Why is Toru Kono receiving such an overly warm welcome at his new all boys school? He has yet to discover the secret system called "Hime (Princess)" in effect at the school. Boys who are chosen have to dress up as a girl in every school event! Little does Toru know that he would be the chosen one.
I really enjoyed the art style except for one glaring aspect. Everyone had the same or similar faces. It was like the artist copied someone’s eyes and had just pasted it onto EVERYONE. It got ridiculous.
The story was alright. The main character (who I totally thought was a girl crossdressing) gets roped into this thing called “Princesses.” • Each handsome boy in the school in 1st year is pretty much required/forced to join the Princesses. The princesses are dressed up like girls and are supposed to basically support the guys’ sports and be eye candy. They get into this princess thing because it’s an all guys’ school with no girls.
I thought the story was REALLY weird. Why would you force someone to crossdress? It was told well but it still made me question everyone who forced/bribed them.
Character wise, it was decently done. There are the classic tropes (tsundere, handsome guy) but it was executed pretty decently. Sometimes I got the feeling that the characters were fleshed out quite well and other times....
===== So many of Digital Manga Publishing’s mangas are so strange....
Note: This is a cumulative review for Volumes 01-05 of Princess Princess.
-----------------------------------------------
Premise: Pretty boys in an all-boys school crossdress in order to provide "inspiration" and "a touch of delicacy" to their starving male classmates.
1. Okay so, hear me out. I know the premise is ridiculous and I KNOW it's not even ridiculous in a good way. I mean "men need to have women around to provide civilization because they go berserk without a feminine touch" is absolute bullshit and I recognize that I DO.
2. BUT. Mikiyo Tsuda does this thing where she takes this absolute batshit crazy premise, regularly has her protagonists point out that it's a bullshit premise, and tells stories touching upon themes of masculinity, cultishness, and the advantages/disadvantages of being exceptionally, androgynously pretty (ngl, that's in the Kryptonite folder). I need to note that the themes aren't exactly deep explorations into the topic, but they are there which is unusual enough to warrant a notice.
3. And, to be fair, I'm not in here for the explorations of gender constructs (although yes, the fact that the story revolves around gender constructs even if it doesn't deeply explore them makes me feel comfortable). I'm here for the many many funny gags and the friendship between the leads. Well, between Tooru and Yuujirou at any rate. They kinda got sidelined in favor of Akira and the new guy towards the end and let me tell you I was not happy about that.
4. Yuujirou Shihodani is an example of a character archetype I absolutely adore- a male character who is (a) more pretty than handsome (and also more pretty than anyone else period), (b) casually unconcerned about how his masculinity (or lack thereof) presents itself to the world in general, (c) exhibits at least a working knowledge (and frequently more) of how social systems work and how to twist them to his advantage, (d) absolutely ferally ride or die for his very few loved ones and (e) at heart a chaos gremlin gleefully stirring shit up just to amuse himself.
Any one of these traits is usually something I absolutely adore in a male character. Combinations of said traits (Eg: Aiden from Fence, Vol. 1, Laurent from Captive Prince, Usui from Maid-sama! Vol. 01, Byerly Vorryuter from A Civil Campaign, Thomas Raith from Blood Rites) usually catapult those male characters to the top of my favourite characters lists (I have TYPES okay?) and Yuujirou was not an exception.
5. And you know what's better than ONE chaos gremlin? It's a generally normal guy being exposed to said chaos gremlin and discovering his true calling as a chaos gremlin and that my friends is Tooru. There's something just beautifully happiness-inducing about watching a character who's subdued and wary and stressed out at the start of the story slowly grow into a feral gremlin who is IN CAHOOTS with the OTHER feral gremlin.
6. God, I love those two assholes. And I really love their relationship? I don't care if it becomes romantic or stays platonic- just the way they play off each other is so adorable and hilarious. It's one of those "I WILL annoy you if I don't get anyone else to bug but also we will instantly and immediately gang up on anyone who tries to criticize either of us themselves just the facts" things.
And they are so soft with each other, but they are grumpysoft. They show their affection by being grumps. Yuujirou gets stressed about the possibility of Tooru leaving and tries to arrange people and places into convincing him to stay. (ON THAT NOTE: Mikoto's reaction to idea of being left alone to be Yuujirou's punching bag is both very valid and very hilarious.) Tooru decides to stay but deliberately emotionally blackmails Yuujirou into telling him that he'll miss Tooru. They are adorable trolls and I love them and again- I was very disappointed when the later volumes shifted the focus away from them.
