Woe is the foe that stands against the Torture Princess, the disciple of Vlad the Impaler!
Creative Staff
Story: Keishi Ayasato
Art: Hina Yamato
Character Design: Saki Ukai
Translation: Nathaniel Thrasher
What They Say
Kaito has had a rough life, but it only gets worse after he dies. When he’s summoned to another world, he meets a beautiful and terrifying girl who offers him a choice-to be her servant and help her slay demons, or to suffer at her hands!
The Review! (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Technical:
Another great large format release from Yen Press. Considering this book encompasses the entire Torture Princess Fremd Torturchen series at 480 pages, the large format was the only way to make this book work for readers. The entire book has clean printing throughout, and I was very happy to see that the start of each of the three major sections in this book retained the color pages from the Japanese release.
The character design is appealing, from the sexy main character to the male lead, sexy mysterious Vlad and the creepy demons. There is a small enough cast that no reader will accidentally mistake any character for another, which sometimes happens in series with large casts. The torture scenes are plenty gruesome, whether it be a demon or the Torture Princess herself inflicting the pain. Oftentimes it is the Torture Princess inflicting the pain on a demon.
Content:
It seems like most stories these days start with the average kid that gets superpowers. But not Torture Princess Fremd Torturchen; no, this story starts with a kid that is far from average. Kaito is beaten and nearly starved to death teenager bullied and abused by his father. Thus, this story kicks off with Kaito’s brutal murder at his father’s hands. Could have been the shortest story ever, but luckily for Kaito his spirit is summoned to another world. Unfortunately, Kaito has never been lucky a day in his life and this day is no different. His soul is implanted in clay golem with his life force forever tied to that of an attractive young girl. If she dies, he dies. This girl is a powerful mage, but she is also a brutal mistress nicknamed the Torture Princess.
In this new world, Kaito may have finally escaped his abusive father, but his new mistress is brutally vindictive. Kaito has few jobs besides being a general butler, but anytime he cooks something that tastes bad or does anything to anger the Torture Princess she quickly tortures him to teach him a lesson. However, she ultimately summoned Kaito because he had led a tragic life and died a pitiful death just as she had. The similarity of suffering through their childhoods seems to have brought their souls together. But the true reason for Kaito’s summoning is to help the Torture Princess defeat a horde of demons.
The demons of this world hide as humans so they can assume positions of power and status, then use that power to eat humans after torturing them in various horrific ways. The Torture Princess seems to be a demon herself, but she has been enthralled by the Church to hunt down and destroy the demons. Then when she completes her mission, she will be disposed of permanently. It is a thankless job and one that I would drag my feet at completing if I was in her position.
From here, Kaito must decide what he wants to do in his new body. Cast himself to the wind and die again? Help the Torture Princess complete her mission, thus dying alongside her? Run to the Church and request their help after he was illegally summoned to this world?
Kaito bounces around from one idea to another but always finds himself drawn back to the side of the Torture Princess of his own choosing. Perhaps it is the odd affinity he feels for her, or maybe their souls were somehow linked by the summoning ritual. Regardless, Kaito can’t help but learn about his mistress’s past; both how and why she became the Torture Princess. I was taken by surprise when these reasons were finally revealed. It helped this girl become more of an antihero and less of a villain.
In Summary:
This Torture Princess Fremd Torturchen manga is full of tragic characters. The easy example is Kaito, the human that was tortured by his father for years before being killed in a fit of rage. That by itself is tragic enough, but he is far from the only tragic victim. There are many others, which shouldn’t be surprising in a book with “torture” in the title. What is surprising, is the doll and golem characters that seem surprisingly human. Even the Torture Princess herself turns out to be much more fully fleshed out than typical villains, or even antiheroes receive.
This book is ultimately a 3-in-1 clocking in at 480 pages, thus the price is fitting given its format. The story should be enjoyable not only to fans of horror, but readers that want to follow the development of two unique main characters. Whereas Kaito’s past is revealed at the start, the Torture Princess receives good character development throughout the story until its conclusion. Plus, there are a lot of series out there, so the fact this is an enjoyable story and a one and done release makes it an easy pickup for manga fans.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: July 16, 2019
MSRP: $30.00