Manga Review – Meteor Prince

Meteor Prince Volume 1

Meteor Prince
おとめとメテオ (Otome to Meteo)
TANAKA Meca
Shoujo – Romance, fantasy, comedy
2 Volumes (complete)
Viz Media

Summary:

Hako is known as the Queen of Bad Luck. Her bad luck is a mystery even to the Supernatural Club. But even Hako isn’t prepared for her next twist of fate: a naked alien prince has crash landed at her school and wants to mate with her!

Review:

While the first volume features a fun, quirky male lead, he loses much of his uniqueness in the second volume and draws the series down.

Meteor Prince is a fluffy series. Despite the nakedness of characters, this is far from a smut series. Even when characters strip, it’s played as comedy. The comedy is quite fun…in the first volume. However, in the second volume, the series just falls flat. The male lead becomes boring. Rivals, heirs, and sacrifices all dampen the unique comedy and turn it into a regular shoujo with a magical/alien boyfriend.

Io, the alien prince, is unfamiliar with the concept of romance. He’s of the mindset of meet–>mate–>baby. He adapts really quickly to the idea to do things the Earth way, and he never forces himself on Hako. For an alien who only views “mating” as the process to have a baby, he’s far less cruel than many other male leads to their love interests. Io is naive about romance, but he is willing to learn. (Unfortunately, he gets some bad advice sometimes.) He is overprotective of Hako initially but learns to control his temper. By the second (and final) volume, he has lost his comedic side. Not only does he not strip, but he basically sighs in annoyance at the other strange characters. I understand the naked gag couldn’t be kept up forever, but I don’t think it would have been overdone to keep it through the second volume. He becomes rather bland.

Hako is adorable. She actually has a reason to not be outgoing and a bit of a crybaby. I mean, anyone would start to dislike themselves and want to shy away from people if those around you kept getting into accidents. She is almost too kind, but I liked her.

The Supernatural Club appears in almost every chapter. They consist of the eccentric Club President and Hako’s two best friends: the overprotective, hot-tempered Matchan and the go-with-the-flow fortune-teller Erina. The Club President is almost as mysterious as Io to the others, as somehow he manages to handle all the pesky details like Io getting into the school. Since the main characters get caught up in a fluffy romance, the more common tsundere relationship is in the beta couple. Some other aliens also pop up with their own idiosyncrasies.

Tanaka always includes stars in the aliens’ eyes, even when the characters are not up close. Some artists might have taken a shortcut on SD faces, but it was nice Tanaka kept it up. The art is fairly typical shoujo, even when characters walk around naked. Io’s shots are above the waist, and long hair helps cover a female character. Tanaka does include many one- and two-page spreads and irregular panel layout. However, panels can be quite busy. When Hako is in one of her bad luck streaks, one panel may show the trail of three or four accidents. Small panels are often packed with characters and dialogue with no whitespace. Io looks different in the second volume, but it may be in part do to him not smiling so largely in that volume.

Translation:

No honorifics are used. Well, none except in Matchan’s nickname. I noticed that one character is referred to as Hako’s ex, yet later, Hako says she has never been in a relationship before. Huh? Otherwise, I really didn’t notice anything special about this series. It’s only two volumes, and there’s no “call me by my name” type scenes, so I really don’t have much to say. Io’s Japanese really isn’t an issue since he absorbs information easily and can even read English.

Final Comments:

I’m torn. I enjoyed the first volume, but I really didn’t like the second. I almost want to recommend Meteor Prince just to increase the chance of getting Kiss yori mo Hayaku. Maybe pick up the first and either borrow or ignore the second?

Tanaka’s Pearl Pink was released by Tokyopop, and Omukae desu. was published by CMX. However, the unlicensed Kiss yori mo Hayaku is probably her most famous series. I imagine the student x teacher married couple aspect and the length (12 volumes) make it a riskier investment. But still, please, Viz Media?

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  1. huntikfan1017

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