The premise of Millennium Prime Minister is so ridiculous it almost sounds fun. Minori Nagashima, a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl and video game aficionado, ditches school one day and ends up at an arcade, where she takes on and defeats an opponent who’s been trouncing the other patrons. Initially angry, the young man changes his tune when he sees Minori, and declares, “You can be my wife!!” Minori manages to escape his clutches, but soon learns his identity: the newly-elected Prime Minister of Japan, Kanata Okazaki. Kanata refuses to give up on the marriage idea and easily convinces Minori’s parents to give their permission, tricks Minori into appearing on a press conference announcing their engagement, and is pretty much a domineering yet playful jerk who says things like, “There’s no going back now. You have to marry me.”
Unfortunately, in its execution, the kooky story shows signs of a paradoxical unoriginality. Of course, the story begins with Minori running late for school. And of course, she runs into a duo of lecherous cretins, the ubiquitous sidewalk-dwelling foes of the shojo heroine. And of course, because of the media frenzy that ensues after the press conference, she moves in with Kanata and promptly walks in on him in the bath. The characters don’t rescue the narrative from its mediocrity, either, since Kanata is obnoxious and Minori puts up only a token resistance to his schemes. The biggest disappointment is Sai, the senior aide who provides the boys’ love element with his unrequited love for Kanata, who initially seems cool and stern but turns out to be weepy and immature.
Eiki Eiki’s art is clean and attractive, and I’m especially fond of the characters’ eyes and their expressive faces. She does seem to have a thing for elongated necks, though; check out the cover image for a particularly egregious example.
Millennium Prime Minister is complete in four volumes, but only the first is currently available in English. Volume two is due in October 2009.
Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at Manga Recon.
I reviewed the first volume of this paradoxically cracktastic yet unoriginal series
And this beautifully sums up my reaction to this book. *Exactly*.
Thanks! It sure prompted a lot of eyerolling.
I sat next to somebody reading this on the bus today. What little I read over her shoulder is consistent with this review.
Hee. Thanks for the validation! 🙂