Review of "Sea Princess Azuri"

YamPuff's Rating: 3 of 5

Sea Princess Azuri is beautifully drawn. The idea of mer-people that aren't willowy beauties is quite a new take; the way its handled is even realistic. The idea of different species of merpeople and everything about the world and the setting was great. A thing to be especially applauded is the way the heroine, instead of a skinny, busty model-type beauty, is big-nosed, big-eared chunky and adorable mermaid.

However, as for the subject matter, I was disappointed. 'Princess who doesn't act princess-like, forced to be engaged to evil prince of another country to join them together but unfortunately falls in love with a civilian'. Wow. I've never heard of a story like that before. And guess what? She's an adventurous tomboy princess! She isn't interested in dresses and jewelry and would much rather go adventuring! Because liking dresses iis a sign of weakness and wimpishnes of course! Now you ought to be surprised as that's never been done before.

The dialogue is cliched and formulaic. Much of the dialogue is there simply to tell the audince something they need to know, not something the characters naturally would have said. The mother delivers every single cliched "You are a princess--behave like one" line that has ever been thought of in the space of twenty-something pages. Really, now. Not a single new concept was used for the actual bare bones of the story line.

The author also needs a little more knowledge of boys. I know for a fact that two teenage boys when together do not chat about their origin, their insecurities and how fond they are of eachother. That had me giggling. It was a typical girl's fantasy of how she wished boys acted around eachother...but I guess there's no harm in that. It was terribly cute.

This is a great tween story, don't get me wrong. It's adorable and has no awkward or bad subject matter. I'd get it for my kid sis in a moment. But for an older audience it holds little appeal, unlike titles like Peach Fuzz, which appeal on different levels to all ages. I am a huge fan of children's literature, but this one I passed over. Its a tired out subject that has been done many times before and utterly predictable. The characters are amusing and cute and even loveable but not particularly deep. Building a whole story on 'save the world or follow you heart' is pretty silly anyway. It sounds so incredibly selfish.

In any case, Azuri is a much better heroine than I had originally anticipated, but I just can't over how old the storyline is.

Great for tweens; a good, safe introduction to manga.

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