Princess Jellyfish (海月姫) is an 11 episode comedic romance based on the manga of the same name by Higashimura Akiko. The anime originally aired in Japan in the Fall of 2010.
Tsukimi is a frumpy nerd girl who moved to Tokyo after graduating high school and has been trying to work as an illustrator. She lives in a boarding house called Amamizu-kan which is occupied by other otaku girls. The 'nun's of Amamizu-kan have strict rules about their convent and shun popular things, freezing up when confronted by their natural fashion enemies and forbid men from entering. Tsukimi is a jellyfish otaku. One night while visiting a favorite jelly at a pet store she realizes its life is in danger. The employee of the shop is a trendy man which trips Tsukimi's self defense mode and she has a hard time trying to convey the danger. As her attempts fail a beautiful and fashionable woman steps in to help. In the end the jellyfish named Clara and the strong willed beauty end up back at Amamizu-kan.
Tsukimi's trouble begins when the fashionable woman turns out to be a cross dressing young man who just happens to take an interest in her. The man, Kuranosuke, is the illegitimate younger son of a prominent politician. Raised for the first few years of his life by his mother, a foreign performer, Kuronosuke is very effeminate. He wishes that he was a woman even though he is heterosexual. Fashionable, loved by all girls around him, he is confident and used to getting his way. His inexplicable attraction to the otaku girl brings him to Amamizu-kan in regular intervals. He see's a beautiful creature hidden in a nerd cocoon that is Tsukimi. The problem is, he has to hide the fact he's a man from the other residents.
His entertainment is in danger of disappearing due to a plan to renovate the entire neighborhood, including demolishing all of the current buildings. He whips up the nerd girls into a frenzy to fight for the continuation of the convent. As he spends more time with Tsukimi he begins to fall in love with her, which confesses her. Instead she has unmistakably fallen for his older brother Shu, who is involved in a sticky blackmail situation with a predatory woman from the neighborhoods redevelopment company. Kuronosuke hatches a scheme with Tsukimi to make high fashion dresses made to look like various jelly fish as a way to raise the money to try and save Amamizu-kan.
This is a ugly duckling shojo story with heavy otaku comedy elements to it. Its the story of a fashionable member of the upper echelon becoming entranced with someone living in the gutter of society. Changing the frumpy duckling into yamato nadeshiko, the ideal woman. Along the way though the person making the change falls in love with their subject, confusing them.
I got into the manga recently and fell in love with it pretty quickly, so once I got caught up with it, as it is slowly ongoing I turned to the anime. The anime does the manga well, but ends rather poorly, given the incomplete state of the manga its self. The animation does justice to the feeling and styles of the manga and the voice acting is some of the best I have heard in a long time, matching the characters rather well all around. In short, the anime is a well done piece, but probably leaves a bad taste in your mouth if you don't read the manga. The last episode goes off course at an attempt to 'wrap' up the story to some extent prior to the real ending actually existing. It touches on some aspects that appear later in the manga but just flips in the last two minutes for a hasty ending. An ending which reminded me of the dangers Shirobako warned about when it comes to making an anime for an incomplete manga.
Either way, fantastically enjoyable shoujo comedy anime and an even better manga. The pace of the anime was petty good and made some parts of the manga more bareable. I really dislike the side character Mayaya and her antics seemed a bit toned down in the anime. Plus, the opening theme is one of the best I have heard in a long time.
The anime was licensed by FUNimation in North America and the DVD's for it are easy to come by.
Tsukimi is a frumpy nerd girl who moved to Tokyo after graduating high school and has been trying to work as an illustrator. She lives in a boarding house called Amamizu-kan which is occupied by other otaku girls. The 'nun's of Amamizu-kan have strict rules about their convent and shun popular things, freezing up when confronted by their natural fashion enemies and forbid men from entering. Tsukimi is a jellyfish otaku. One night while visiting a favorite jelly at a pet store she realizes its life is in danger. The employee of the shop is a trendy man which trips Tsukimi's self defense mode and she has a hard time trying to convey the danger. As her attempts fail a beautiful and fashionable woman steps in to help. In the end the jellyfish named Clara and the strong willed beauty end up back at Amamizu-kan.
Tsukimi's trouble begins when the fashionable woman turns out to be a cross dressing young man who just happens to take an interest in her. The man, Kuranosuke, is the illegitimate younger son of a prominent politician. Raised for the first few years of his life by his mother, a foreign performer, Kuronosuke is very effeminate. He wishes that he was a woman even though he is heterosexual. Fashionable, loved by all girls around him, he is confident and used to getting his way. His inexplicable attraction to the otaku girl brings him to Amamizu-kan in regular intervals. He see's a beautiful creature hidden in a nerd cocoon that is Tsukimi. The problem is, he has to hide the fact he's a man from the other residents.
His entertainment is in danger of disappearing due to a plan to renovate the entire neighborhood, including demolishing all of the current buildings. He whips up the nerd girls into a frenzy to fight for the continuation of the convent. As he spends more time with Tsukimi he begins to fall in love with her, which confesses her. Instead she has unmistakably fallen for his older brother Shu, who is involved in a sticky blackmail situation with a predatory woman from the neighborhoods redevelopment company. Kuronosuke hatches a scheme with Tsukimi to make high fashion dresses made to look like various jelly fish as a way to raise the money to try and save Amamizu-kan.
This is a ugly duckling shojo story with heavy otaku comedy elements to it. Its the story of a fashionable member of the upper echelon becoming entranced with someone living in the gutter of society. Changing the frumpy duckling into yamato nadeshiko, the ideal woman. Along the way though the person making the change falls in love with their subject, confusing them.
I got into the manga recently and fell in love with it pretty quickly, so once I got caught up with it, as it is slowly ongoing I turned to the anime. The anime does the manga well, but ends rather poorly, given the incomplete state of the manga its self. The animation does justice to the feeling and styles of the manga and the voice acting is some of the best I have heard in a long time, matching the characters rather well all around. In short, the anime is a well done piece, but probably leaves a bad taste in your mouth if you don't read the manga. The last episode goes off course at an attempt to 'wrap' up the story to some extent prior to the real ending actually existing. It touches on some aspects that appear later in the manga but just flips in the last two minutes for a hasty ending. An ending which reminded me of the dangers Shirobako warned about when it comes to making an anime for an incomplete manga.
Either way, fantastically enjoyable shoujo comedy anime and an even better manga. The pace of the anime was petty good and made some parts of the manga more bareable. I really dislike the side character Mayaya and her antics seemed a bit toned down in the anime. Plus, the opening theme is one of the best I have heard in a long time.
The anime was licensed by FUNimation in North America and the DVD's for it are easy to come by.
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