Blade of the Moon Princess Vol. 1
Author: Tatsuya Endo
Illustrator: Tatsuya Endo
Publishers: Viz Media
Age Group: Teen
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Mythos Retelling, Shonen
Type: Manga
Content Warnings: man hunt (well, a kagura hunt)
Spoilers ahead
Plot
We spend a third of this volume getting to know kagura in her natural habitat, the moon. She’s a wild child who wants to be a great empress like her mother but doesn’t put much effort into studies that aren’t the sword. She causes a lot of problems for the palace since she likes to escape. During all of that fiasco, we learn that the Ume Family is setting up to make their move using the terrorist organization that wants to end imperial rule. Kagura has been left in the dark about many things. All she knows is she’s supposed to study, study, study. She feels confined.
The rest of this volume is Kagura being on Earth aka ‘the tainted world’. She is in the care of an older couple (trusted allies of the queen). She meets a village of commoners on this world and helps them. She’s also found by the Ume clan and thus starts her journey of being on the run.
Character Development
Kagura is a very immature character in the first part of the book. While she may be good at the sword all the adults in her life come to her rescue. She’s wild and doesn’t care about consequences. She lets her emotions rule over her so she’s very reckless.
We are introduced to many characters in this first volume. It’s honestly really hard to remember them all. There’s not really anyone else worth mentioning as of this first volume because we don’t know who is going to stay by her side right now.
World-building
The world-building of the moon is interesting in that it combines Edo period Japan with some modern developments such as television and air ships. At the same time, the combat still focuses on traditional weaponry.
The ‘tainted world’ aka earth is much the same, though the only people with televisions are people from the moon.
The one part of the world-building I really enjoyed was seeing the sacred sword. It’s a tuning fork! I think that’s very original. The moon is known as something very sacred. Everything is about vibration and energies so this makes perfect sense, especially since the being part of the silver court is technically part of the ‘other side’.
Themes
It’s not always about fighting.
There are many ways to fight. Our princess, Kagura, always wants to use her fists and weapons to protect those around her. One thing she lacks is thinking things through and focusing on what she’s fighting for. It’s a good example of what not to do. Fighting may be the way to go but there are always other alternatives, though if you’re a barbarian at heart like me, you know that can be difficult. If you fight for something make sure you look at all avenues before throwing hands (or weapons). You must use your brain, know what you’re fighting for, and not let your emotions take complete control (no blood rages or berserker modes).
Observations & Predictions
This story is mainly an action adventure comedy. As such, there’s not a lot of depth to the characters. It’s a very cliche coming-of-age story with a bunch of genre tropes. If that’s what this author was going for, they succeeded. I’m not saying it’s bad, it’s just too easy to know where this is going. If you just want something that moves really fast, is easy to read, and is young teen (even pre-teen) friendly I would recommend this (I’d even recommend it down to 8 years old).
One of the things I dislike in this volume is that Kagura is a very barbaric protagonist that wants to fight but people keep telling her to stop. In fact, she’s mainly just dragged around from one thing to another. We don’t get a lot of breathing room or getting to know the characters deeper. As the reader, we’re bounced around just as much as Kagura is.
Kagura also meets Mikuni Takano, a young imperial guard recruit. He’s your classic over-the-top useless sidekick. He’s more about rock-and-roll wannabe love song artist. He reminds me of those pervy friends you see protagonists have that just want to fall in love. It’s great for comedic effect, but he’s pretty useless. Though, he’s the only one that seems to have any semblance of a character arc. I’m holding my breath to see what the next volume has in store and if this gets better.
I like the imagined re-telling of Kagura the Bamboo Princess fairy tale. I was just expecting more. I hope the author delivers in later installments.
*Watch for a special edition on the 2nd one!
Recommendations
Same Author:
Spy x Family
By: Tatsuya Endo
Tista
By: Tatsuya Endo
More Coming-of-Age Stories:
In the Name of the Mermaid Princess
By: Yoshino Fumikawa
*note: I like this one because the protagonist tries her best to do some things herself even though she’s also on the run.
Yona of the Dawn
By: Mizuho Kusanagi
*note: Yona’s opening is similar to Kagura’s but she has more of a character arc and we get to know the characters more.
