Princess Ai (Princess AI)

Rating:
Summary: For those who feel uneasy about Courtney...
Review: When the book was first announced, I was immediately a little apprehensive. First I was concerned Courtney would take advantage of her publication and use it to glorify her appearance- it's easy to see that "Princess Ai", the main character, and her love interest "Kent" are based on herself and her deceased husband, Kurt Cobain. Secondly, I was worried that the book would be slandered unfairly by the crowd of anti-courtney fanatics, whom in my experience have no qualms about using horrible names against her and all her works. Having read about Courtney's controversial involvement in MANY matters thorughout the years, one of the biggest over the mysterious death of Kurt, I have established a wary mistrust of her work overall. But I wanted to give Princess Ai a chance because it looked very pretty and had a tasteful summary.

I concluded that the manga stands as a safe buy. However, I was somewhat uncomfortable with the presentation of Princess Ai and Kent because of their real-life connections. Ai was portrayed as a fiesty, beautiful, and talented young woman who was clear about maintaining her dignity; this was a little jarring when I thought about Courtney's recent troubles. Kent was made out as sweet and cool while being well appreciated by Ai, which completely goes against anti-Courtney claims that she had no respect or love for Kurt. The best thing to do seems to be to try to disregard previous feelings over the two if you want to enjoy the book, but personal interpretation is a must it comes to if Princess Ai will appeal to you. At least if you are aware of the story behind the creator, anyways.

For people who are just looking for a good manga to buy, I somewhat reccommend Princess Ai. The story kept sputtering into pointlessness and cliches, which got annoying. But there were some exceptional moments. The best thing is the art, the fashion being the best of any manga I've ever seen. (Yes,that includes Clamp)The dialogue is natural sometiems funny, but still, be careful about this one. This screams love-or-hate.

Rating:
Summary: This is NOT drawn by Ai Yazawa!!
Review: With all due respect to Ai Yazawa (I'm a fan of Paradise Kiss myself), it's disrespectful of the actual author of Princess Ai to give her the credit for this work. According to Tokyopop itself, Ms. Yazawa was employed to do initial character designs only. Please give credit where credit is due: the one who made Princess Ai into what it is is the manga-ka who has her name on the cover: Misaho Kujiradou.

As for the manga itself, I found it to be cute and pretty -- a light, enjoyable read, though I think ultimately Yu Watase's work is more rewarding!