About the Mangaka

Tsuda Mikiyo is one of two pen names, the other being Zao Taishi. No idea what her real name is sorry. The reason for the two names was to keep the fact that she drew manga about gay relationships from her family. Under her Mikiyo name she would release shojo comedy stories, and yaoi/yuri is released under the Taishi name.

About the Manga

If like me your a huge fan of the anime, you may be mildly disappointed with the manga. Since it doesn’t handle certain events as well as the anime does. However, after reading this through several times now, I find I do love the series, and it was worth all the, the begging, the pleading, the threatening to blow up shops, to get.

I’m going to do things in a slightly different order this time around, and I’m going to talk about the publisher first. Digital Manga Publishing released this before they changed their slip cover policy. As a result these five volumes come with what can only described as luscious, bright, and vibrant covers.

Without even reading the volumes I fell in love with the covers. However the real blessing comes from them actually having slip covers. This meant that DMP were free to leave the cover manga intact, which the did. Underneath the slip covers, on the back and front covers are short series of manga by Mikiyo. A reverse Princess Princess called….Prince Prince hehe where it’s the same characters, but gender reversed. So they’re all girls in an all girls school dressing as Princes, personally I found these bloody funny.

They loose points on the paper quality, which is pretty bad. But almost all publishers were using that paper grade at the time. With the exception of Infinity Studios.

The other area they lost some points with me was the translation. Reading it through I noticed a few “dude” words in there. And yes they weren’t many, it did niggle me into wondering if anything else had been added or changed. However I will admit that the translation flowed well and I had no other issues with it.

Another area that caught my attention though was the honorific’s, they were there one minute but not the next, depending on who was talking. Not sure if it was like that in the original japanese version, but to me it felt a little weird.

Where they lost big marks though was on the guttering. Considering these volumes are larger than average there shouldn’t be much guttering, however I found loads. I hate damaging books by having to bend the spine back to read them

All of that said though, the art and story make up for the faults and I love the series. It’s one of the series that’s going in my book bag. That’s a bag I take with me when I go away over night or on holiday. It holds the manga I want to read frequently. It also sits by my bed and carries the manga I read when I’m chilling out on the bed or soaking in the bath

Right, onto the art

As you can see the covers are awesome, and frankly they look even better on big glossy slip covers. The art on the back covers are equally awesome, and IMO are better than the front covers, cause they look just so damned cute!!

I have to be upfront and honest about something before we go on though. This series was an easy sell for me, since I have a thing for cross-dressing/gender bending stories. Two of my all time favourites are Family Compo (unlicensed *sniff sniff*) and Yubisaki Milk Tea (YAY!!! for TP restarting this in April).

Anyway, moving on…..

The art inside the volumes isn’t great a lot of the time. However it’s not bad, rather it’s unpolished. However as I read through the volumes I sort of got the impression that she was doing it deliberately in a bid to heighten the differences between the appearances of the normal guys and the Princesses. Though I feel that was unnecessary since they (the Princesses) are stunning.

Out of the three characters I’m torn between Yuu and Tohru, both have their moments when it’s totally easy to forget they’re guys. The way they’re drawn, even when not in their outfits is fairly effeminate, though Tohru is more so than Yuu.

Miko’s character design could easily have passed both of them for being effeminate, however his personality and the way he acts never lets you forget he’s a guy. Even at the end  when he’s supposedly accepted it he looks to sullen and pouty to really be a girl.

The other main characters, such as Arisada, Sakamoto and his family, are all really well drawn, and I found myself as surprised as Yuu and Tohru when certain things are revealed hehe

As the volumes continue we see marked improvements in Mikiyo’s art, as it becomes more refined and polished. Though that’s not unexpected since the series was done over a four year span.

Out of all of the character the only one I despised, in both design and personality, was Mitaka. He just doesn’t fit into the series very well IMO. He feels wrong and out of place. Though I understand why he was added, so as to be a rival to Sakamoto, but it didn’t work well.

The story is written very well, and the general premise of it is something that I can not fault, and was bound to be a win. As I got into the story I really found myself getting drawn in, and when Sayaka turns up I had high hopes.

Sadly this is the one area where anime fans will feel let down. The initial confrontation between Yuu, Tohru and Sayaka is done awesomely, and I had really high expectations for the next encounter. Especially with the way the Mikiyo builds it up. However she fails to follow through, and Sayaka gees from spoilt bitch fixated on her brother, to a almost loving and caring little sister. The drastic change with no in between happening, was highly unsatisfying. Especially after the awesome way the anime handles this.

While the story has nothing really special about it, it’s the three guys in the various outfits that are the show stopper. They looking stunning in each and every outfit. Though I have to admit the constant goth loli look gets a bit wearing, would have been nice to see some others.

The main thing though I feel, or at least in the first few volumes, was the relationship being built between the three princesses. And I have to admit I love following their interactions. Especially as we follow both Yuu and Tohru dealing with their own personal family issues. These, for the most part, worked out well, and with the above exception, were a great read.

However I have to admit that I found Arisada to be highly annoying, and as the volumes played out my feelings towards him changed greatly. In the anime, and in the initial volumes, he’s presented as a forceful and determined person, but not without heart. His basic thought was presented as being “I went through all this, so can you. And you can’t run away!!”. I have to admit I liked that aspect of him. However by the end of volume five I hated him almost as much as Mitaka. Because he’s revealed as nothing more than a megalomaniac out for power.

This in and of itself wouldn’t be a bad thing, but I felt it was presented in a to “in your face” way. Which smothers the underlying story. This for me was made worse with the arrival of Mitaka.

Having two characters with the same personality traits and same megalomania really felt spoilt.

That’s not to say it couldn’t have worked out well, if it had gone for another volume or so. One of the reasons the end fails is because Mitaka is brought in to fast and events unfold to fast. There’s not enough time for any form of relationship to be built between Miko and Mitaka, as well as Sakamoto and Mitaka. Considering these two relationships played a pivotal role, it was disappointing.

Overall though, I have to admit this series was worth the grief to get. With all it’s flaws I can’t hate it. The final ending leads into possible new series, and while we do sort of get it with Princess Princess Plus, I’m still living in the hope of more Princess Princess volumes.

Also, because I love this series it does make my grade and gets added to my Essential Read List. I feel it more than earns it’s place on my list with its awesome covers, interesting story and likeable characters. Not to mention seeing Yuu and Tohru all dressed up as goth nurses and maids

Where to Buy

Note: The Akadot search is total fail, you’ll need to scroll down to the Princess Princess volumes. Also for some reason Akadot lists this series as Yaoi, it is not, it’s a Shojo

• Brits: Play.com or Amazon UK or Akadot
• Yanks: Borders or Amazon US or Akadot
• Canadians: Chapters or Amazon CA or Akadot