Oujo Alexandra

Sim0na Nov 27, 2023

4

Oujo Alexandra (or Princess Alexandra) is the first work of Miuchi Suzue that I've read. It's a shame I wasn't very impressed. In this short 3 chapter manga, we follow the pitiful Princess Alexandra who is blinded after an arson attack and now, after the assassination attempt that left her father with only a few months left to live, she is bound to become the next monarch. Her stepmother wants to place her own son on the throne and tries to sabotage Alexandra and make her look incompetent in many different situations. In the end, they open up to her through her kindness, empathy, and determination to understand other people's struggles even if she can not see them. The ending was actually kind of surprising, as Alexandra hands the title of Monarch to her stepbrother believing he would be a better fit to run the country.  Alexandra is a very trusting and naive girl, but it's to be expected as she's still a teenager and her late mother's dying wish was for her to believe in the sincerity of others and not live in fear and doubt of being a burden. I don't know what else to say about her (or any other character for that matter) as she doesn't have much of a personality besides being this good-hearted but easily tricked little girl. She did act very mature in the end, I must say. I feel kind of bad for saying this, but the art wasn't really to my taste. I still think that the late-victorian dresses (even tho this is set just a few years after the French Revolution) are stunning while the detailed interior and marvellous architecture show that Miuchi Suzue put a lot of emphasis on trying to immerse the reader inside the historical setting. The story is very short and if you would like to read a dramatic manga, with a classic shoujo art style made by the infamous "Glass Mask" author, this is for you. Even if it's not the best, most thought-out story it doesn't deserve to be forgotten so I advise everyone who likes this kind of stuff to give is a shot.

nathandouglasdavis Jan 25, 2022

4

Alexandra wins hearts and minds by being relentlessly trusting and aggressively credulous, as well as earnest and sincere. The meat of the story revolves around the new queen trying to make Alexandra seem unfit to be the heir to the throne because of feir blindness, and Alexandra ultimately showing that fe is capable. Personally, I felt like this manga went a bit overboard with the idea that "trusting people will make people rise to the occasion and become more trustworthy," though I do have to admit that that's not a premise that I think I've run into before.  The best part of the artwork is probably the ornamentation in the clothes and architecture. There are some pretty intricate details going on. That said, the shading feels smudgy and there's also some sloppiness with character proportions. The artist struggles to draw eyes from certain angles and makes the faces feel out of whack. I also don't care for the heavily darkened eyes and weird glistenings. The exuberant mouths are also a bit much.