THE PRINCE'S ROMANCE GAMBIT (Oji ga Watashi wo Akiramenai!), by Nikki Asada. First published in 2015 and first published in North America in 2018.
PLOT:
Koume Yoshida is an ordinary middle-class girl at the extremely elite and wealthy Okan Academy. She never expected to encounter the school prince Hatsuyuki Ichimonji up close, much less while he was eating lunch in the girls' bathroom. He ends up fascinated by her commoner ways, much to the consternation of his student bodyguards. Koume is mostly exhausted by his attempts at being "normal," but she slowly finds herself falling for the sincere boy underneath it all.
STORY:
I didn't expect to like The Prince's Romance Gambit as much as I did. Maybe I should have, considering that I liked Ouran High School Host Club, and that's also a story about a commoner girl and the ridiculously wealthy and out-of-touch boy who falls for her. Yet I think there's more going on here than mere familiarity that makes it work.
The Prince's Romance Gambit leans hard into the inherit ridiculousness of its premise and it is all the better for doing so. Asada knows that concepts like "school prince loved by everyone in the school" have been done to death, so she breathes some life into them by taking them to their comedic extremes. Thus, Hatsuyuki is not just adored by the student body, but by the whole world. Scientists consult with him, world leaders meet with him, and world-famous composers swoon over his violin playing. He has a four-person student bodyguard squad who basically appointed themselves as his protectors from the common hordes. He's so rich that his idea of a first date involves watching the sunset on Majorca or getting a souvenir photo booth sticker involves an actual photographer and elaborate costumes and sets. It's all so over the top that it becomes hilarious.
Yet all that ridiculousness is anchored by the sincerity at the heart of its main couple. Koume figures out fairly quickly that for all his fame and accomplishments, Hatsuyuki is inherently lonely. Furthermore, while his attempts at "commoner" behavior can be misguided, his curiosity and delight in them is legitimate. He doesn't understand what being in love is, but he feels it sincerely and the only time he gets upset with Koume is when she doesn't take his feelings seriously. It's in those moments of sincerity that Hatsuyuki can step off the pedestal the world has placed him upon, that Koume can stop just overreacting to his behavior and the two can just connect as a couple of teens in need of friendship and love.
ART:
Asada takes a less-is-more approach to her art, and it's to the manga's benefit. Her art is decidedly less fussy and fluffy than most modern shojo art. The character designs are elegant in their simplicity, which gives them a side benefit of being plastic enough for some properly goofy reaction faces. Beyond that, her comedy stylings are fairly deadpan, relying a lot on the manga equivalent of hard cuts, but she also has some fun with the visual excesses of shojo manga. One of my favorite running gags was having Hatsuyuki's action create a spontaneous burst of rose petals...that proceed to fly into the eyes and faces of others around him.
RATING:
The Prince's Romance Gambit totally pays off. It is sincere and silly in equal measure, poking gentle fun at some of shojo manga's conventions while crafting an enjoyable romance of its own. It's manga like this that give me faith in Kodansha's digital efforts and it's an easy recommendation.
This series is published by Kodansha. This series is ongoing in Japan with 7 volumes available. 6 volumes have been published and are currently in print digitally.
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