Jess Franco would be pleased

And so Princess Resurrection kicks off its sixth volume by checking Women In Prison off the list of B-movie genres. By itself, this is an enjoyable volume, but a few things are starting to bug me about the series as a whole.

As noted last time, the violence is getting a bit less over-the-top, especially the bits directed at our sad-sack protagonist. This is one of the things keeping this from just being, like, Rosario + Vampire, so I'm sad to see it get dialed back.

Also, the pace of the plot can only be described as glacial, though to be fair I was initially surprised to see it develop one at all. PR isn't so much chapters in a continuing story as it is a bunch of random action setpieces based on whatever was playing on Cinemax last night. This particular volume is so picaresque that the Princess sustains a major injury between chapters, then heals up completely between the next two.

On the bright side, drawing whatever the hell you feel like isn't such a bad thing if you're a decent artist, and for every unfortunately dressed extra (I have no idea what's going on with the werewolf gang leader's pants) there's an interesting bit like this lens flare effect off the flashlight, which I actually can't recall having seen before, at least in manga. The title character's complete unflappability also leads to a fairly original twist on the old "replaced by doppelganger" gag.

This is still trashy fun, but I fear it's not going to fully live up to its initial promise and become awesome. Prove me wrong, Mitsunaga. I'd also like to ask Del Rey to step up their game on their translation/English adaptation/localization/whatever we're calling it today. I dare anyone to read the Princess' dialogue on the left over there in anything but a halting Shatnerian stammer. You can maybe argue that it feeds into the Ed Wood ambiance, but frankly, I just reread a bunch of Studio Proteus books and I'm not feeling that generous. Even Toren Smith's porn reads way better than this.