Duck Prince Vol.#02

By: Eduardo M. Chavez
Review Date: Friday, September 24, 2004
Release Date: Wednesday, August 04, 2004



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Morinaga Ai
Translated by:Laura Jackson & Yoko Kobayashi
Adapted by:

What They Say
Swan's Dilemma
Inside every ugly ducking is a handsome prince... isn't there?

Reiichi Swan thought that looks were everything. But now that he is a handsome young man instead of a short ugly boy, Reiichi has more problems than he knows hot to deal with! He can't get close to the girl he loves or else he'll turn back into and ugly kid, and the magical dog that transformed him in the first place doesn't have enough power left to help him. On top of all that, everyone in school thinks that Reiichi is dating Rikako, a student that looks like the old Reiichi - short and ugly!

The Review
Packaging:
Similar to the original cover by Kadokawa Shoten CPM Press uses an image of a handsome Reiichi Swan surrounded by swans. On the opposite side, there is a close up of Reiichi blowing a kiss on a blue background. The logo used by CPM is similar to the Kadokawa Shoten version. They have used a duck silhouette to frame the title and place the sub-title directly underneath the logo.

Inside the printing does not look too bad. Morinaga's inking is so strong that I really did not have any issues with some of the slight tone problems. I do not like the random art on the insides of the covers. They tend to often by random action pieces that do nothing for the overall presentation of the GN.


CPM includes a character intro at the start of the GN, an ato-gaki (afterward) at the end followed by an ad for Comic Party.

Artwork:
Morinaga-sensei's art is all over the place. Basically, it is as hyperactive as potentially possible. Her character designs range from longhaired bishies with strong lines, subtle yet expressive eyes and are almost always to scale. There are funky shojo girls with thin light lines, huge detailed eyes and variety in regards to fashion. And finally, comical looking freaks with spiral eyes and super-deformed bodies drawn with lines as thick as the main character's glasses. Moreover, even with that variety, she can make them all prettier or super-deformed (SD bishojo or bishonen must be seen to believe). Fortunately, with this being a take on the ugly duckling this contrast is not as shocking as it might be in other titles, but it sure gives another layer of comedy to an already funny story.

Her backgrounds are pretty bad. While Morinaga does use them a bit, if you look closely one might notice the sloppy crocked lines and complete lack of detail to anything that is not human (or was human). Similar to Anno Moyoco, Morinaga's layout is practically as hyperactive as her writing. It is full of kakimoji (SFX) and manpu (visual effects expressing mood and emotion, occasionally interacting with characters. In a comical story like this that can be fun, but if the tone were more serious I might find it a bit frustrating.

Text/SFX:
As I have not read the original Japanese I am having a difficult time grading the translation. There are times where the swearing and slang is excessive and there was an aside that was not translated in context. CPM also chose not to use honorifics for this title. With personal interactions being such a vital focus of this title, I am sure honorifics would have added another level of humor of this story. I was also disappointed that they translated the main character's last name. I do not know which way the kanji for his name is read (either: hakuchou, shirotori or shiratori) but it was translated literally to "Swan." I wish they could have just made a note of that in the character intro instead of just changing it. Fortunately this title is typo free and does not have any syntax errors.

SFX are all translated with subs that are similar in size and form as the original. This would be fine for most titles, with Morinaga's hyper art style the large subs were occasionally compromising character art.

Contents: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Reiichi thought luck was finally on his side, but this young man appears to plagued by misfortune. First he grew up as an ugly duckling in a family full of superficial siblings. Then the girl he had a crush on moved the day he was to confess his feelings. On that very day he was run over by a vehicle and hospitalized for a year. But everything changed when he awoke from his coma - his body metamorphosed into a bishonen (beautiful male) and the girl of his dreams had moved back and is attending is school. However, luck would not last for Reiichi, as the girl he loves believes he is dating someone else. It is a simple misunderstanding, but for Reiichi nothing is ever simple. Actually, a sudden burst of impatience from Reiichi ends up creating a rift between himself and Yumiko, after they had become such good friends.

Morinaga's abusive comedy is starting to get tiring. After two volumes of Duck Prince (and a volume of Your & My Secret) the formula is starting to lose the laughs that it got at the start of the series. Basically the entire cast is impossible to relate to (except Reiichi's otaku girlfriend Rikako). Morinaga has pulled personalities from every wrong direction and made them all shallow, vengeful, selfish jerks. With a cast like that one might feel

Comments
Morinaga's abusive comedy is starting to get tiring. After two volumes of Duck Prince (and a volume of Your & My Secret) the formula is starting to lose the laughs that it got at the start of the series. Basically the entire cast is impossible to relate to (except Reiichi's otaku girlfriend Rikako). Morinaga has pulled personalities from every wrong direction and made them all shallow, vengeful, selfish jerks. With a cast like that one might feel compelled to start disliking the creator of all this hate, greed and misery. Making matters worse the story is not progressing at all. There appears to be some development to Reiichi's character as he occasionally remembers how he was a little more than a year ago, but he never moves beyond that. The plot itself just regresses with every little twist and turn, and the gimmick is being overused.

When I read Morinaga's work I am reminded of Anno Moyoco. They both have unique comedy styles with casts that tend to be on the extreme ends of passive/aggressive. While Anno usually has some reason to her madness with her characters occasionally learning and applying their knowledge, Morinaga's characters appear to often succumb to their lack of self-confidence. One could make a case that at times either way could be entertaining, at the same time they could be equally frustrating to others. Unfortunately, I do not see this story going anywhere at this point, even with its funnier points; Duck Prince is not a good title. I would like to think this title is like an ugly duckling that will eventually become a swan, but at this point I am having a hard time believing it.