So, I read all 296 chapters of 'Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle'. It took me a few months to complete it. I want to share my thoughts here and I hope you do so too.
Before I start the review I just wanna say that I am not an 'epic anime review man' who is going to analyze every minute detail of the manga. I just wanna share my thoughts after reading it, and I hope you would message me about it so I could hear your thoughts on it too :D
The Introduction
The entire story is about a princess who is captured by the demon king and is held as a hostage but the twist is that instead of an ordinary story where it follow a 'hero' and his journey to rescue her, it instead follows the life of the princess, her interactions with the demons and her quest to get a good sleep.
At the start, the concept and premise of the manga seemed very interesting to me and so did the title, which is why I read it. I had my doubts though. As I read first few chapters, I thought that though the idea was interesting, would it be able to hold up? cuz obviously there weren't many characters ( at least in the beginning ) and the concept was just getting a good sleep lol.
The manga was very creative and unique in that aspect, some anime/manga would have the coolest premise and concepts but it is turns out boring as fuck. This manga was a pleasant surprise, most chapters made me laugh/smile and it was a good experience. I never would have imagined that you could make 296 chapters out of a girl just trying to sleep lol and make it enjoyable.
The Characters
The characters are cool and I like them. They play well into the story and it's comedic timing/jokes. My favorite characters would have to be the princess and her body double, bussy ( because her name alone makes me laugh lmao). The characters are a parody/satire of a typical fantasy setting. The princess instead of being this elegant and kind women, is a crazy lady who is batshit insane at times, the demon king who is usually thought of as a evil and cruel leader who is gonna harm the princess, is actually a kind hearted man who takes good care of the princess etc etc. It is quite a unique, refreshing and interesting take on characters and the fantasy genre as a whole.
The Art
The art of the manga is very nice and cute. I have downloaded a lot of the pages on my phone. I liked the parts at the end of each chapter, where the author would draw the princess in a new outfit each time. Here are a few examples,
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The World Building And Story
The world building of the manga was also good, in the beginning the place was just 'demon castle' and as on the story goes on, it becomes more of a kingdom with it's own systems and people. It's characters develop as the story goes on too and their relationships change too, although not a crazy amount or something, it's a comedy manga after all. It's arcs can be really fun to read and I enjoyed them a lot. My favorite arcs are
Spoiler, click to view
princess becomes a kid arc, the visit to the human world arc, the visit to demon cleric's home, the dragon city childhood friend arc ( probably my fav i guess ) , the visit from the princess's mom, Tell me yours too :)The Problems
Nothing in life is perfect and neither is this manga, though not a lot of issues and it still is a good manga in-spite of them.
the translations of the manga are a bit bad, they kept using words that I had never seen before ( mfw googling words during manga read smh ) and the dialogue was really long sometimes.
another problem was the fact that around chapter 80-150ish ( i don't remember the exact part), the manga started treating itself like a newspaper comic strip more or less ( just jokes ) . Some of those chapters were not fun, nor did they have much plot or character development or world building. Not all of them of course, but I felt that these chapters of the manga were not as good as the rest, maybe just my opinion. The chapters after 156 were so fucking good, I finished chapters 156-296 in less than 2-3 weeks, those chapters were fun and funny too. So, I guess the author caught on and fixed the issues :)
TLDR
A cute and funny gag manga with interesting characters and character interactions. It is a unique take on the fantasy genre and presents some new and interesting ideas, The author is creative and keeps the story interesting. Overall, if you ever wanna read something cute and funny, I would recommend this manga
Final Score - 8/10 :)
Anyways, I would love to hear your thoughts too :D
Good Night