While Japanese manga is traditionally aimed at guys, josei manga refers to those written for a female audience. One such series is Akiko Higashimura’s romantic-comedy, Princess Jellyfish, originally published in 2008, with an animated television series following two years later.
The story now transcribes to the big screen in an outrageous and highly amusing coming-of-age farce centring around the dysfunctional residents of the women-only Amamizukan boarding house. At 20 years of age, Tsukimi (Rena Nounen) did not turn into a princess like her mother had promised. Instead, she is a jellyfish freak who sees herself as a failure to womankind, especially with her inability to speak to “fab” people and boys.
Her housemates are also otaku women (nerdy outcasts), comprising Mayaya (Rina Ohta), who is a Three Kingdoms freak; Banba-San (Chizuru Ikewaki), a train freak who reads timetables; Chieko (Azusa Babazono), a retro-Japanesque freak; and Jiji-Sama (Tomoe Shinohara), an elderly dandy freak. There is also the wise and unseen Juon Mejiro, the bestselling “Boys Love” comic writer who communicates through notes under her door.
Having moved to Tokyo to be an illustrator, Tsukimi lives off welfare with her friends until one night, while trying to rescue a jellyfish from a pet store owner, she meets the stunningly beautiful Kurako, who turns out to be Kuranosuke (Masaki Suda), the cross-dressing son of a Minister. When a local developer threatens to tear down Amamizukan, Kuranosuke must teach the girls to have faith in themselves so they can fight the battle ahead.
With a wacky and highly amusing script co-written by Toshiya Ohno and director Taisuke Kawamura, this improbably fantasy is wonderfully realised. On the surface, it’s a stereotypical story of the underdog battling big business and there’s not a lot new on offer, but the caricatures elevate it above the mundane with almost all of the characters taking a significant personal journey. None of the characters are particularly believable, but the cast give them depth and we very quickly become emotionally involved in their plight.
The jellyfish-inspired dress designs by Kumiko Iijima are surprisingly stylish and believable, and the action is interspersed by occasional animation which adds to the quirky, fun nature of the film. While aimed at a female audience with a primarily female cast, there’s no significant sentimental romantic gushing or lovelorn melodrama, making Princess Jellyfish just as enjoyable for either gender.
Reviewed by Rod Lewis
Twitter: @StrtegicRetweet
Rating out of 10: 7
Princess Jellyfish will screen on Saturday 7 November 2015 for the Japanese Film Festival, which runs 30 October to 8 November 2015 exclusively at the Mercury Cinema.
All films are spoken in Japanese with English subtitles unless otherwise noted on the Festival website.
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