Princess Ai Manga~

1. I think this manga is biographical in the sense that both Courtney Love and Princess Ai have to face similar hardships and dilemmas. However, I found the story in the comic to be more representative of how Love hoped her life would have turned out. Love had to face her parents' divorce at a young age and was treated like anything but a princess. In a way, she has been trying to find out who she really is, just like Princess Ai's search in the manga. Princess Ai seems like a strong and self-assertive young girl and that is synonymous with Love's personality. Ai knows what she wants and what she doesn't. She does not let other people walk over her and may respond with violent tactics, as seen in various parts of the two volumes. When she was scouted by Club Cupid, she specifically stated that she wanted to sing but would never strip. Likewise, Love was also in a similar situation; like Ai, she was in desperate need of money and even applied to be a stripped but was denied (source). Later on, she found a job as a stripper (source). Since she cannot go back to change her past, I felt that she made the character Princess Ai as her second chance; she wrote about how she would have done things differently the second time. Furthermore, Princess Ai’s love interest, Kent, has a lot of similarities with Love’s husband, Kurt Cobain. At the end of volume two, Kent and Princess Ai seems to have found each other as potential lovers and ready to fight through anything together. In real life, Kurt Cobain died of a suicide attempt and Courtney Love has had to deal with that tragedy by herself.

2. The main character, Princess Ai, seems to stick out like a sore thumb. She rarely follows orders from other people like the H.T.A. agency. She likes to do things her way and is not afraid to get physical. This is similar to the Little Red character we saw in Hoodwinked. Little Red keeps saying that she’s not a little girl anymore and even knows how to fight. Princess Ai also reminds me of the Grandmother from Hoodwinked. Both of these characters hid their true identity and talents from everyone else. At one point, Princess Ai was like Kumo in that she tried to sacrifice her love for Kent because she wanted to protect him, thinking that it would make him happy. Similarly, Kumo sacrificed her own wishes in order to keep her husband happy.
     Other women such as Mika, Jen, and the suicidal girl seemed to do what was necessary in order to get past the glass ceiling. Mika wanted to get recruited by H.T.A. Agency, Jen wanted to keep her job at Club Cupid, and the suicidal girl wanted fame as a singer. She stated that she listened to all of H.T.A.’s orders but was never able to sell platinum or gold CDs (V2, 108). This is similar to the pretentious ladies we read at the beginning of the semester. When Madelon and Cathos found out that there were rich suitors knocking on their door, they put on a new personality and tried to brown-nose their way into the men’s lives. Hemo also reminded me of Jen because both characters were very supportive of their friend, Kumo and Princess Ai, respectively.

3. Mangas generally have small petite girls wearing clothes that accentuate their figure. These characters are also very fashionable, just like the people in Japan’s culture. Japanese fashion is very particular and have been getting praises from their surrounding countries in Asia and even partially in America. When Princess Ai first landed on Earth, she was wearing torn clothes that caught a lot of attention from the Japanese pedestrians (V1, 16). She is a very fashionable girl and has her own style in clothing. When she was offered a beautiful dress from Shinji, she had to alter it to her own liking (V1, 138-139). As a performer, her costume changed to be more elegant while sporting a lot of accessories (V2, 131). Her costume looks a lot like many Japanese artists’ clothing. Each album has a concept and a matching costume. Lastly, the antagonist of the story, Tess, was dressed in a dark costume with messy hair. This greatly contrasts with the star performer Princess Ai.