My recent readings: Kuragehime

Well, this year I’ve read many things, including manga, novels, short stories, etc. I started this summer reading “The hound od the Baskervilles” by Arthur Conan Doyle, I also read Herman Hesse’s “Siddharta”, and some short stories written by Carlos Fuentes. The last month I started reading “El Quijote”, but I haven’t finished it yet. I’ve also read many mangas during the last months, including almost all of the mangas written by Inio Asano, like “Oyasumi Punpun” (Goodnight Punpun), “Subarashii Sekai” (What a wonderful world), Hikari no Machi (City of Lights), among others.

 

But one of the readings that I’ve enjoyed the most has been “Kuragehime” (Jellyfish Princess) a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Akiko Higashimura. I first saw the anime based on the manga and the story caught me. Kuragehime tells the story of an 18 years old girl called Tsukimi, who has arrived to live in Tokyo from a small town. One day, when Tsukimi was a little girl her mother brought her to the aquarium to see the jellyfishes, and while they were looking at a really beautiful jellyfish that looked like a bride in her white dress, Tsukimi was told by her mother that when she grows up she was going to become a beautiful princess, and she was going to wear a beautiful white dress like the jellyfish.

 

The problem from the story that Tsukimi’s mother told her is that after her death Tsukimi didn’t became a real princes like her mother told her, but instead she became a jellyfish “otaku” (fan) and moved to Tokyo to become an Illustrator. In Tokio she lives with a group of otakus in a house where men are not allowed, and they call themselves “The amars” (nuns).
Theirs life was peaceful until Tsukimi meets Kuranosuke, a cross-dressed boy who bring a twist to the amars life, especially for Tsukimi.

It’s a really funny story, and completely different from other mangas that I’ve read, the characters are singular. I like it because it shows the story of “not normal” girls that has to face the world, and they do it in their own particular way.