Princess Princess Plus

When I stumbled upon Princess Princess Plus I was overjoyed to have discovered another work by Mikiyo Tsuda- author of Princess Princess and Family Complex. While this particular work fell short of her others in all aspects except for art I still enjoyed the manga and suggest giving it a try. Story- 7 The plotline of Princess Princess Plus is similar to that of Tsuda’s hit series Princess Princess (duh) in the sense that two boys are chosen from a freshman class of all boys to be “Princesses” or males who dress as females to lighten the depressing aura of a school without girls. However opposedto the previous series which focused more on the role of the princesses this manga revolves around the relationship of the two new princesses, rich, clueless Izumi Tomoe and poor, blunt Matsuoka Kiriya as they try to form a bond despite their drastically different backgrounds. First impression? Glaringly cliché. Art- 10 Tsuda never fails in this aspect and the art is, as always, beautiful. Beautiful boys grace every page of this mange complete with flowering backgrounds and sparkling auras. Character- 6 There are some very entertaining characters in this manga, just not the two main ones. Izumi Tomoe is rich and clueless however he ultimately means well and is just searching for the love never given to him by his work obsessed parents. Matsuoka Kiriya on the other hand is poor and insensitive living with his male host elder brother and innocent little sister Matsuoka has trouble letting his guard down after the untimely death of his two parents. Sound familiar? Of course it does. These are the stereotypical descriptions of all high and low class anime character that ever graced the manga scene. Personally I enjoyed the eccentric air of the supporting cast far more then these two. Overall- 7 Art alone is not enough to carry a series and although this had enjoyable moments the characters did not engage me- although I could very easily stare at them all day.