Blame it on Buffy. When I learned that Del Ray had just licensed a new series starring a chainsaw-wielding, tiara-wearing protagonist who dispatched the undead without breaking so much as a fingernail, I felt a twinge of nostalgia for the early seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer–back when Buffy was just a guilty pleasure, and not the object of postcolonial academic inquiry. I don’t know if Princess Resurrection will offer the same mixture of social satire, grrrrl power, and slayage, but Del Ray’s synopsis makes me hopeful:

There are monsters in this world—we all know that—and we all need a hero to keep them at bay. Enter Princess Hime, who fights off the forces of evil with plenty of flair. And, of course, she wields a wicked chainsaw. PRINCESS RESURRECTION will be in stores in the early summer, but the creatures of the night are already shaking in their supernatural boots!

A sneak peek at Kodansha’s Princess Resurrection page suggests that xxxHolic fans will find much to like about Yasunori Mitsunaga’s artwork and character designs, while a glance at ICv2’s series overview indicates that Bruce Campbell fans might take a shine to this “cute” but “bloodsoaked” heroine as well. Plot details and dialogue… well, we’ll just have to wait until May to see if they do justice to the concept.