Merry Month of Manga: SLEEPY PRINCESS IN THE DEMON CASTLE

Finding a modern fantasy manga that has nothing to do with light novels is hard enough.  Finding one of those that's a comedy is rarer still.  But does its rarity translate into quality? 

SLEEPY PRINCESS IN THE DEMON CASTLE (Maojo de Oyasumi), by Kagiji Kumanomata.  First published in 2016 and first published in English in 2018.

PLOT:

Long ago in a kingdom far away, humanity and demon kind once lived in peace.  Then the demon king stole the human princess Syalis and trapped her in his castle.  As the kingdom frets and a hero journeys to save her, Syalis is mostly concerned about the quality of her sleep.  Her quest for the perfect night's rest causes her to create all sorts of chaos in the castle, and it threatens to undermine all their efforts.

STORY:

I feel a little bad about this one.  Sleepy Princess is clearly a comedy, and a very cute one at that.  Syalis has a strange sort of gremlin energy about her, as she has no qualms about exploiting the (very dumb and innocent) demons around her for her own gain and is so single-minded in her quest for sleep that she's oblivious to the trouble she creates.  The demons are mostly hapless and bumbling here, all the way up to the demon king, and all serve as good foils to Syalis.  The chapters are fairly short, so the jokes never get dragged out too long.  Even the video game conceit is used well here, as it's drawing more upon the NES than MMOs.

So why didn't I laugh once while reading this?

It's not that I thought that the jokes were bad, but most of them couldn't get more than maybe an amused smirk out of me.  Why was that?  My suspicion is that is has to do with the tone of the manga itself.  It's as sleepy as Syalis and as gentle as a teddy demon.  It's a fitting one for the material we're given, but it's not one that nurtures big belly laughs, and it's the only thing that's really holding this series back...at least, for me.

ART:

Kumanomata's art is a fine match for the story, being equal parts cutesy and fantastical.  It adds to the gentle comedic air of the series and Kumanomata clearly had fun coming up with all sorts of nonthreatening demonic entities and contrasting them with the dark and gothic-looking castle.  Syalis's design is fun too, from the literal stars in her eyes to her slight little smirks to the frilliness of her nightgown.  

RATING:

Sleepy Princess In the Demon Castle might not have worked for me personally, but I can't deny that this is a well put-together comedy manga.  The jokes, characters, and art all work together to create a whole that is silly and charming.

This series is published by Viz. This series is ongoing with 17 volumes available.  14 volumes have been published and are currently in print.