7. Tooru and Yuujirou both have family conflicts that form part of the plot; Tooru's subplot is pretty questionable in taste because the Yandere trope is...uh. It makes me me uncomfortable. It was also solved really fast, especially when you consider the sheer drama of how the conflict was introduced. (I kinda suspect the author changed the original plot in order to focus on the more popular characters? Idk. Maybe I'm just projecting.) Yuujirou's family drama was a lot more to my taste because it's self-aware teenage angst and about the conflict of caring so much that you drift apart from your loved ones and- idk. It felt a lot more real to me and it was all rather adorable?
8. Mikoto was honestly more of a plot device than a character? Or well. I guess he's more of a joke repository than he's a plot device because a lot of the humor in the books come from his idealizations of masculinity and the two assholes bullying him in tandem about them. Which is- okay, I don't support teasing which makes the other party uncomfortable in real life for any reason, but I'm absolutely going to laugh if masculinity is the butt of the joke in a story and I'm going to laugh with minimal regrets.
9. The whole Akira student council election subplot was- hmm. It felt like a story that's far removed from Mikiyo Tsuda's usual gender subversive themes? Akira is fine and all, but the story of a competent, clever guy who's physically unimposing winning over the physically imposing guy with his sweetness is not quite as interesting as two standoffish chaos gremlins finding true friendship with each other? Just saying.
10. Arisada is the student council president and he's also a terrifying chaos gremlin. He's a terrifying chaos gremlin with no limits and zero qualms about anything and there are a couple of absolutely hilarious panels in the first volume where people panic about the possibility of him going into government. It's excellent.
11. My absolute favorite panel in this whole series is the one where Mikoto imagine-spots how Akira has the three most terrifying people in the school eating out of his hand and then tears up because the whole thing is terrifying. The expressions are wonderful.
12. So anyway. Princess Princess is frequently weird and ocassionally tone-deaf, but it's also consistently funny and has an absolutely adorable friendship. Re-reading it got my out of my reading slump. //nodnod
With no girls in the all boys school, the most beautiful boys become princesses to provide a bit of femininity to their starving male classmates.
Don't say anything, I know that premise is absolutely insane and the actual story is somehow even more insane. But. It just kinda works, okay? It's hilarious and the characters are just great. (One complaint is that all of their character designs are quite similar and sometimes I really struggle with trying to tell who is who...)
Maybe part of this is just nostalgia for me as this was one of my favourite series when I was younger. And honestly? I think that explains a lot about the way I am as a person today
2.5 ⭐️ La storia è davvero priva di senso, e ogni tanto appare ripetitiva. I personaggi fisicamente si confondono tra loro perché non hanno moltissimi segni distintivi, ma alcuni di loro sembrano interessanti, vedremo nel prossimo volume. Mi ha comunque incuriosita abbastanza da andare avanti, ma credo sia perché ormai ho gli altri volumi e non voglio “sprecarli”.
Kun poikakoulussa on puutetta tytöistä, kauneimmista pojista tulee prinsessoja, jotka tarjoavat ihailun kohteen. Varsin mielenkiintoinen (ja aika kyseenalainen) systeemi.
I didn't know much about this series and it wasn't quite what I expected but the surprise was positive. At least this first volume was actually a quite cute comedy. The cross-dressing isn't laughed at and although one of the characters heavily opposes it, there's no ugly name-calling or things like that. Yeees, the boys are worried if they need to show up outside school in their dresses/costumes but it's all light-hearted and two of the "princesses" has a nice "let's-go-with-the-flow" attitude. The backcover of the Finnish edition mentions BL but Tsuda says in the post-script this isn't a BL series, so there's probably not real relationships here.
But yeah, nice surprise and I hope the series stays this way, I got the rest of the volumes in line for reading.
Rereading my beloved prince(sses), Tohru Kouno, Yuujirou Shihoudani, and Mikoto Yutaka spending a whole year parading in cute dresses and be the all-male school idols are always fun and interesting. While marathon this story, I also read the other books that contains two of the supporting characters: Akira Sakamoto and Mikoto Yutaka.
Princess Princess is a bit of an oddity in the BL genre, because its not really a romance (at least not so far) but more a tale of male friendship - I suppose in the vein of Antique Bakery and Free! However with less slashability and more cross dressing!
