Murder Princess

Publisher
Broccoli Books
Writer
Sekihiko Inui
Artist
Sekihiko Inui
Country of origin
Japan
Year
2005

Murder Princess Volume 2

By David Rasmussen
10th Nov 07

Now that (as of last review) we’ve established that, yes, Murder Princess isn’t a concept that will “self destruct” on launch…. Let’s assume that we know how this review will go and how well it’ll be received. Yes, some titles are doomed from the word go, while others nurture doom until it’s like a snowball going downhill filled with a rapidly growing sense of ill will that crushes all before it. And yes, unlike a certain other title I just finished reviewing this one won’t disappoint as it comes to it’s eventful conclusion this volume. I’m looking at you, Dave.

Now stop me if you have heard this one before, you should have since I reviewed the first volume some months ago. A princess is forced out of her kingdom during a coup detat (when her father the king is killed) only to run headlong into another female on the wrong side of the tracks (a bounty hunter who isn‘t nicknamed DOG (arf)). Well, meet is a bit of a disclaimer as the only meeting they do is when the princess falls off a tall cliff and right on top of the bounty hunter, the two switching bodies in this most unexpected galactic fluke. Once it’s been established that some body swapping has occurred, the two end up going back to the princess’ kingdom in order to throw out the interlopers (and keep the kingdom safe from further incursions from the bad guys). That, in a nutshell, is a simple enough premise if I ever heard of one (and I’ve heard a lot of them before).

Sure, this could have been prone to lots and lots of pitfalls, but as you saw in the first review this title managed to prove it’s worth and actually be quite readable.
The princess character could have been a total jerk, but she was instead quite lovable.
The character she runs into could be a total loser evil scum that is illredeemable, teamed up with losers as partners or whatever. However as it turned out they’re great too.
The people who they end up taking the kingdom back from could be loser material time x amount of times for each henchperson or whatever in the group. However the Doc who seems to have escaped from a DBZ spinoff or clone series, and his twin little girl bots of destruction are also quite good.

And so on and so forth. Lots of ways this title could have sucked the big one turns into a strength instead of a weakness, and the title powers through to a 5 out of 5 first time out. And yes, not to spoil the score for you or anything, but it repeats again with a closing score of 5 out of 5 (surprise).

Set in a world that is fantasy with abit of a sci-fi tech twist (explanation seems to be here, but you discover that for yourself), Murder Princess is a beautifully written work with a world of creatively written characters that really grab your attention and holds it tight (which holds true as the series comes to it‘s end). The princess of the title turns out to not only be good as herself, but when she’s tripped by a sentient tree and sent flying down off a cliff Kratos style she ends up switching bodies with the female bounty hunter at the bottom of the hill. As of this volume, however, you find out there are some consequences of this unexpected act, and they’re not pretty consequences let me tell you.

It seems the princess was supposed to have died during the coup detat, and her continued survival is affecting the world in a supernatural twist. Good thing there’s a Shinigami present to handle the problems which come from this unexpected event.

Also it turns out the bad knight from last issue IS our princess’ brother, and he’s really messed up. But he’s also there looking for the last of four seals which hold all the answers to what’s going on. And to get all four he, and his female companion puppet master (who seems to be pulling all his strings) will even kill their own “ally” (the doc from first volume) to get their way. Bad move, especially when the doc’s two female bot girl turn sides and get wooed by the true Princess’ kind nature to throwing their lot in with her’s (and informing her what the bad guys are after).

Then it’s the final battle and resolution.
Then you find out there’s this Anime of the series which probably is longer content wise than the manga (but I wouldn’t know as I haven’t seen that yet, I still have a terrible backlog of Animes I have to review this year that I really need to get to), but that’s a review for another time.

Still the same lovable title it was with the first review, this fine mix of fine humor, well written story and lovable characters (abit darker than the first volume though), not to mention fine artwork and an overall well made package, Murder Princess continues to be a good read that should be on your reading list this coming Christmas travel season. Another recommended Broccoli Books title, Murder Princess Volume 1 gets 5 all’s well that ends well out of 5.

-- David Rasmussen 10th Nov 07