The princess and the protagonist!
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Naoshi Komi
Translation: Camellia Nieh
What They Say
English teacher Yui has been assigned to take over as… the school music teacher?! She’s so tone deaf her singing makes the students faint, and yet she’s been designated to sing in front of the whole school! Later, Raku and Chitoge are in for a surprise when they meet the princess from a foreign kingdom — she looks exactly like Chitoge! What’s in store when the princess and Chitoge switch places?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
For our first story this time around, Yui ends up as a temporary music teacher, but as it turns out, she’s completely tone-deaf. And to further up the trouble, it turns out that Yui needs to for the school song in front of everyone. It’s a pretty heavy filler chapter that doesn’t really do much of note, and it’s full of clichés, though there are some chuckles from the reactions of Raku and Marika. So yeah, this certainly kicks the volume off to a mediocre start, unfortunately, though it at least doesn’t overstay its welcome.
We get another cliché trope for our main story this time around, as Raku and Chitoge get involved with a foreign princess visiting Japan who just happens to look identical to our heroine. And in what is surely entirely unsurprising, the princess, Malusha, switches places with Chitoge in order to slip away from her guards in order to experience Japan properly. It’s actually worth mentioning that they use an unusual gimmick as Malusha uses a phone translation app to communicate, and for what it’s worth the author does at least care enough to have it mistranslate now and again. Of course anyone who’s ever tried to use google translate will know, this is still pretty damn overoptimistic for how well such things function, though to be fair the country/language is made-up anyway, so it’s not the end of the world. Anyway, this arc actually works out surprisingly well, as Raku ends up needing to show her around, and they bond rather charmingly in the process. Plus it helps that Chitoge’s “oh, now I’m being pampered” part of the old Prince and the Pauper plot is kept to a quick amusing gag or two, which keeps things better focused. But yeah, this arc ends up pulling together quite nicely, and is easily the star of the book.
The rest of the book is focused on shorter tales, with yet another “Tsugumi finds a mysterious item” chapter, this time a perfume that makes people sleep until they’re awakened by a kiss from the person who spritzed them. It’s about what you’d expect, pulling off a few laughs while going through the motions, though it’s at least noteworthy that Tsugumi at least catches on somewhat to which way this is going to go, even if fate still conspires against her. The next chapter goes to slowly developing the Shu and Ruri ship, and it’s a cute little chapter, even if it’s nothing too terribly exciting. After this, Marika tries once more to conquer her issue with animals, and fortunately this one is pretty humorous from start to finish. Finally, we end on a mediocre chapter where Raku and Kosaki end up working together at a hot spring resort. It’s about as generic and by the books as you can get, though at least it ends on a cliffhanger that can potentially go somewhere, so that’s something.
In Summary
This volume is yet another solid entry in the series, but hardly a mindblowing one. In terms of structure, we’ve got one big arc and a collection of one-shots. Fortunately, the larger arc absolutely does nail it, taking a tired and cliché structure and playing it extremely well, and also making a character who appears briefly incredibly likeable. It’s not perfect, but it’s played quite well, and this is the part that easily saves the volume from mediocrity. The one-shots, on the other hand, are a mixed bag. The one centered on Marika is at least amusing from start to finish, but the others are all incredibly routine. Even so, they’re all good for a laugh or two, so it’s not a total loss. All in all, this results in a volume that should keep fans satisfied, though I’d certainly like to see the series try something a little fresher in the future, as that’s sadly rather lacking here.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: B+
Package Rating: B+
Text/Translation Rating: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released by: Viz Media
Release Date: July 5th, 2016
MSRP: $9.99
