Princess Knight 3
Posted: May 16, 2010 Filed under: Princess Knight 1 Comment »Osamu Tezuka – Kodansha – 1999 – 6 volumes
this is the bilingual version, published in Japan
Ooh, it’s been awhile since I picked this one up! It’s got such a nice spine design (when you line all six volumes up, they form an illustration) that I put the next two volumes on the shelf and forgot I hadn’t read them. I’ve got the last two volumes coming in the mail right now, so I’m looking forward to the second half of the series.
Poor Sapphire still can’t catch a break, and the story is still winding itself in interesting ways through a fairy tale landscape. After being turned into a swan, Sapphire finds herself in a situation where the witch has the upper hand and is very close to marrying her daughter Hecate to the mesmerized Prince Charm. Luckily, Tink shows up and is the only one that can fight Madame Hell’s evil magic with his angel… uh, stuff. Madame Hell turns into Maleficient a big dragon when they fight, and of course everything winds up okay. Except Prince Charm is still angry at Prince Sapphire while being completely smitten with Sapphire’s blonde, female alternate identity.
Other chapters focus on an evil island where Sapphire’s mother is taken and promptly turned to stone, a band of pirate allies, and a chapter where Tink has to make the tough choice to follow God’s wishes or to continue to support Sapphire. This also features one of the weakest/old-fashioned moments in the volume: when Sapphire is completely dominating the evil Sir Nylon with her swordfighting abilities, God freezes time and takes her male heart. When time starts back up, she completely loses the will to fight and all her strength, promptly taking a beating from the annoying Nylon. This brings up the question of whether Sapphire is actually a strong female, or is only strong because she is also part male.
The pace is pretty slow, and the story is very old-fashioned, but the story is still very charming, and Sapphire makes for a wonderful heroine. This is a long stretch of story featuring nothing but bad breaks for Sapphire, so I’m even more caught up in what’s going to happen next… because it can’t all be bad news.
[...] of One Piece (A Case Suitable for Treatment) Shannon Fay on vol. 6 of Otomen (Kuriousity) Connie on vol. 3 of Princess Knight (Slightly Biased Manga) Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Ratman (I Reads You) Greg McElhatton on vol. [...]