Utahime by Aki

Didn't have time for a long read this week, barely had time at all, you may notice considering I'm positing this at a little past midnight on a Saturday and I've spoken about my aversion to posting on Sundays because I feel like it isn't fair. My mother is a junior high librarian and she was having her book fair this past week and I was helping her so instead of reading a manga like I should have done, I read the comics for sale at the book fair. On a related note, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl and Ms. Marvel are pretty awesome.


Utahime by Aki

Art and Story (c) Aki

Genre: Shojo, Fantasy
Length: One Volume – 5 Chapters

The art is really pretty, the hair looks soft and flows around, and the eyes have a nice depth to them. The way the characters are conceived and the way the facial expressions are drawn give an immediate impression of personality. The body shapes aren't much different from one another, but the clothes have a modern medieval look that fit the bodies well. The backgrounds are iffy at best, unfortunately, I think they would have made the world more lush than it was, as it is it feels a little flat. There's not much more to say about it, the art could use some work in the details but its pleasing to look at.
           The Song Princesses and the King have always worked hard in protecting the people and their country, one from the capital and the rest from their towers, singing in the night for protection. Always a male king and female singers. Rumors abound, though, that the King's daughter will take the throne and somewhere out there there is a male Song Princess. Is the world going mad, or only making progress?
           This manga is enjoyable, but it's very easy to point out its faults. The world isn't a fully fleshed out one, mostly, I wondered if it was based on something else, I suspected a video game, because it just

sort of dumps you in and has terminology that seems very rpg-like. It isn't, though, things get explained. The manga is just set up with the end first and the lead up following after. There’s a bit of unbalance in the writing as well, I suspect the first chapter was intended as a stand alone one-shot but then was given room to continue for some reason or another and then rest of the chapters were drawn (much the way Faster Than A Kiss was made). The big reason for this suspicion is that the first chapter explains everything right out and then the others just retell the story given in the fist chapter but in much more detail. This also lends to the feeling of missing out on some information due to the fact that so many things are just thrown at you in page after page of dialog. A third, additional faucet to this story would have made it much more worthwhile, but as is its more of an interesting start to something much bigger. Instead what you get is a "happy" ending that doesn't feel earned or real. When everything has to be explained all the time it really slows things down. It could have stopped at the first chapter and it would have been just as good.




2.5/5 A solid middle of the road.

I feel like the antenna aren't the only similarities here...