A Thousand Miles

Princess Ai

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Princes Ai is a 2004 Romance Fantasy manga by Courtney Love, D.J. Milky and Misaho Kujiradou. It was serialized in the Shojo Bi-Monthly, “Wings”. Tokyopop published its 3 volume run stateside in 2004 as well as its sequel, “Princess Ai: The Prism of Midnight Dawn” in 2008.

Cover Appeal

Misaho Kujiradou/Courtney Love/D.J. Milky – There’s a little bit to parse here. Musicians branching out into other mediums isn’t new – and comics is no exception. Avril Lavign had “Make 5 Wishes” (also published by Tokyopop), Mindless Self Indulgence got a one shot comic in 2011, Fall Out Boy had “Fall Out Toy Works” in 2009 and Courtney Love got her offering, “Princess Ai”, in 2004. In this joint effort, Misaho Kujiradou handled art while Courtney Love and D.J. Milky co-wrote. I’m aware enough to know Courtney Love is a musician, but who is D.J. Milky? One can’t be blamed for assuming that they’re a musician as Courtney and D.J. Milky are credited with writing “Bleeding Heart”, a song featured in this volume. Hell, I had a strong suspicion that they were a trance producer from the early 2000’s. I wish. D.J. Milky would be one Stuart Levy – or as many know them, the founder and CEO of Tokyopop itself. Knowing this is a passion project headed by Courtney Love (for whom it’s somewhat autobiographical) and Tokyopop’s CEO is definitely interesting. It certainly explains Ai’s fashion sense.

Destitution – All hail the return of the textured cover! Adulation and applause all around. But, I also gotta deduct some points. You see, this volume’s title is “Destitution”. You’d be forgiven for not knowing, though, as the font placement and lack of highlighting means it gets lost in the star pattern. I don’t know how many times I looked at this cover before it registered that those were words on the left side. A noble attempt undermined by a simple detail.

The Gist

An amnesiac girl wakes up in Tokyo. Unsure of anything outside of her name and that she isn’t from our world, she sets off on an adventure through Tokyo to figure out who she is and what exactly drew her to this world.

The Cast

Ai – Amnesiac, (literally) otherworldly girl. Has a heart shaped lock box she’s very protective of. Posing as a foreign exchange student and singer.

Kent – Guitarist and librarian that meets Ai soon after her arrival in Tokyo. He befriends Ai and she comes to stay in his apartment – much to the chagrin of his roommate.

Takeshi – A regular at Club Cupid, the strip club Ai works at, he’s also a recruiter for the H.T.A. Talent Agency. Ai seems to be his new favorite.

Tess – A being implied to be similar to Ai, who is pursuing her through Tokyo.

The Rub

I’m in uncharted waters here, folks. Romance novels, shows and properties in general are shamefully absent from my media diet. I can’t even say that it’s because it isn’t my cup of tea, I just don’t consume it. As a 27 year old guy armed with a small degree of hindsight, I am aware that the zeitgeist hasn’t been exactly kind to properties of this sort (or the demographics that usually consume them, either) so I tried walking into this with few or no preconceptions.

That being said, you can’t slap a name like Courtney Love on something and not have people fall back on preconceived notions. I’d argue that those are probably the kind they’d want you to have. So I threw on some Courtney Love – and honestly, I’m disappointed I didn’t do so sooner in my life. You wouldn’t think the wild, world weary persona that “America’s Sweetheart” era Courtney (the album “Hold on To Me”, the other song featured in this volume, is from) exudes would translate well into the Shojo landscape. However, it’s Courtney’s love for singing and music, her fashion sense and a touch of her rebelliousness that was channeled into Princess Ai.

And Ai turns out to be a fun little character because of it. She’s a smart lady who’s considerate of others but doesn’t compromise who she is or what she wants for anyone else. Who agrees to work for a strip club but insists that they will only sing? Ai does. Who, at the same club, insists on the band playing hard rock instead of their usual Jazz fare? Ai does. Who takes ornate dresses and puts her own rips in them? That would be Ai, again. And who is willing to get into fisticuffs with the jealous old timer (and win)? Well, you get the picture.

Thing is, these things work out for Ai. She achieves some small degree of happiness and it’s a little heart warming to see. It’s somewhat contrived, but it makes for a comfortable atmosphere. Furthermore, Ai’s relative success in creating the building blocks of a new life in Tokyo frees up time for the romance.

On that note, said romance is between Ai and, you guessed it, Kent. Princess Ai loves its shiptease. I’m going to spoil this part of it for you. Kent and Ai are not a thing – not yet. The most explicit things get are the two literally falling over each other, usually in a tired state, just to facilitate that “almost kiss” pose. The rest is actually well grounded. It’s two people who have feelings for each other grappling with said feelings while just being good people to each other. Kent takes interest in Ai’s well being and she takes interest in his music. I must admit that I found it a little sappy that she seems to develop an interest in Kent almost immediately, but I recognized that it was just that – an interest. Feelings don’t have a hard logic to them and neither of them put the other on a pedestal.

So it didn’t bother me much. What did, however, is the scant few mentions of what’s going on with Ai’s homeland. We see nothing of her home and are given no indication of what’s going on, short of it being called “Ai-Land” (you just couldn’t let that stay a fuckin joke, could you?) and there’s some kind of coup or revolution happening. None of the characters it offers get enough panel time to grab our interest and it all seems just to serve as this sword of Damocles to keep Ai from the very logical decision of fully embracing her new life in Tokyo.

Verdict

I have next to no reference pool for what romance is usually like, much less what a stand out entry would entail. I don’t think Princess Ai is the latter, but it is definitely a decent primer for the genre and I don’t regret reading it. It seems to know not to take itself too seriously and injects humor at regular intervals to keep things leisurely. But it isn’t all fun and games and knows that despite how sappy it may be, it needs to take the feelings the romantic leads have seriously.

Truthfully, I expected it to be a bad time, at first. I’m glad that I was wrong. Princess Ai, by the end, had me rooting for Ai and Kent and I was saddened by a development in their relationship, but it felt like a mature decision as well.

Ai, I wish you well on your journey of self-discovery. Godspeed, little rockin angel.

Continue?: Not Bad, Sure