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Duck Prince Book 1: Transformation
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I haven't really been too much into the shoujo
manga that we've seen come along lately. Okay, I'm not into it at all.
I'm sure that for some males, they are strangely attracted to it, but
from my perspective, I simply just don't really understand the appeal.
For me, it's more or less been like reading the Japanese equivalent of a
Betty & Veronica comic. I was prepared for more of the same with The
Duck Prince, but I soon discovered that this manga was a little
different.
In this first volume, we meet Reiichi, or Helmet as he's often called, a
junior high school student who is a complete geek. He's short, he has to
wear glasses, he has thick, course hair that's cut in a bowl cut, and
for the most part, the girls simply aren't nice to him, save for one.
Yumiko seems to like Reiichi, but come to find out, he just reminds her
of her dog Mister, and Reiichi is heartbroken. But, when he finds out
that she's moving, he decides that he has to confront her about his
feelings. But, Mister is missing, and Reiichi goes off in search of him
and the search ends tragically when a car hits Reiichi, putting him in a
coma for a year.
When he awakens, life is different. A plastic surgeon has reconstructed
his face and he's now quite handsome. He's grown quite a bit and doesn't
even look like the same person. Even better is that when he returns to
school in his new guise, Yumiko has moved back and has no idea that he's
the former ugly duckling known as Helmet, but there's a problem. It
seems that Mister is really a human who was transformed into a dog by an
evil sorcerer, and having powers of his own, Mister helped to create the
new Reiichi. Now, whenever Reiichi gets close to her though with
romantic intentions, he transforms back into his former self and it
seems that only one of their teachers, who also happens to be the
reincarnation of the sorcerer who turned Mister into a dog in the first
place, might be the one to help him. Of course, the wizard has plans of
his own.
This really isn't what I was expecting at in. I suppose in some ways
this story is one that I can relate to slightly, though I've never dealt
with talking dogs and magic spells. There are quite a few of us actually
who have dealt with that unattractive appearance in school and then
changed the way we looked years later. When Jenny Jones was still on the
air how many shows like that did she do? Seriously though, this is
something that can easily be related to, but it goes a bit farther than
that.
The first Reiichi is unsure of himself due to the fact that he feels
unattractive and ugly, and most people aren't shy about telling him
this, including his own family. Once he undergoes the transformation
though, he really has the same attitude. He might look much better, but
he's still really not too sure of himself, and even thinks that maybe
people are laughing at him. So, you've got a good balance here, and see
that really, it's not so much an issue with appearance so much as it is
something with feelings of self-doubt or perhaps even self-loathing.
Add in the magic element adds something rather unique to the story.
Mister, the talking dog might have helped out with Reiichi's looks, but
he really does seem to have his own agenda, and he's overly possessive
of Yumiko. Remember, he's a human trapped in a dogs body, and the lucky
pooch has been able to share a bath at time or two with the girl. He
needs some excitement, right? Between him and Takamura though, it's
really hard to determine which way things will lead, and right towards
the end of the first volume, we do learn that really, Yumiko has
feelings for the ugly Reiichi, creating quite a twist.
The artwork isn't too bad. It isn't overly cute, but it's also not
ultra-realistic either. Instead, it has a great balance that falls
somewhere in between. What makes it fun to read though is the fact that
it offers a romance story that really is disguised as something else and
has some bits of humor thrown in as well. I never really though a shoujo
would come along that I really enjoyed, but The Duck Prince actually is
very well thought out and well executed, in part I think because we
actually have a male in the lead role and not a female, so there's no
incidents of shopping or talking about boys. This is a manga that's
definitely worth a read, and I can honestly say that I'm looking forward
to the next issue.
-mike-
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Genre:
Romance / comedy
Written
By::
Ai Morinaga
Art By::
Ai Morinaga
Pages:
176
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