Ah, Shojo Beat. It may have started just as I was transitioning out of reading manga in English, and it may not have romanized the word “shōjo” properly, but it still holds a special place in my heart. I still remember when the first issues of the new manga magazine began to arrive at my high school’s library… I would devour each and every issue, though I barely followed the manga being serialized. There was just something so comforting knowing that there was a publication that felt like it was made just for me –– shōjo manga has always been my favorite type of manga, and the Japanese culture articles gave me a glimpse of the world I yearned to return to ever since I went abroad during my freshman year.
In honor of this week’s Manga Movable Feast, I thought I’d take the opportunity to talk about one of my favorite overlooked Shojo Beat titles, MeruPuri. MeruPuri (short for “Märchen Prince”) ran for four volumes under the Shojo Beat imprint, though it was never serialized in the monthly magazine. Of course, MeruPuri‘s author, Matsuri Hino, has another, more popular series that was published monthly: Vampire Knight. Her work strikes me as being very similar to Arina Tanemura‘s, as they both do wonderfully detailed illustrations with plenty of traditional shōjo motifs such as flowers and sparkles, but the major difference between the two is that Hino’s work often delves into slightly more mature themes, which I can certainly appreciate.
As much as I like Hino’s art, the description on the back of the first volume of MeruPuri did not sound all that appealing initially:
All high-school freshman Airi Hoshina ever wanted was to someday live in a cozy home with a loving husband, and find joy in the little things in life. As a result, she makes it her daily mission to get to school on time because school legend has it that the longer one’s non-tardy streak is, the better boyfriend one will find. But just when her daily routine is working like clockwork, an occurrence of fairytale proportions threatens to disrupt her grand plan.
On the way to school one morning, Airi drops her mirror—one that had been passed down to her through generations—and suddenly finds herself in a bizarre situation. Never in her wildest dreams did she expect to meet Aram, a little boy from a magical kingdom, to have emerged from the mirror in the short time it took her to track it down!
Now, little 7-year-old prince Aram has a problem: He’s been hit by a spell cast by his half-brother Jeile that was supposed to turn him into an ugly old man, but instead changes him into a 17-year-old man whenever he is in the dark. The spell can only be broken by the kiss of his beloved (surprise surprise), and since Airi is the first woman he lays eyes on after being cursed, he hastily proclaims his love for her.
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| Aram and… Aram |
I’m sure some people will immediately have a number of alarm bells ringing after reading the above description. Not only is Airi’s biggest goal in life to live in a “cozy home with a loving husband,” but early on in the story she gets a love confession from a 7-year-old boy. I wish I could say Hino does something spectacular to subvert reader’s expectations, but in all honestly, MeruPuri is simply very appealing fluff. I never really found Airi’s character all that likable, but Aram actually undergoes significant growth over the course of the four volumes –– he starts as a bratty little kid, but he eventually learns that he has responsibilities that he must meet as prince.
Of course, Airi and Aram end up falling in love (very early on, I might add), so much of my personal interest in the series lies in how Hino maneuvers a very strange relationship… It’s not often you see a story where a 15-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy fall in love, after all. In fact, it may be worth picking up for that alone. Hino does a great job of getting the reader to grow attached to the characters, and, if you’re like me, you may start to have some conflicting feelings about Aram…
I’ll happily admit that part of MeruPuri‘s charm lies in the fact that it is only four volumes long, as well. It’s the perfect length to develop interesting characters in, but not so long that the story starts to feel like its dragging on, which is particularly important given MeruPuri‘s subject matter. The relationship between Airi and Aram may be a little bit too weird for some readers, but anyone interested in a romance that’s a little off the beaten path need look no further than MeruPuri. It’s exactly how I like my shōjo: beautifully drawn, emotional, and just a little bit nuts.
You had manga delivered to your school? :O’s. You are so lucky! Before I went off to college, I knew not of anime and manga (can you believe!) as it was not popularised within my school, nor was anime shown on the television channels that I had access to. My love for anime and manga blossomed during my college days. I have been in love with the Japanese culture ever since.
Meru Puri seems very cliché but I imagine that as you have taken the time to review it in such depth, it is worth the read.
I second the amazement at manga deliveries to your high school! I discovered both anime and manga while in high school (thanks, Toonami!) but as it was such a rural school, it was really frowned upon. I decided I didn’t care and read and watched as much as I could. 🙂
Another manga similar in art style to MeruPuri is Shounen Dolls by Wataru Hibiki. I really have to be in the right mindset for shoujo, though, haha.
Billy – My first encounter with anime was when I was quite young. I remember visiting a relative who had cable TV and watching this one show that I became totally obsessed with… It was Sailor Moon! Eventually my parents got cable TV (i probably begged them to get it so I could watch more Sailor Moon), and then I fell in love with other shows like DBZ, Digimon, etc.
My high school library actually only got really cool in the middle of my sophomore year – we got a new librarian, and he was totally into graphic novels and comic books, so he made sure to create a graphic novel section (we didn’t have one previously). I even did an independent study course with him as my teacher in my senior year… Studying comics, of course!
MeruPuri is rather cliché, but I do think it tackles the subject matter in an interesting way. Admittedly, since I don’t have my copies with me, I couldn’t reread it before doing this “mini review,” but that’s how I remember it! Hopefully it holds up after all these years ^^
rosey175 – Hello and thanks for your comment!
I guess I take it for granted that my high school had manga and other comics! As I explained in my reply to Billy, the new librarian that took over during my sophomore year had a thing for comics, which was pretty awesome.
My foray into the world of anime/manga was the Sailor Moon anime back in the 90’s! Honestly, I can’t remember if Toonami was a thing back then, but it definitely was on Cartoon Network!
I haven’t heard of Shounen Dolls! I’ll have to check it out!
Oh when I was real little, like 8 or 9 I guess, I had shows like Cardcaptors and Sailor Moon, and also more popular anime such as Digimon and Pokemon. I hardly remember Sailor Moon, though, so I mustn’t have been into it as much as I was Cardcaptors. Cardcaptors is awesome! :).
But yeah, as I approached adolescence, anime disappeared from my life, only to pop up again in college years :). I think it’s a good thing that I discovered anime properly in my late teenage years as I was able to appreciate it more as an art form rather than watching it just to blow off some steam and pass the time.
P.S. I have now played Ni No Kuni; just gotta write a review on it. One thing I will say though, it is absoloutely amazing! Such beautiful animation by Level 5 and I got to see some Ghibli-made cut scenes also which was just as stunning! Anne, If I could marry it, then I so would! :)).
Billy – Oh, I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve never seen much of Cardcaptors! I read some of the manga, but that’s about it. It’s a great-looking series, though, and really is something I should make a priority to watch.
I’m glad to hear you’re into anime again! I think a lot of recent series are moving more towards a very niche audience, which I’m not sure is a good thing, but there are still many many great titles out there.
And ohmigosh, I can’t wait to hear more of your impressions of Ni no Kuni! I’m so jealous that you got to go to that event! Were you able to take any photos?
I could have taken photos but didn’t, there are videos online of people playing the demo version. I was initially planning on doing a short video review but I wanted to get full enjoyment out of it and just play it! Hopefully I can still create an impressive visual image in your head without a video clip. I will however find some stills that show the best aspects of the game :).
Billy – That’s okay, I was just curious! I was more interested in seeing what the event itself looked like.
Hope you publish your post on it soon! Please link me when you do 🙂
Sure thing! Now that I’ve passed my driving theory, I should have a little time to spend on my blog :).