Murder Princess was originally published in the now defunct, quarterly, seinen magazine, Dengeki Teioh. Mangaka Sekihiko Inui was only able to publish two volumes of his manga. Murder Princess, the complete set, will put you back $20- $9.99/ volume.

Fortunately for Inui, his manga drew enough attention in its brief run to be a candidate for an anime. The Murder Princess anime was released as a six episode OVA in Japan in March, 2006. No word yet as to whether or not the anime will be licensed in the US.

In the final installment of the Murder Princess series is some actual character development, yay!

Plot summary

Alita, Milano and the kingdom of Forland are under siege by powerful evil forces; one wants the kingdom, the other wants a mysterious key, and yet another is causing ordinary citizens to do hideous acts of violence. The first evil force is none other than Dr. Akamashi and his adorable loli-droids. The second is as of yet unnamed, but has strong ties to Milano/ Alita and the last is in the purvey of the shinigami, Dominikov.

Somehow, all these forces are linked to a central figure; someone who’s not yet made an appearance on the stage but is pulling some strings behind the curtains. It’s up to Alita, Milano, and Dominikov to set things right before chaos is unleashed upon the world of Shandina.

review

Just when things were getting complex and developing actual plot, whoosh!, the carpet gets pulled out from under mangaka, Inui, and we the readers. I feel cheated, since towards the end of the manga, I was starting to connect with Falis. It wasn’t much, but it was hella more than it was the previous manga. Not just that, but more players were revealed, background was given, and development, like wine, was starting to ferment and bubble.

If Murder Princess was given one or two more volumes, it would have blossomed into a full fledged manga. I even bet Inui would have interjected a bit of personality into the manga as well, poor guy.

In the first half of volume two, there’s a few revelations,- sorry, they’re spoilers so I won’t elaborate- a teeny tiny bit of background for Milano and more insight as to who Dominikov is and what he does. Not much, but it was something. In between the wee bit o’ development are the gratuitous fight scenes (not as much as the previous volume, though) and some brutal decapitations by an unknown killer.

The blood and gore was present as ever in the manga but this time, there was some plot.

The second half was a landslide of info with more background, motives, and relationships defined. Then, as quick as you can say “landslide!”, the series ended. Poof. Gone. Done. Over with. The expectation after finishing this volume was to see the story continue to develop as Inui got into his groove. Reading the afterword dispelled any hope of that; which is a pity since it seemed like the manga was growing into its potential.

The art stayed strong the whole series through. The amazing details and crisp work didn’t bat an eye as the manga rushed to its demise. Panels were still impressive and a few of the fight scenes were simply fantastic . Character designs also kept up the quality with detailed illustrations that didn’t feel too busy or distracting.

Murder Princess, Volume Two was right on the cusp of turning the series into something more than a blood bath with a lacy princess, when it went over a cliff and smashed into oblivion. If nothing else, read the “series” as a testament to how good manga art can be and as a primer to the anime. It’s worth the $19.99.

out of a possible four gummies.

In Murder Princess, readers get to choose if they want to turn the page to see what the adorable killing machine does next…

plot summary

The kingdom of Forland has just lost her king in a bloody coup d’etat headed by the mad scientist, Dr. Akamashi. With Prince Kite off on matters of the kingdom, the only one who can unite Forland against this threat is Princess Alita.

As Alita dashes off to find her princely brother, she tumbles over a cliff and falls to her doom…almost. Colliding head to head with the female bounty hunter, Falis, Alita is saved from death but is no longer in possession of her body. Falis and Alita’s collision has caused the two to switch souls and the heir apparent is now Falis!

After listening to Alita’s pleas for help, Falis uses her formidable strength to overthrow Dr. Akashima’s lolita battle androids and restores peace to Forland; well, at least for five minutes.

More threats to Forland’s security are now emerging but the new, improved Princess Alita, along with her two companions, Pete and Dominikov, protects Forland like no ruler ever has before. Princess Alita is so fierce in battle, she has been dubbed “Murder Princess”.

Alita meanwhile, dons the guise of Milano Entrasia, servant to Princess Alita. Milano and the Princess won’t let anything harm Forland while under their rule!

review

Murder Princess is a good read. It has a unique angle to the “princess in peril” bit and enjoyable characters.

Thus far in the story, there isn’t a lot of character development, but I don’t miss it as much I would have if this had been an anime. I don’t know if there will be much character development in later issues, but it’s not a bad thing to rely heavily on gratuitous action every now and again- oh, yeah, I went there.

The action is well paced and doesn’t come at you in a brutal, non-stop manner and the manga is easier to read because of it. And there is a lot of action going on in this manga, with Princess Alita/ Falis taking on Forland’s enemies, and a ton of blood being spattered around in the process. Pete and Dominikov also dispense some pain alongside their “master”. Dominikov is interesting as a powerful death god who’s somehow the servant of a bounty hunter, yet strong enough to fight chaos incarnate. Interesting.

The fight scenes are sometimes humorous, especially when the loli-droids are involved: How is it not funny to see a blood thirsty princess dressed to the nines, hacking up mutant killer bees controlled by jail-bait in bee costumes?

Milano/ Alita seems to actually like being the stereotypical meido. She’s not as annoying as I thought she would be, mainly because she’s not given much panel time in the manga, despite the fact that she’s still the princess after all’s said and done.

The focus in Murder Princess is more about the murder and less about the actual princess. The real Alita has been relegated to background noise and only steps in now and again to impart some wisdom of the kingdom. The spotlight so far has been on Falis and her ass-kicking abilities. Murder Princess doesn’t pretend to be a deep, theological good-versus-evil manga; it’s a butt- whomping, sword-swinging, pain-imparting manga served up with a smile by a cutesy princess.

Compared to other manga I’ve read, Murder Princess is very visual (all manga is visual, duh, but bear with me). Each panel is efficiently laid out and the crisp lines make the pages turn themselves. There’s no muddied messages, no going “What was that thing in the background?” and no mistake as to what’s being said, both visually and literally; the reading went quickly with such a well planned manga The overall lay-out is fantastic with whole pages beautifully filled in.

Holy Crap! That’s what I said when I saw the art for Murder Princess. The art itself looks more like anime and less like manga; giving the manga the feel of a book of anime stills. Inui did a helluva job with the detailing and shading- the line work is super sharp, and very clean. A lot of effort went into making this manga a highly polished product. It was like getting fillet mignon when you were expecting a Big MacTM.

I like the character designs; they’re simple but perfectly executed. The two loli-droids are the busiest designs in the manga thus far, and I appreciate the artist’s restraint in that regard. I like the way Inui drew the facial expressions; the “OMG!” reactions to Alita never got old.

The covers for the manga also went the extra mile with the rich designs, beautiful colors and glossy-on-matte contrasts, making the outside of the manga just as polished as the inside.

My one negative comment on Murder Princess is that it’s too polished. A lot of manga has the following they do because they have personality that fans can relate to. Hellsing is messy, gritty and muddy, but screams its defiance against the “polished” establishment into the ears of eager fans who snatch Hirano’s work up in droves. There’s something to be said about adding more than what readers expect to a finished product. Murder Princess is great as is, but with a wee bit of personality, it’ll be fantastic.

out of a possible four gummies.

Read my Murder Princess, Volume Two review