„You’re cute! – No, you are!“ A Princess Princess D Review

Originalname:	プリンセス・プリンセスD | Purinsesu purinsesu D
Also known as:	-
Release Date:	28. June – 13. September 2006
Director:
Writer:	Mikiyo Tsuda (Manga)
Cast:	Kenta Kamakari, Rei Fujita, Takeru Sato, Osamu Adachi, Takumi Saito, Yuichi Nakamura

Plot

In an all boys school the three boys Yutaka Mikoto, Shihoudani Yuujirou and Kouno Tooru are chosen to be princesses. They have to dress like girls and cheer on the clubs.

But one day the new student Hanazono Otoya arrives and he wants to ruin this tradition. He wants to destroy the princess system and he wants to be the new schools president.

First, he forms a new princess group called the “Dark Princesses” with the help of Minamoto Kurou and Mori Ranta. Slowly they push the Princesses away and overtake the students.

Then he builds a new students council. The present student’s president Arisada Shuuya accepts this declaration of war but anything he tries it gets worse.

One night, Mikoto gets locked up in the basement with Otoya and they start to talk. At the end Mikoto thinks that he isn’t a bad guy. Afterwards rumours come out that Mikoto dropped to be a princess and after his friends wanted to know if it’s true (he said it’s not but he didn’t want take place against Otoya again) he gets thrown out. Now Mikoto, who always hated to be a princess, is free. But he can’t enjoy his freedom. He misses his friends.

So, the election days come with every day nearer and for the help to win Arisada flies a spy in this school to find a weakness of the “Dark Princesses”. Kujouin Haruka makes his researches and helps Arisada but when it comes to the election day he is on the same side as Otoya.

When Arisada was moving out of his council room Otoya comes in and asks him how he feels and if he can understand him now. (TWIST ALARM!!) It comes out they are siblings. (WHAT?!) When Otoya was nine Arisada left him in the wilderness and since then Otoya wanted to take revenge.

So, Otoya is now president and there are new rules: No princesses and no former school council – traitors will be punished. Yuujirou, Tooru and Sakamoto (class’ head and good friend of them) are hiding in the school’s basement (another room I think). Once Yuujirou and Tooru sneek out and on the roof they hear that Mikoto refuses to be on Otoya’s side. He understood what it means to be a princess and finally he can put his man’s pride aside and embraces his role as a princess. They rescue him and after apologizing they make out a plan how they take the school over again.

The next day the “Dark Princesses” make a live stage and then Yuujirou, Tooru and Mikoto will attack. Don’t panic, they just sing. The “Dark Princesses” want to save the situation but the lost Arisada and his team are back and Otoya has to admit his defeat.

At the end we find out that this was Haruka’s plan from the beginning. It’s a happy end after all. The school is back to the normal system and the siblings, yeah, I think they can talk to each other again in a normal way.

Conclusion

Yeah... the drama was really fun to watch. But if I’m honest it’s not really good. The characters are lame. They aren’t well –thought-out. It’s like they writers picked those characters from the beginning of the Manga story (yeah, it was a Manga story) and didn’t develop them. The actors tried their best to give the characters a little spirit but it doesn’t help.

Another thing that bothers me was the fact that the princesses weren’t the main character if you look closely. I mean the whole war was between Arisada and Otaya. Okay, you can say the princesses were like the soldiers or something like that. But they didn’t really do something. They looked only cute in their dresses and they argued with each other.  But at the end they become more important.

And there is also a point that caught my eye. What was the budget of this thing? Only in the last episode, there were a lot of students. During the drama we only see three regular students. Not more. And sometimes the lighting was just weird. To be honest it looks like someone did this movie in his first year of film school.

The only good thing in this drama were the jokes and the running gags which personified the character like Mikoto is running away or Yuujiro wrestles with Mikoto and wins (the “Give up?- No! [a little bit later] Rooope!!” –scene).

So, if you want to see guys dressed in Lolita-clothes, that’s the right thing for you. But don’t go in with any expectations.