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manga: Princess Knight Vol 1-2
Jun. 26th, 2012 09:04 pmThis classic shoujo series is a bizarre rollercoaster ride that manages to be charming despite constantly inducing a "WTF?" response.
In the reality of the series, before being born, babies are given a boy heart or a girl heart, based on their biological gender, before being born. Thanks to a bumbling angel the daughter of the king and queen of Silverland, Sapphire, is born with both a boy heart and a girl heart. Thanks to some massive miscommunication, word spreads that the infant is actually biologically male, and only males can inherit, so they decide to make the accidental deception a fullfledged one and raise her as male. (There is, naturally, an evil noble who believes Sapphire is really a girl and wants to expose her and put his son on the throne. Apparently they STRONGLY believe in gendercoded playthings there because he's put off by a couple toys and doesn't, you know, suggest anyone take a look under the diaper or anything.)
So Sapphire is raised a boy but gets to randomly wear a dress and wig and go frolic as a girl. Dueing one of her frolics, she meets Franz, the prince of a nearby kingdom, and they promptly fall in love. And then Franz gets falsely accused of a crime and decides he really really hates boy!Sapphire while pining for girl!Sapphire. And there are, you know, adventures and political shenanigans.
Most of which, so far, is normal fun genderbendy shoujo stuff. Except for the whole "two hearts" thing. But there is the whole "two hearts" thing. Apparently, Sapphire has both the most pure and delicate and refined girl heart ever and the most brave and strong and stalwart boy heart ever (and never the twain shall meet, unless they're in the same body and distinctly JUST DON'T GO TOGETHER YO!) and everyone is always trying to steal one or both hearts. Especially Madame Hell, a sorceress who wants to steal the girl heart and make her rebellious daughter, Hecate, be a pure and proper lady. (Hecate has no interest in this and so is constantly sneaking off to help Sapphire and Franz and giving her girl heart back. Hecate is my favorite.) When Sapphire only has the girl heart, she feels herself become weak and delicate and she's no longer brave and doesn't know what to do with that sword. When Sapphire only has the boy heart, he's brave and strong and has no time for icky feelings. The gender binary, it is mighty. (I suspect there's some pretty interesting meta out there about this series and transexuality.) At some point, you start to lose track of who has what heart and why they want it. I'm actually not sure Sapphire had EITHER heart at the end, though she appears to be pretty firmly girl!Sapphire.
Then there's the fairy tale elements. The series in general is set up to to put one in mind of the modern ideal of a European fairy tale (and there's actually one bit that seems directly out of Disney's Sleeping Beauty, though I think the movie may have actually come out a few years later, I say without bothering to check the dates) but it also constantly incorporates fairytales into the plot. Suddenly, Sapphire is a Swan! Suddenly, there's a forest of brambles! And when inserting fairy tale plots isn't enough, suddenly, pirates! Suddenly, amnesia! Suddenly, people are turning to stone! It'd probably take 20 volumes of most modern manga to have as much happen as happened in these 2 volumes. (Which are, combined, actually about the length of 3 1/2 normal sized manga volumes.
It's very entertaining and rather interesting in certain levels, and definitely should be read if you have an interest in the evolution of shoujo manga, but prepare yourself for a lot of oddness and crack and WTF-ery and random bits of misogyny. (There's one plotline where the women of Sapphire's kingdom stage a rebellion against the men because of sexism, and th men blatantly only put on a token display of changing and, as soon as the women relent, they're promptly sent off to do the laundry and the cooking and take care of the babies, because the men just couldn't handle doing that stuff.)
In the reality of the series, before being born, babies are given a boy heart or a girl heart, based on their biological gender, before being born. Thanks to a bumbling angel the daughter of the king and queen of Silverland, Sapphire, is born with both a boy heart and a girl heart. Thanks to some massive miscommunication, word spreads that the infant is actually biologically male, and only males can inherit, so they decide to make the accidental deception a fullfledged one and raise her as male. (There is, naturally, an evil noble who believes Sapphire is really a girl and wants to expose her and put his son on the throne. Apparently they STRONGLY believe in gendercoded playthings there because he's put off by a couple toys and doesn't, you know, suggest anyone take a look under the diaper or anything.)
So Sapphire is raised a boy but gets to randomly wear a dress and wig and go frolic as a girl. Dueing one of her frolics, she meets Franz, the prince of a nearby kingdom, and they promptly fall in love. And then Franz gets falsely accused of a crime and decides he really really hates boy!Sapphire while pining for girl!Sapphire. And there are, you know, adventures and political shenanigans.
Most of which, so far, is normal fun genderbendy shoujo stuff. Except for the whole "two hearts" thing. But there is the whole "two hearts" thing. Apparently, Sapphire has both the most pure and delicate and refined girl heart ever and the most brave and strong and stalwart boy heart ever (and never the twain shall meet, unless they're in the same body and distinctly JUST DON'T GO TOGETHER YO!) and everyone is always trying to steal one or both hearts. Especially Madame Hell, a sorceress who wants to steal the girl heart and make her rebellious daughter, Hecate, be a pure and proper lady. (Hecate has no interest in this and so is constantly sneaking off to help Sapphire and Franz and giving her girl heart back. Hecate is my favorite.) When Sapphire only has the girl heart, she feels herself become weak and delicate and she's no longer brave and doesn't know what to do with that sword. When Sapphire only has the boy heart, he's brave and strong and has no time for icky feelings. The gender binary, it is mighty. (I suspect there's some pretty interesting meta out there about this series and transexuality.) At some point, you start to lose track of who has what heart and why they want it. I'm actually not sure Sapphire had EITHER heart at the end, though she appears to be pretty firmly girl!Sapphire.
Then there's the fairy tale elements. The series in general is set up to to put one in mind of the modern ideal of a European fairy tale (and there's actually one bit that seems directly out of Disney's Sleeping Beauty, though I think the movie may have actually come out a few years later, I say without bothering to check the dates) but it also constantly incorporates fairytales into the plot. Suddenly, Sapphire is a Swan! Suddenly, there's a forest of brambles! And when inserting fairy tale plots isn't enough, suddenly, pirates! Suddenly, amnesia! Suddenly, people are turning to stone! It'd probably take 20 volumes of most modern manga to have as much happen as happened in these 2 volumes. (Which are, combined, actually about the length of 3 1/2 normal sized manga volumes.
It's very entertaining and rather interesting in certain levels, and definitely should be read if you have an interest in the evolution of shoujo manga, but prepare yourself for a lot of oddness and crack and WTF-ery and random bits of misogyny. (There's one plotline where the women of Sapphire's kingdom stage a rebellion against the men because of sexism, and th men blatantly only put on a token display of changing and, as soon as the women relent, they're promptly sent off to do the laundry and the cooking and take care of the babies, because the men just couldn't handle doing that stuff.)