It's been too long since we've covered a CMX manga on here. They always had shojo fantasy series that were always interesting, even if they weren't always good.
THE LIZARD PRINCE (Tokage Oji), by Asuka Izumi. First published in 2003 and first published in North America in 2009.
PLOT:
Princess Canary is far from thrilled at the prospect of her engagement to Prince Heath of Gazania. Heath is a boorish, lazy jerk whose very nature offends the sensible, strong-willed Canary, and he in turn has no desire to get married to anyone. He decides to switch places with a talking lizard of his, unaware that said lizard is in fact his missing elder brother Sienna. Canary ends up falling for this gentler, thoughtful creature, but their true love makes the magic behind the enchantment go haywire. How do you make a royal relationship work when your fiance can turn into a lizard at any moment?
STORY:
Have you ever read a manga that was clearly never meant to be anything more than a short, standalone story? Maybe it started with a perfectly good concept and the best of intentions, but it's clear that the mangaka ran out of ideas after the first couple of chapters and things just peter out after that? I certainly have, and it's called The Lizard Prince.
The core concept behind this isn't a bad one. It's a nice twist on the story of The Frog Prince. Canary and Sienna make a cute and well-balanced couple, as Canary's keen mind and self-assuredness complements Sienna's gentle, introverted nature. I can even deal with a conceit that lets Sienna continue to transform back into a lizard at will (even if transforming back is harder and a lot more random). The real problem is that Izumi clearly ran out of steam midway through this first volume.
To compensate for her lack of ideas, she starts to fall back on story ideas that feel out of place with the fairy-tale setting. That's how Canary and Sienna end up on a tropical island that is totally Not Hawaii, exploring a haunted house, or babysitting one of Canary's cousins and getting all parental over it. These ideas are not inherently bad, but they're so far removed from the world that was established in those first two chapters that they feel random.
Maybe Izumi wrote herself into a corner by making Canary and Sienna too well-adjusted as a couple, as there's simply not enough conflict between the two to turn into longer storylines. Maybe she needed to expand the supporting cast, or at least expand upon those who were already there. At the very least, she should have brought back Heath. We get hints that there's more to him than just being a lazy hedonist. It's clear that he does love his brother and exploring their relationship could have lent them both some well-needed depth. Any of these ideas would have resulted in a manga series that could have kept going for longer and with more consistency than what we got.
ART:
At least Izumi's art is charming. The character designs are a bit samey, but they are all attractive and the costumes are cute without being too period-specific. I just wish she didn't play things so safe. The most she lets herself go is with Sienna's lizard form. He looks less like a lizard and more like a sentient comma, but it's one of the few places where Izumi allows for some wild takes and broader comedy.
PRESENTATION:
To fill out space, there's a short story included here about a high-school girl who becomes obsessed with a classmate's naturally cold hands and how they fall in love. Much like the manga it's attached to, there's not much to this premise and it peters out before its conclusion.
RATING:
This series was published by CMX. This series is complete in Japan with 2 volumes available. Both volumes were published and are currently out of print.
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