Princess Jellyfish: The Woes of Being an Otaku

This is a relatively short anime that is also known as Kuragehime, that was originally written by Akiko Higashimura and then produced by Brain’s Base. the animation studio responsible for My Little Monster, Durarara!!, and Spice and Wolf II. Like so many other anime shows, there are only eleven episodes in the series, but the manga is ongoing with what seems to be the final volume, number fifteen, being released January 13, 2015. The anime is currently watchable on Netflix.

Princess Jellyfish is classified as a romantic comedy with a focus on the interactions between two main characters, Tsukimi Kurashita and Kuronosuke Koibuchi. Tsukimi is a girl fresh out of high school, who absolutely loves jellyfish and moved from her small town in Japan to live in Tokyo in hopes of becoming an illustrator. She winds up moving into a place called Amamizukan where a few other women live.

Unfortunately, she and her new found roommates are superbly awkward around any guys, career women, good looking people, and seem to dislike the ‘stylish’. The ‘stylish’ are women who dress up in make-up and cute clothing and tend to look fabulous, and coming into contact with a ‘stylish’ actually turns her and the other girls she lives with into stone.

Kuronosuke is a completely different character. He is the product of an affair between a politician and a famous singer; he lives with his politician father and takes great joy in dressing up like a fabulous woman. Through a chance meeting he is thrown into Tsukimi’s life and immediately realizes that all of these girls are otaku, people who are so singularly obsessed with something that their social life either deteriorates or they never developed social skills. From here the story takes off, though on rather turbulent wind.

At first, I didn’t really like any of the characters. Tsukimi’s roommates are described as thirty-year-old women without jobs that just live off of an allowance from their parents, each has some odd personality trait that makes them an otaku. I found it hard to relate to these side characters, and struggled to see their comedic value; they came off as an annoyance. However not all of the side characters were bad, Kuronosuke’s brother was likable, if a bit naive, and I did enjoy watching him interact with the main characters. He also had a heavier side story going on, which I found myself looking forward to as the story progressed.

As with all anime shows that get cut off before the manga finishes, Princess Jellyfish had an ending that was generally unsatisfying. It left me with so many questions, that I actually picked up the manga where the anime ended (chapter thirty-seven, for anyone interested) and found myself enjoying the manga more.

The side characters were a bit more useful; I found them actually adding comedic value and importance. While compared to the manga, the anime left much to be desired, I do miss the opening song, which I found to be very entertaining and catchy. If you have been fence-sitting on whether or not to watch the anime, I suggest you go for it to form your own opinions — especially since it is only eleven episodes long. If you aren’t sure if you’ll enjoy the anime, then go ahead and check out the manga. It may be easier to find under its original name Kuragehime.