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crimyami's review
5.0
Keiko Ishihara's art is stunning, and she gives so many expressions to the heroine it's very nice to see. Freya is from a small village and her two child hood friends come to visit and protect her rather than take her like they had been ordered too. Freya is a crybaby but she starts to grow a little by the end of the chapter having her world tossed upside down and having to be someone that she is not. There's secrets wrapped around Freya and her mother that leaves you wanting to know what else is going on. I can't wait to get my hands on the second installment to see what else Freya is going to get into and watch her grow and her child hood friend.
annakak's review
2.0
Is Prince Freya a good manga? No. There, I saved you from reading the whole review. But just for fun, let’s run it through the trash shojo checklist anyway:
✔️Crossdressing
✔️Love triangle(s)
✔️Softcore BDSM
✔️Creepy power dynamics
✔️Weird homoeroticism
❌Car accident
✔️Sparkles
I have this theory that you can judge a manga on the quality of the creator comments in the sidebars and between chapters. Boring comments? Probably a bad manga. Tragically but perhaps unsurprisingly, Prince Freya does not pass the boring sidebar test. To give credit where it’s due, the artwork is good and pretty expressive, especially when it’s focusing on how *~~dreamy~~* its male cast is (which is a lot of the time), but a lot of them have bad hair so it kind of ruins the effect.
Prince Freya does get some points for halfway through volume 1, but it becomes obvious pretty quickly that that shocker was just set up for the real love triangle, which gets underway shortly afterwards and involves Creepy Older Dude and Childhood Friend and pretty much sorts itself out exactly as you expect it would.
There’s some generic fantasy larking and such as the plot (which is about a peasant girl that looks enough like the prince of Kingdom that she has to take his place when he comes down with sad anime boy disease) gets going, but most of that is just a way to create gaps between mediocre action scenes and dramatic speeches about true strength or whatever.
All that said, I did read three whole volumes and had a pretty good time with them (in the same way that you have a good time reading the tabloid headlines in the grocery store line or watching The Bachelor compilation videos at 3am). I would say that I’d read the next one when/if the library gets it, but give it about a month and the chances of me remembering anything that happened in the first three is next to nil.
2.5/5 rounded down for the fact that our library has this but not Jujutsu Kaisen
✔️Crossdressing
✔️Love triangle(s)
✔️Softcore BDSM
✔️Creepy power dynamics
✔️Weird homoeroticism
❌Car accident
✔️Sparkles
I have this theory that you can judge a manga on the quality of the creator comments in the sidebars and between chapters. Boring comments? Probably a bad manga. Tragically but perhaps unsurprisingly, Prince Freya does not pass the boring sidebar test. To give credit where it’s due, the artwork is good and pretty expressive, especially when it’s focusing on how *~~dreamy~~* its male cast is (which is a lot of the time), but a lot of them have bad hair so it kind of ruins the effect.
Prince Freya does get some points for
Spoiler
whipping off the head of its primary love interestThere’s some generic fantasy larking and such as the plot (which is about a peasant girl that looks enough like the prince of Kingdom that she has to take his place when he comes down with sad anime boy disease) gets going, but most of that is just a way to create gaps between mediocre action scenes and dramatic speeches about true strength or whatever.
All that said, I did read three whole volumes and had a pretty good time with them (in the same way that you have a good time reading the tabloid headlines in the grocery store line or watching The Bachelor compilation videos at 3am). I would say that I’d read the next one when/if the library gets it, but give it about a month and the chances of me remembering anything that happened in the first three is next to nil.
2.5/5 rounded down for the fact that our library has this but not Jujutsu Kaisen
belle_fiction's review
5.0
I really do think that if you are a fan of Yona of the Dawn, you will love this!
Prince Freya focuses on a village girl who is forced to disguise herself as the late Prince Edvard, ruler of Tyr, since the two look ridiculously alike. Freya is a girl who lives with and tends to her very sick mother. Her two childhood friends, Aaron and Aleksi, arrive on the scene with the former being a member of the royal Prince's personal guard!
However, after their village is attacked, Freya needs to confront the terrifying reality of a country without a ruler, and decides to masquerade as Prince Edvard. I don't want to give too much away as this opening volume has quite a few unexpected moments...all I will say is that I'm rooting for Aleksi <3
A superb start to what promises to be a fantastic new series! <3
Prince Freya focuses on a village girl who is forced to disguise herself as the late Prince Edvard, ruler of Tyr, since the two look ridiculously alike. Freya is a girl who lives with and tends to her very sick mother. Her two childhood friends, Aaron and Aleksi, arrive on the scene with the former being a member of the royal Prince's personal guard!
However, after their village is attacked, Freya needs to confront the terrifying reality of a country without a ruler, and decides to masquerade as Prince Edvard. I don't want to give too much away as this opening volume has quite a few unexpected moments...all I will say is that I'm rooting for Aleksi <3
A superb start to what promises to be a fantastic new series! <3
djbagwell's review
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Meh
booklovingbabe's review
adventurous
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death, Blood, and War
agent_walls's review
4.0
I had been putting getting this off for a while because I hadn't heard anything super interesting about the story but I'm disappointed that I took so long. I really enjoyed this volume. It's darker than the average shojo in my collection and this first volume really caught my intrigue. I'm interested in seeing what happens in the next volume.
marie_thereadingotter's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
While I enjoyed reading this volume, I feel things happen far too fast. The events of this volume could have and probably should have been split into two volumes. There wasn't enough time to process certain events and one character seemed to have, basically teleported to where they needed to be for the plot to progress. It made me feel like pages were missing that showed how they got there so fast and inside the castle.
There was one very shocking thing that happened, that I was not expecting. So kudos for that plot twist early on.
There was one very shocking thing that happened, that I was not expecting. So kudos for that plot twist early on.
elllisgrey's review
adventurous
dark
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
as an introduction to this world i really enjoyed this first volume! i think the pacing was a bit too quick at times, and there were certain characters i would’ve liked to see fleshed out a bit more, but overall i highly enjoyed volume 1.
cindeereads's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this manga so much I liked everything about it from the concept and the very interesting world it is set in. I really liked the characters especially Freya she is a simple girl trying to be something she should of not had to but circumstances being what they are she tries very hard and is becoming so much more slowly but surely. The story is great a prince is dying and because Freya looks like him she has to become him to save the kingdom so much more happens and I am really looking forward to reading more. So overall I love this manga I will read more of it for sure.