Another Friday, another volume of Princess Jellyfish to review. This week we’re reviewing volume six and I’m giving it 5 stars!
In the previous Volume of Princess Jellyfish, Kuranosuke decided that the Jellyfish brand need to put their clothes in an exhibition. However, while explaining the exhibition to the rest of the Amars, Chieko’s mother and the owner of Amamizukan arrives and tells the Amars that she’s selling as soon as she can. She also sternly tells the Amars that they all must get jobs and face reality. Kuranosuke explains to Chieko’s mother that they are all working hard on a clothing brand and even had a successful fashion show, this sways her momentarily but not enough for her to put a halt to her plans. Luckily Chieko hid the deed to the apartment complex, so this buys them some time while the redevelopment office scrambles to reissue a new deed.
With their landlord gone to deal with the issue of the deed, the Amars continue to work hard on Jellyfish’s casual line, which they intend to sell at the exhibition, although Nisha warns Kuranosuke’s that their clothes won’t sell at the exhibition because the fashion industry in Japan is in decline. Tsukimi is stressed when she hears Nisha’s skeptical comments, so she accepts an offer to go to dinner with Shu to take her mind off of things. After witnessing Kuranosuke have a cigar at dinner, Tsukimi comes up with the theme of poisonous Jellyfish for their casual line and muses over the different phases she has seen Kuranosuke as a princess, sorcerer, and now a poisonous jellyfish. That night the Amars get to work dyeing and sewing black and purple lace to the dresses. This total transformation wins the approval of Nisha, and Tsukimi is satisfied now that the dresses are ready to go.
Everyone knows beautiful roses have their thorns. But beautiful jellies have their poisons, too.
Akiko Higashimura
The following day, the Amars head to the exhibition hall, which is mostly empty, and the few customers that are there don’t seem to be interested in Jellyfish. However, their booth catches the eye of Kai Fish, a big fashion influencer, who owns many of boutiques with the hottest style all over Asia. Since Kuranosuke is the only one who can speak English, he goes out to dinner with Fish. Fish wants to buy all the dresses in the Jellyfish casual line, and he wants Tsukimi too! Fish explains that he wants to put Tsukimi into design school so that she can ultimately create designs for his boutiques. Once Tsukimi is out of school, she’ll be in charge of Jellyfish and may hire whoever she wants on her team. The terms don’t sound bad, and Tsukimi is still young, but Kuranosuke doesn’t think Tsukimi is interested in becoming a designer, so he rejects Fish’s offer, and doesn’t tell the Amars the details of the exchange. I suspect Kuranosuke’s rejection is grounded in the fact that he doesn’t want to lose Tsukimi rather than jealousy. Mr. Fish is persistent, and on the second day of the exhibition, he hands Tsukimi his business card and tells her to call him if she’s ever in any trouble.
Meanwhile, Shu has decided to finally head to Milan to hand-deliver Lina, Kuranosuke’s mother, the jellyfish dress, while there he also wants to get Lina’s help with finding Tsukimi a ring. However, since Shu doesn’t know Tsukimi’s ring size, his father gives him some sly tips on finding her ring size without her knowledge, one of those tips being wrapping her ring finger with a bandage and sliding the bandage off and taking it to the jewelers. Ultimately, Shu decides not to use any of his father’s tips and ask Kuranosuke for help. Before he leaves for Milan, Mr. Koibuchi gives Shu a CD full of pictures of Kuranosuke throughout the years. Because Shu is on this flight from Japan to Milan, he misses Tsukimi’s urgent phone call.
On the second to the last day of the exhibition, the Amars send Mayaya home after she faints. Chieko’s mother argues with Mayaya, but on her way to her room, Mayaya notices that the Koi pond has overflown, and the Koi fish are laying in the mud. Mayaya rescues the Koi, but slips in the mud and crashes into the lantern statue exposing the deed to Amanizkun. Mayaya delivers the bad news to the Amars, and they spend the night drinking and eating sushi.
Tsukimi calls Shu for help, but he’s turned his phone off for his flight, so she calls Mr. Fish instead. Mr. Fish agrees to buy Amanzikun if Tsukimi comes to work for him in Singapore, and because Tsukimi does not want the Amars to be homeless, she agrees without telling Kuranosuke.
This volume of Princess Jellyfish concludes with the Amars and Kuranosuke discovering Tsukimi selfless act.
This volume was wild! While in previous volumes, I felt the story dragged a bit, I ultimately didn’t mind because I loved reading about the Amars, and this volume has set the conclusion of this story into motion. Also introduced in this volume was the theme of the poisonous jellyfish. I loved this theme and the way that Tsukimi used it to design the casual line. However, I was shocked that Higashimura poised Kuranosuke as the poison in Tsukimi’s life.
Maybe ya just don’t want her to leave ya, Eh?”
Akiko Higashimura
I love Kuranosuke, but he was toxic in this volume. Instead of uplifting Tsukimi and helping her gain confidence as he has done in previous volumes, he instead doesn’t tell her about the offer Mr. Fish made Jellyfish and decides for her. That was pretty trash! I think Kuranosuke is and has been in love with her since the beginning, and he doesn’t want Tsukimi to grow and leave him the way his mother left him. This is understandable, but this man needs to get a grip and talk out his feelings.
Speaking on Kuranosuke’s mother, we discover in this volume that shortly before coming to live with the Koibuchi’s, she had surgery on her throat, and her singing voice has never been the same since. The time following Lina’s recovery, she fell into a depression and could no longer raise Kuranosuke, which is why she takes him to live with the Koibuchi’s. Lina is now remarried and living in Milan, however through her discussions with Shu, it is clear that she misses her son dearly. Lina tells Shu that if Kuranosuke ever finds someone special in his life that Shu must tell that person “to give Kuranosuke lots and lots of love” because she could not. And to really get us in our feels, Shu forgot to give Lina the CD!
This volume has made me more confused than ever regarding the Shu, Tsukimi, and Kuranosuke love triangle. The previous volumes convinced me that the chance of Tsukimi and Kuranosuke becoming a couple was slim but with Kuranosuke’s actions in this volume I’m kind of convinced that Kuranosuke is going to come to terms with his feelings in the next volumes. And once that happens it’s going to be a mess. In my opinion I think Tsukimi knows Kuranosuke more than she knows Shu but I think Shu represents safety for her as he has a similar in personality. Kuranosuke, on the other hand, pushes Tsukimi to go out of her comfort zone and to be a better version of herself.
Volume 6 of Princess Jellyfish is one of my favorites and I can’t wait to see where the story moves in volume 7, the third to last volume.
Until next time continue living in libros,
Gaby
livinginlibros.com 