Merupuri: The Marchen Prince

Merupuri

Story and Art by: Matsuri Hino

Published by: Hakusensha

Adapted into an anime: no

Movies: none

Live-action: none

OAVs: none

Genre: comedy, fantasy, romance, drama, shojo

Number of tankoubon: 4

ANN's Plot Summary: "Airi Hoshina, a regular highschool girl who wants nothing but the perfect future husband, family and life, has some pretty high ideals. But, those ideals flipped upside down as she comes across a young boy named Aram, who returns her small mirror, that has been passed on through Airi's family through generations. Airi soon finds that Aram is a prince that came through that very mirror from his world to seek refuge from his half-brother, Jeile, who has cast a horrible spell on him. Airi soon takes in Aram, and finds the next morning that Aram has turned from a child inot a young man. Aram's servant [R]ei, explains that the spell Jeile cast was supposed to turn Aram into an old man when he entered darkness (night, a dark closet, etc.) and deny him the use of his magic. But the spell only half worked. Now, Airi must help Aram get back to his normal self, and try to keep up with finding that perfect man at the same time. But perhaps Airi is closer to that man than she thinks."

My Ranking: 3 hoshi

My Rating: PG-13

this series isn't too bad but it does have adult themes so I added the 13 to the PG. Surprisingly there isn't much partial nudity and very little swearing. but still its the concept that makes it not for younger audiences.

My Review: Being that Matsuri Hino is the author of one of my fav manga, Vampire Knight, I figured I should try another series of hers. Of course it can't match VK, but merupuri does have its own...charm. I admit that I liked the series but its easier to see the cons than the pros on this one. Don't get me wrong it does have some strong good points, but it also has some probing not so fun characteristics.

I am a big fan of Matsuri Hino's art work. It really captures the theme of every manga she does. This one being the royal-esque theme. That aside, the plot on the other hand leaves a little something to be desired. It tends to be a little inconsistent in quality. In my opinion it starts off one way then as the story progresses some concepts are completely forgotten and the style takes a different direction. It then goes strong for a while and then the end ends up being kinda weak. Also it sometimes gives the feeling that the author finished one idea then had to think for a while to think up a new one because the event transition is quite choppy.

I personally think that the series could have very easily and maybe should have been only three volumes. Because quite honestly the fourth volume is mostly fluff. There is really only one chapter that maybe would have been good to have but other that there is a lot of info and side story that isn't needed. For being only four volumes the series dragged on a little too long.

All that being said its not to say Merupuri is not worth reading. It can be really sweet. Though quite a bit you might catch yourself with the remembrance that it is a little weird, Aram being a little kid and all. But in between those moments you can't help but be swept away a little in the cute romance of the story. It really is quite sweet and gives you that happy feeling inside that we all love.

So although not the best executed manga, Merupuri is a cute fairy tale like story and has its share of laughs and sighs. If you want a good fluff manga, I'd recommend this series. It will sweep you away someplace else.

Info: this manga is on onemanga.com and mangafox.com. It is done by 3 scan groups. Sweet Lunacy did most of the series but the last chapters were don by a compilation of TTexts and VK.

This series is licensed in the U.S. by Viz Media. I don't mind the english trans that much but still there are a few things that bug me about it. But then again the scan groups though we applaud them for their effort didn't do the best on sentence structure and so left me struggling a bit.

Vid: okay this vid is an awesome mmv in my opinion. IT DOES CONTAIN SPOILERS! so don't watch it until you're done with the manga or don't care. but even if you don't want to read the series you should watch it cause its good. watch in HQ please.