Princess Jellyfish

Plot

Princess Jellyfish centers on Amamizukan, an apartment building in Tokyo, where the only tenants are otaku women, and where no men are allowed. While each character has her own particular fixation, the protagonist is Tsukimi Kurashita, whose love of jellyfish stems from memories of her deceased mother taking her to an aquarium and linking the lace-like tendrils of jellyfish to the dresses of princesses. Tsukimi hopes to become an illustrator and is an awkward girl terrified of social interaction, attractive people and the prospect of formal work.

The other tenants of Amamizukan are the same, being NEETs who refer to themselves as the "Sisterhood" (nuns). Tsukimi meets the stylish Kuranosuke Koibuchi, the illegitimate son of a politician, who cross-dresses to avoid the obligations of politics and to feel closer to his mother. Tsukimi keeps the secret of his masculinity from her man-hating housemates, even as she is troubled by the intimacy of having a man in her room at times.

Amamizukan's neighborhood is under threat of redevelopment, as opportunists aim to turn the quaint area into a more cosmopolitan region, with many of the buildings being demolished to make room for hotels and shopping centers. Although Amamizukan's tenants fear and loathe attractive people, they are helped by Kuranosuke who does not want to see Amamizukan destroyed.

Characters

Tsukimi Kurashita (倉下 月海, Kurashita Tsukimi)

Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa (Japanese); Maxey Whitehead (English)

Played by: Rena Nōnen (2014 film), Kyoko Yoshine (2018 show)

Tsukimi, age 18-19 years old, is a nerdy girl who lives in Tokyo and wants to be an illustrator. Influenced by her late mother, she has a love for all kinds of jellyfish and is quite knowledgeable about them. She is the only resident of Amamizukan who knows Kuranosuke's true gender. Like the other Sisters, she has a fear of stylish people and will usually petrify in their presence. Tsukimi has a pet spotted jellyfish named Clara. Much to her chagrin, she often receives temporary makeovers from Kuranosuke; in these states, she becomes beautiful and Shū falls for her. She reciprocates Shū's feelings but she is led to think that he is in love with Shōko Inari. She grows to be very comfortable around Kuranosuke when he is cross-dressing to the point she nearly forgets his gender, but conversely she gets very nervous whenever he is in his "boy" state in front of her.

Kuranosuke Koibuchi (鯉淵 蔵之介, Koibuchi Kuranosuke)

Voiced by: Mitsuki Saiga (Japanese); Jessie James Grelle (English)

Played by: Masaki Suda (2014 film), Koji Seto (2018 show)

Kuranosuke is the son of a rich political family. He uses the alias "Kurako" in front of the other Sisters to hide his gender. He enjoys cross-dressing, to the chagrin of his family. Unlike the rest of his family, he does not find politics interesting at all and desires to get into fashion. He is constantly looking for the address of his mother, who gave birth to him after having an affair with his father, hoping to see at least once more the wardrobe she kept with so much passion. After meeting Tsukimi and helping her rescue Clara from a pet store, he starts paying her visits, finding her more interesting than anything else in his life. Throughout his life he has been popular with pretty girls, thus he almost cannot believe it when he starts realizing he may have feelings for Tsukimi.

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by Akiko Higashimura, Princess Jellyfish was serialized in Kodansha's josei manga magazine Kiss from October 25, 2008, to August 25, 2017. Kodansha collected its chapters in 17 tankōbon volumes, released from March 13, 2009, to November 13, 2017. Kodansha USA licensed and released the manga in North America in nine omnibus editions from March 22, 2016, to June 5, 2018. Crunchyroll also added the manga to its web distribution service. The manga is licensed by Star Comics in Italy, and Akata in France.

Anime

An 11-episode anime television series adaptation produced by Brain's Base, directed by Takahiro Omori, and written by Jukki Hanada aired in Japan between October 15 and December 31, 2010, on Fuji Television's Noitamina programming block. Character designs were provided by Kenji Hayama and the music was composed by Makoto Yoshimori. Prior to the anime, a mini-anime version called Go, Sisterhood Explorers! (それ行け!尼〜ず探検隊, Sore Ike! Amāzu Tankentai), six 1-minute episodes, was broadcast in August of the same year. It had nothing to do with the main storyline, but rather depicted the adventures of the Sisterhood as they explored the jungle. Four BD/DVD compilation volumes were released from January to April 2011, and each volume contained a bonus anime short called Princess Jellyfish - Heroes that focused on each of the Sisterhood members. The opening theme is "Koko Dake no Hanashi" (ここだけの話; "Just Between Us") by Chatmonchy and the ending theme is "Kimi no Kirei ni Kizuite Okure" (きみのきれいに気づいておくれ; "Please Realize How Beautiful You Are") by Sambomaster. Actor Takeo Chii makes a special appearance in the anime as Jiji's beloved goods (posters, etc.), and is also listed in the ending credits. In addition, the son of the original author, Akiko Higashimura (nicknamed Gocchan), makes a brief appearance as a background character in episode 8.

Funimation simulcasted the series on its video streaming website as part of their deal with Fuji TV; the first two episodes premiered on October 28, 2010. Funimation later licensed the series in North America in response to positive feedback from a fan survey posted on their Facebook page and released the series on BD/DVD on February 28, 2012. The series made its North American television debut on September 11, 2012, on the Funimation Channel.

Live-action

A live-action film adaptation produced by Asmik Ace Entertainment premiered in Japanese theaters on December 27, 2014. The film is directed by Taisuke Kawamura and the script is written by Toshiya Ono.

A 10-episode live-action drama series adaptation aired on Fuji TV from January 15 to March 19, 2018. The drama is directed by Junichi Ishikawa and the script is written by Yuuichi Tokunaga.

Reception

In 2010, Princess Jellyfish won the Kodansha Manga Award for best shōjo manga. It was also nominated for the Manga Taishō Award that year. In 2017, it was nominated for the Eisner Award in the "Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia" category, for its first three volumes.

It was reported in August 2010 that over 1 million copies of the manga have been sold. During their first week of sales, the fourth volume of the manga sold about 27,000 copies, and the fifth volume sold about 55,000 copies. The sixth volume sold over 60,000 copies in its first week, and exceeded 100,000 copies sold in total the week after.

Princess Jellyfish has been considered one of the best anime of the 2010s by Polygon. Julia Lee highlighted its message of "Everyone is beautiful and interesting and it should be a crime to not see yourself that way". Crunchyroll staff also included it in such a list; reviewer Kara Dennison praised "its charming art to its heartfelt story" and said, "Princess Jellyfish is one of those rare precious gems that doesn't depict female otaku-dom as unicorn-rare, but digs into what it really feels like to be a young woman in that walk of life".