For the majority of you who read my blog (the few of you there are) you probably don't know what this manga is. And if you do, then I really hope you've read it and liked it! If not, well okay that's fine. For the rest of you who came from a random search, and by random I mean Google, then this is just me explaining my love for this series and my happiness at finally knowing the hiatus is at it's end. And re-reading the entirety of it as I continue to the next chapters. ^w^
FUCK YEAH!
Excuse my language. (Censorship is real?)
Shounen Oujo or Mimic Royal Princess for you Americans who can't remeber that simple title name (I'm a little pissy about the name change for English) it's back. This amazing world, characters, ART, and sassiness, not to mention the holy cRAP DID ***** JUST DIE?!?!? moments that happen more than once in this manga series that is finally, finally, back where it belongs. In the update box and on my screen.
So for those who will look at the tags and immdediantly scrap this thing down to a trap manga that their straight ass can't be dealt with, think again! (although I am being overly dramatic and am just kidding around when I say this, I did read a comment that praised the series but had actually decided to stop reading it if it had any yaoi elements in it...) This series, although a genderbender, is not just to trap the boners and the minds of fanboys looking for a pretty little tsundere princess.
No. This, from the get go, goes into a unique kingdom that features an onslaught of political problems and social issues. And you know what that means? Summary time!
In a country where women rule supreme, there lives a poor, but happy boy named Albert. An excursion to the city turns dangerous when he and his friend are abducted by slave traders and later purchased by a noblewoman's servant. If this wasn't crazy enough, it turns out Albert looks exactly like the young noblewoman who purchased him. But she's not ordinary aristocrat. She's the princess! And he's to act as her double for today on wards?
Add in a few issues with the royal family, mommy issues, and a rising sense of responsibility for the young princess; the manga features many intakes on gender identity, biology of the female and what is expected of them, bearing of heirs, and of course, protection of the ultimately failing country.
Though that is the official summary of the series, if very quickly branches out from some simple little ploy direction that I'm sure some of you are already convinced that this series would be going towards. In fact, the plot changes rather drastically in less than 5 chapters (if I remember correctly) and it heats up fast. In reality, the princess wants to experience freedom before becoming an inevitable ruler of her country. Which for her means being strong, apathetic, cunning and smart. She also searches for the reason to protect the country she's been born to rule, considering she's only seen it from the palace windows.
Though I have only just recently come to realize the taboo-ness of the gender bender genre when it comes to boys turning into girls (aka, traps) this isn't just some moe blob that tries to make you question whether that's a boy or a girl and if you can ship it or not. No, its a very original idea and its well executed, pegging all of the realistic questions and making for quite a nice fantasy world and serious story that no one was really expecting from the title Shounen Oujo or the Boy Princess.
The series went on hiatus after it's third volume back in 2013 and I was devastated when I found out. It just recently came back last year in 2015 full blast and I'm ready! In fact, once I'm done writing this, I'm going to go re-read the whole series and move into the new chapters that I've long been awaiting! The artist, Yukihiro Utako, did the character designs for the original Uta no Prince-Sama characters and is also the artist for the weirdly popular series, Makai Ouji or Devils and Realist. Yes, there are gay undertones in that, even if shounen ai or yaoi aren't in the tags. I mean. Free and basically every male sports anime in recent times. But unlike the two series that I just mentioned, females are very present in this series and are very relevant.
Yukihiro, despite being an extremely talented artist, did not write either Shounen Oujo or Makai Ouji or her own. The story author alongside her for Shounen Oujo is Musashino Zenko. And for Maki Ouji the author wasn't her at all. It was all done by Takadone Madoka.
To end this I will say that I completely recommend the series just in case you didn't already get that. Bye now! Gotta go read the updates!
