Cover

Rated “T” for “Teen-Age 13+”

TOKYOPOP’s original manga character, Princess Ai, was created by rock musician Courtney Love and D.J. Milky (the performing name of TOKYOPOP C.E.O. Stuart Levy).  Princess Ai was a three-volume series (later collected in an omnibus edition), and now the character is being used in a series of offbeat anthologies, featuring stories that might be real (taking place in Ai’s past or future) or rumor and legend.

Ai, a beguiling young woman with a mesmerizing voice, was found lost and alone in the cold streets of the Shinjuku section of Tokyo. Clothes as tattered as her memory, she only knew that her name was Ai.  Ai is actually a half-breed from another dimension, Ai-Land, where humans rule over their servants, the Dougen (angels).  With the help of Kent, a young man who falls deeply in love with her, Ai regains her memory, uncovers a conspiracy, and returns to her Ai-Land.

Princess Ai: Encounters matches the characters from the Princess Ai manga with characters from several TOKYOPOP’s OEL manga (manga originally produced in English).  OEL manga-ka (creators) such as Bettina Kurkoski (My Cat Loki), Christy Lijewski (Re:Play), and Anthony Andora & Lincy Chan (Rhysmyth), among others, set Princess Ai’s universe in their own to produce stories that range from gothic mystery and action fantasy to comedy and drama.

[This book contains a preview of the upcoming series, Princess Ai: The Prism of Midnight Dawn.]

THE LOWDOWN:  Princess Ai’s “encounters” with other TOKYOPOP OEL characters is a little more than just a mere novelty, but there isn’t any great material here.  At least three of these crossovers stood out for me.  Sang-Sun Park does a good job of adding Princess Ai and her boyfriend Kent into Park’s manga, The Tarot Café, to create an edgy little treat.  Hans “Hanzo” Steinbach’s art is the draw when Princess Ai and the gang join the cast of A Midnight Opera to stop Armageddon.

Comedy, music, and jealousy mix well when writer T Campbell and artist Amy Mebberson bring Ai into their universe and cause their Divalicious stars to feel intense jealousy of the half-angel singer.  Steve Buccellato unleashes comedy, music, action, and comic violence when his Battle of the Bands stars, Led Salad, decide to take out Ai’s beloved solo-rocker, Kent.  The stories in Princess Ai: Encounters are enjoyable enough to make me want a second round of Encounters, and the book works as a nice sampler of the eclectic mix that is TOKYOPOP’s “Global Manga” initiative.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  The treat here will be for Princess Ai fans and readers who enjoy TOKYOPOP’s originally produced manga (like me).

B