellish the facts in order to appeal to his emotions). There are a lot of "hey, remember when that happened in the original series?" moments, so it really will only appeal to those who understand all the little references and cameos.

Fujimori Academy is an elite institution for the education of young boys who may well grow up to be the movers and shakers of their respective fields. Unfortunately, in an all-male environment, the intense pressures of academic achievement come with little in the way of a social outlet...and so a peculiar institution was created: that of the "princesses." The princesses are physically attractive first-year students who receive special perks for dressing up like pretty girls. For an entire year, they willingly become eye candy and morale boosters for the rest of the student body.

Well, it's a new school year at Fujimori Academy; the last term's reigning trio of princesses, Kouno, Shihoudani, and Yutaka, the protagonists of Mikiyo Tsuda's series Princess Princess, have stepped down from their proverbial thrones in order to usher in the next generation. Taking their places are Kiriya Matsuoka and Tomoe Izumi, who for disparate reasons of their own are both eager to don their skirts and get to work. Izumi, as it turns out, is a rich kid who wants to become a princess to make friends with his new classmates. Matsuoka, meanwhile, has endured the death of both parents. His older brother supports him and his little sister, and he wants to become a princess to take advantage of the perks. Needless to say, social class friction between the two "ladies" is in the offing.

This interpersonal conflict--and, not unexpectedly, ultimate reconciliation--between Izumi and Matsuoka gives the standalone volume Princess Princess Plus added affective heft. Although the other book was wildly popular, spawning many an illustrated cover of Wings, a televised anime adaptation, piles of merchandise, and more, the focus was more upon the over-the-top spectacle of guys in frilly gowns. In contrast, this manga smartly shifts the focus away from the frilly gowns to the sometimes less attractive state of the characters' inner emotional troubles. When combined with the usual litany of lowbrow humor and Tsuda's confidently penned sequential art, Princess Princess Plus is fun at its finest.

Perhaps the biggest innovation, though, is Tsuda's decision to draw the princesses as teenage girls when on-duty, complete with improbable curves and proportions. Because they appear in costume less frequently than their predecessors, it's not very noticeable, but Tsuda discusses the creative decision at some length in an extended atogaki, which also reminisces about the creation of the Princess Princess anime and concludes that because this is really a fantasy story, fantasy proportions should be forgivable.

The focus of this manga is not the boys as fashion plates anyway. This is a character-driven piece, and the artwork, as well as the plot, attends to the boys during unguarded, off-duty moments. Tsuda's skills in all respects are perfectly suited for this sort of work. Princess Princess Plus tells a story of two very different, yet very unhappy, young men finding solace in the friendship of each other. At bottom, it is a simple tale, yet its simplicity is perhaps what makes it so appealing. Recommended.

-- Casey Brienza