Princess Ai

Princess Ai is the first manga I have read from a non-Japanese author. Its “written” by Courtney Love, the lead singer of grunge Band Hole and the illustration is done by Ai Yazawa. The manga was created during a time when western comic book companies like DC and Marvel were trying to capitalize on the growing popularity of manga and anime. The story focuses on Princess Ai, a young amnesiac girl who wakes up in Tokyo from Ai Land, a war torn planet. The word Ai in Japanese means love something you’ll see as a symbol throughout the story. The only clue to her pastshe has now is a heart shaped box. Anybody who touches the box can either be drugged if their are angels, but if a human touches it he/she will die in an instant. Princess Ai She meets a kind part time library worker and aspiring guitarist Kent, who allows her to stay at his place. She lands a job at Club Angel as a singer and her singing has the power to control the emotions of others depending on the songs she sings. All of the sudden out of nowhere both angels and humans want ruin her life. Princess Ai is more of a reflection of what would Courtney Love would see herself as instead of a separate person. Shes very ditzy and oblivious to things that happens to her. Everyone automatically loves her and she has natural talent instead of learning as time goes by. She can also be really stubborn and behaves terribly when she doesn’t get what she wants right away. At times, she can also be something of a pushover who cannot stand up to herself be it from malicious angels, manipulative talent agents. She seems incapable of making an independent decision. Anybody who hates her like the strippers are really just haters and this could be seen as a reference towards what Courtney Love thinks of people who have no interest in her music. Kent another character, is eerily similar to Kurt Cobain, the late husband of Courtney Love, and he looks a lot like him as well. There is also a pointless love triangle. Ai is in love with both Kent and Nora, the leader of the revolutionaries in Ai Land. Hikaru, Kent’s roommate is in love with Kent now both share a good friendship with one another but Kent doesn’t have any romantic attraction towards Hikaru. Hikaru doesn’t like Ai other for the reason that Ai likes Kent and is he has a pointless vendetta against her. He can be really campy at times too. The best I can say is the art style is this weird mix of gothic Lolita, science fiction and what Tokyo looked like in the mid 2000s. The character designs while good, were really just carbon copies of characters in already established media. It’s a fairly short book you can complete in about a day or two. The pacing of the story was fast and not too easy to understand, because of the brevity of the manga. Its really just a generic,self absorbed and one of the worst manga I have read.

First of all, I want to say that the art in this Manga is beautiful, and I really loved Ai's outfits and style. However, I will say that for a protagonist we're supposed to love and care about, she's pretty unlikable. She's like a mary sue, the plot bends itself to fit her and every character loves her for no reason. As for the story, i believe if it had more volumes to unravel the story a bit more slowly and we actually got to see some cool battles in Ai-Land-the place the whole story and the protagonist always talk about and the unbelievable conflictsthat happen there- it would probably be so much cooler. Really wanted to love Ai but she's just shitty.

Misaho Kujiradou's intricate and whimiscal shoujo style mixed with Ai Yazawa's beautiful, detailed gothic lolita character designs are a stark contrast to the poorly written, generic and cliche story that is Princess Ai Monogatari. The main character is a massive Mary Sue, who not once faces a let down she cannot beat by the power of love. The story is all tropes you've already seen a million times before, which is honestly just unfortunate as I think this story really could've been something great, did it not fall into a pattern of common cliches. Had the war in Ai-land been expanded on and had Ai been alittle more relatable than a natural talent, power of love Mary Sue, I think this story would've been miles better. I must say, this manga is largely carried by Misaho Kujiradou's artwork and Ai Yazawa's character designs... Only if youre a fan of gothic lolita fashion and able to read something only for the art would I recommend this.

i would like to thanks to my local library for introducing me to world of manga. i have first readen it in 5th class and didnt even knew what was going on! the only thing my 11 year old eyes saw was the gothic lolita fashion and the art style is what got me. 3 years later, in 8th class i have decided to give it a read again! so im here! finished series easily, even tho the manga comes from the early 2000`s i really appreciate the art style! i was also lucky cause i got all of the 3 volumes in slovenian! i honestlyrecommend it for anyone that is into manga from early 2000`s and gothic fashion (>.<)