By Mikiyo Tsuda
Digital Manga Publishing, 191 pp.
Rating: 16+

Picking up directly after the events of Princess Princess, the Princess tradition at Fujimori Academy continues with this year’s two new Princesses, Matsuoka and Izumi. There’s a problem though: Izumi is the heir to a large security company, whereas Matsuoka has no parents and relies on his older brother in order to make ends meet. Will Matsuoka’s resentment of Izumi’s lifestyle ruin the harmonious Princess image for the year? Will Isumi’s desperate wish for the two of them to become friends be realized? Former Princesses Kouno, Shihoudani, and Yutaka are there to make sure everything goes smoothly.

Including the five volumes of Princess Princess, this is actually the ninth book in this loosely related “series.” The two-volume Day of Revolution follows Yutaka’s girlfriend, and Family Complex stars the student council president, Akira Sakamoto, along with his entire family. There’s no real order to read the books in, but Princess Princess is the main work.

These Princess Princess stories rely heavily on common shojo plot devices and mostly exist to showcase the hijinks surrounding what would happen if boys dressed up as girls at an all-boy’s school and paraded around to boost morale. There’s nothing really wrong with that, and the first series did have its moments and a relatively good sense of humor. Princess Princess Plus removes the wacky hijinks in favor of focusing on the relationship between the two boys.

The problem with this is that neither one of the characters is really developed all that much past their general rich boy/poor boy stereotypes. The first half of the volume is mostly about Matsuoka being unwilling to talk to Izumi, and the second half is about Izumi being overbearing and making Matsuoka uncomfortable with his expensive gifts. While certain plot developments are fairly well done (one point of contention is that Izumi gives Matsuoka’s sister better gifts than Matsuoka and his older brother), these moments are few and far between, and otherwise the story is kind of boring. There’s still a handful of decent/weird jokes, and I still like the sense of humor, but most of what goes on in this book is drama, and I just didn’t like the characters enough for that.

The one thing you might notice about this book is that it is totally not boys’ love. Relationships between the boys are heavily implied (one of the funnier things about this book was the speculation about why it was Izumi wanted so desperately to be friends with Matsuoka), but for whatever reason, are always waved away. This is both frustrating and hilarious because, really, why not? There’s even a comic making fun of this at the end, where Matsuoka’s brother is implied to have a “special friend,” that finishes with a final panel about his girlfriend and Matsuoka yelling “This is Wings Magazine! Stop that!”

Surprisingly, I liked the art in this book much better than the original series. Tsuda has a pretty simple style, but she seems to have added a bit more depth and detail to her art here. The changes are subtle (things like adding tone for more definition), but it does look better.

The book does a good job of sticking strongly to shojo plot devices, which is exactly what it sets out to do, but I was disappointed that the humor from the original series wasn’t the focus. It’s still worth a read for fans of the original since the three main characters come back and crack jokes almost constantly, but others interested in Tsuda’s work might want to start with the original Princess Princess or Family Complex.

Princess Princess Plus is available now.