Kilala Princess - Review
Title: Kilala Princess
Medium: Manga
Author/Creator: Nao Kodaka (art) and Rika Tanaka (story)
Age Rating: 8-12
Genre: Romance/Fantasy
Warnings: --
Grade: A
Status: 4 volumes—ongoing
Related Works: --
This is one for the readers that are still into their Disney Princesses. Kilala Princess follows the story of Kilala Reno, a young school girl with a love for Mickey and Disney. Though pretty cheerful and getting into mischief at school, Kilala has been alone for years since her father took her ill mother to Paradiso, where it’s said anyone can be happy.
It’s a fun story with a lot of old favourites as you’re led to encounter the famous Disney Princesses one by one. It all starts after Kilala meets Rei, a Prince—in a rather memorable meeting and she finds out that Rei and his companion Valdo are searching for the chosen Princess whose tiara they hold in their possession. It’s said that she’ll be the one to save their world.
As true of Disney and any decent Shoujo manga, this is where it all kicks off. A series of events throw both Kilala and Rei (and her little friend Tippe—for no Princess is complete without little creature friends) constantly into different Disney worlds. In their quest to keep the tiara from being stolen from the villains, Rei and Kilala come across Snow White and Ariel with more Princesses to come in the future I’m sure.
It’s definitely a sweet story, the feel of it is a perfect blend between Disney and Shoujo stories and the characters are all too easy to care for. You feel the magic there just like you do with the first Disney Princess film you watch and it’s in truth very entertaining.
Characterization-wise, Kilala is almost like a modern heroine. She’s not afraid of getting into trouble and of fighting evil and she’d happily defend any friend of hers—as she does, repeatedly by placing herself in danger for both Rei and her best friend Erica. Her dreams though remain true to the Disney Princess. She wished for her parents back and for her Prince. Rei is also an endearing hero—their first meeting was funny with the typical humour of a shoujo comedy. Rei becomes a developed character and this is where I think the great thing lies because usually in Disney we don’t see that much of the hero (Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Cinderella), so it’s nice that here we get to spend a lot more time with the hero as opposed to just following around the Princess of the story.
The art is very lovely! The Disney Princesses hold the charm that they did in their respective stories and continue to enchant, they have not been distorted and drawn as the author might see them but instead as they were portrayed before for which the true Disney fans will be grateful and the original characters have their own charm. Rei is of the Kingdom Hearts manga variety I’d say and Kilala is drawn not as a Princess but as a bright girl full of energy which works really well with this manga.
Although the age rating is 8-12, clearly this can be read by a much older audience if they’ve got the love for Disney. It’s a cute story and not annoying, it moves along at a smooth pace for younger readers too enabling them to understand everything well. So definitely nice and sweet—another Princess story to enjoy.
Medium: Manga
Author/Creator: Nao Kodaka (art) and Rika Tanaka (story)
Age Rating: 8-12
Genre: Romance/Fantasy
Warnings: --
Grade: A
Status: 4 volumes—ongoing
Related Works: --
This is one for the readers that are still into their Disney Princesses. Kilala Princess follows the story of Kilala Reno, a young school girl with a love for Mickey and Disney. Though pretty cheerful and getting into mischief at school, Kilala has been alone for years since her father took her ill mother to Paradiso, where it’s said anyone can be happy.
It’s a fun story with a lot of old favourites as you’re led to encounter the famous Disney Princesses one by one. It all starts after Kilala meets Rei, a Prince—in a rather memorable meeting and she finds out that Rei and his companion Valdo are searching for the chosen Princess whose tiara they hold in their possession. It’s said that she’ll be the one to save their world.
As true of Disney and any decent Shoujo manga, this is where it all kicks off. A series of events throw both Kilala and Rei (and her little friend Tippe—for no Princess is complete without little creature friends) constantly into different Disney worlds. In their quest to keep the tiara from being stolen from the villains, Rei and Kilala come across Snow White and Ariel with more Princesses to come in the future I’m sure.
It’s definitely a sweet story, the feel of it is a perfect blend between Disney and Shoujo stories and the characters are all too easy to care for. You feel the magic there just like you do with the first Disney Princess film you watch and it’s in truth very entertaining.
Characterization-wise, Kilala is almost like a modern heroine. She’s not afraid of getting into trouble and of fighting evil and she’d happily defend any friend of hers—as she does, repeatedly by placing herself in danger for both Rei and her best friend Erica. Her dreams though remain true to the Disney Princess. She wished for her parents back and for her Prince. Rei is also an endearing hero—their first meeting was funny with the typical humour of a shoujo comedy. Rei becomes a developed character and this is where I think the great thing lies because usually in Disney we don’t see that much of the hero (Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Cinderella), so it’s nice that here we get to spend a lot more time with the hero as opposed to just following around the Princess of the story.
The art is very lovely! The Disney Princesses hold the charm that they did in their respective stories and continue to enchant, they have not been distorted and drawn as the author might see them but instead as they were portrayed before for which the true Disney fans will be grateful and the original characters have their own charm. Rei is of the Kingdom Hearts manga variety I’d say and Kilala is drawn not as a Princess but as a bright girl full of energy which works really well with this manga.
Although the age rating is 8-12, clearly this can be read by a much older audience if they’ve got the love for Disney. It’s a cute story and not annoying, it moves along at a smooth pace for younger readers too enabling them to understand everything well. So definitely nice and sweet—another Princess story to enjoy.
