The one dream of any comic artist is that someone with power in the industry will discover their hobby and give her/him the chance to create comics and get paid. For manga-ka Tomoko Taniguchi, the experience was a little different, but all the same in the end. Already a published author/artists in Japan, Taniguchi's dream was to have her Shojo Manga published in America. Taniguchi's whirlwind dream began after sending fellow writer Colleen Doran her interpretation of a character from Doran's book, A Distant Soil. Doran became so taken with Taniguchi's work that she embarked on a mission to have her published in America.
The fruit of the crusade was entitled Call me Princess, which is about a girl named Mako who has spent most of her life fixated on her sister's husband. Mako's brother-in-law shows not only a deep affection for her sister, but several years earlier had rescued Mako from a tree and referred to her as a Princess. For Mako, he is the ideal man and as she enters into her late teens, she starts looking for a boy just like him. Unfortunately, her idealism makes her do cruel things especially to her adoring childhood friend, Yo, who will do anything for Mako. That is until Ryu arrives. Mako swears that she has found love until she discovered that Ryu is actually her brother-in-law's long lost brother and that Ryu hates all things that are connected to his brother-including her!
Call Me Princess was an absolutely beautiful story! The characters are unique, Mako is offbeat and quirky in a most realistic way. Her obsession with finding the perfect man is one that anyone can relate to, since there are very few people who do not have unrealistic standards for the person they consider to be Mr. or Ms. Right.
Mako's best friend, Maki, was the classic foil whom struggled to guide Mako in the right direction. Yo is a character who we can all sympathize with, as he patiently sits on the sideline watching his unrequited love speak endlessly on the perfect man, all the while counting the ways in which he is not that man. Ryu, battle-hardened and angry, became a central and endearing character as the story progressed to reveal his tough childhood. Despite the vague characterizations of Mako's family, and Ryu's brother, Call Me Princess felt like it could have been a true story.
Strikingly drawn and magnificently written, Call Me Princess perfectly portrayed a key element of the human persona: a desire to feel special. Call Me Princess reaffirmed the age old lesson that our ideals are not always set at a reachable limit, but the person in front of you might just be the closest thing. While most people consider the Shojo Manga to be written specifically for girls, this tale held something that anyone at any age could identify with and appreciate.
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