Sugar Princess

Sometimes a really epic manga series is what you’re looking for. Sometimes it’s a dark comedy. Sugar Princess (シュガープリンセス) is one of those super-cute, super-sweet shōjo manga that you invariably find yourself trying to hide underneath a copy of Uzumaki or MPD Psycho when you’re carrying it out of the bookstore, at the same time knowing that you’re going to read it as soon as you get home. Or maybe that’s just me.

The story is pretty simple. Maaya Kurinoki makes one heck of a first impression on a skating coach when she performs a double axel while skating with her little brother at the rink. After a slight misunderstanding, she agrees to become a figure skater at his rink just in time to find out that the owner’s son is threatening to close down the rink. He agrees to keep it open under one condition; Maaya has to skate – and make the finals – in a beginner’s competition with Shun Kanou, the rink’s moody resident star who has sworn to never skate as a pair again.

SP is a much shorter story from the same manga-ka that brought us the epic and beloved Hana-Kimi, and though there are a few similarities – Maaya is inspired when she sees Shun skate, Shun becomes kinder and more thoughtful as he teaches Maaya – between the two, it’s not the same story. It’s a very light manga about a girl and a guy who don’t get along but have to team up to save their rink, and nothing deeper.

Two volumes have been released in both English and Japanese which wrap up the main story arc, but there has been talk of Nakajo continuing the series after returning from a hiatus while working as a game designer. There are certainly plenty of characters and plot points that could be grown into a longer series, and although the possibility of a relationship between Maaya and Shun was hinted at nothing really came of it. I’ve got a feeling that if it does continue, whatever relationship they have is going to be much more cutesy than Mizuki and Sano’s in Hana-Kimi. With a title like Sugar Princess it’s almost a requirement.