Kouno transfers to a new school and is met by an unexpectedly warm welcome usually only given to cute girls... Only this is an all boy's school. He learns that there is a weird tradition where the prettiest boys dress up in Gothic Lolita Costumes and are known as Princesses - They are school pin-ups and give the boys a way to vent their frustrated lusts, as well as cheerleaders motivating the students. Because of his good looks Kouno is selected and he along with two other guys Shihoudani and reluctant Mikoto become cross-dressing school celebrities.
So this is a weird one in the genre, but the art is nice and the characters are engaging. Curious to see how the series develops.
I. Love. This. Series. Mostly because it's such a fucking madcap romp with forced cross dressing at an all boys school and we get to catch up with characters we've seen in other series (Family Complex, The Day of Revolution). I couldn't even tell you why I love this series so much, honestly: I just do. The first volume has some problematic content — Mikoto getting groped a lot and being wholeheartedly against being a Princess but forced to do it anyway — but considering most shonen-ai manga (which, I don't care what Tsuda says, this is baity af and she originally intended for it to be yaoi and it shows), that's relatively tame.
My dad accidentally bought me this book because he said “well you’re my princess so I got you this!” Without knowing the book is about crossdressing men. And yeah I don’t like this manga, the joke is sort of funny but gets dull in the FIRST VOLUME, boring and unfunny, wouldn’t recommend.
Princess Princess | プリンセス・プリンセス Purinsesu Purinsesu è un manga di genere Shōnen'ai scritto ed illustrato da Mikiyo Tsuda, pubblicato dalla Star Comics.
Trama Il protagonista principale, Toru Kouno, s'è appena trasferito ad appena due mesi dall'inizio dell'anno scolastico, dopo aver vissuto con la famiglia dello zio per un certo tempo, in quello che ha fama d'esser l'istituto più elitario della regione, il Fujimori. Qui gli studenti locali han col tempo sviluppato una consuetudine del tutto speciale, quella cioè d'elegger i più bei ragazzi col titolo di Principesse della scuola.
Com'è da immaginarsi Toru viene immediatamente selezionato e poi scelto (anche a causa del suo bel visetto e sguardo profondo) per esser una Hime-Principessa: si tratta d'una tradizione ormai di lunga data, creata al fine di ravvivar e diversificar l'atmosfera della vita scolastica d'ogni giorno (l'istituto è difatti esclusivamente maschile). Gli studenti, sulla base di determinate caratteristiche, vengon passati attraverso una severissima selezione e poi eventualmente scelti per esser le "Principesse" di tutti: dovran vestirsi da ragazze e comportarsi come tali durante tutte le manifestazioni pubbliche e sportive, ma anche durante le più comuni attività quotidiane. All'inizio della nostra storia vi sono già due principesse di questo tipo, Yuujiro e Mikoto, conosciute anche come rispettivamente la principessa occidentale ed orientale (in riferimento alla posizione in cui si trova il loro camerino privato, ad Ovest e ad Est), designati all'inizio dell'anno.
Toru viene convinto a diventar una principessa subito dopo il suo arrivo, per motivi esclusivamente veniali (vi son molti buoni sconto per il pranzo riservati alle principesse) ma poi, accettato che ebbe e proseguendo con questa sua nuova attività, scopre che la cosa è forse molto più divertente e il lavoro più piacevole di quanto avesse pensato in un primo momento.
Gambarnya bagus, ceritanya juga kadang-2 lucu...tapi (imho) cuma gitu-2 aja, dan kadang ceritanya jadi gak jelas~
Mungkin karena premis awalnya buatku udah 'ajaib'? (^,,^)
Yaitu: sekolah cowok butuh figur cewek untuk menyemarakkan hari-hari para murid, dan solusinya adalah... *jrengjreeng* ...salah satu murid cowok yang 'cantik' harus jadi 'cewek-idola' alias princess di sekolah itu~ #why *gagalpaham*
EDIT: I think this was the one with the supercute reference by one of the characters to the panel's background. I really like self-referential manga (breaking the fourth wall) for some reason.
Some interesting clothes styles, but not much happens (and to not very intriguing characters). "Meh" was my initial response to it when I read it, and looking back at it... it still remains a "meh".
Loved the anime and the manga looks just as kooky and lovely! And the art is fab! :D I think I like the boys' looks even more in the manga than in the anime! :D
i was a bit disappointed that this was NO shonen-ai/yaoi after all, more of a cute little shojo story without female protagonists... but i guess i should've informed myself in the first place