Why I Read: Princess Chroma
Hi, everybody. It’s Delta-v, and I’ve been wanting to bring you this webcomic review for quite some time. It’s a “Magical Girl” parody that I find way more entertaining than any of the Japanese/U. S. “serious” Magical Girl stories I’ve read. It’s also the only Japanese/U. S. Magical Girl story I still read. I talked author and artist Sarah Driffill (also known as awesome commenter and guest writer melaredblu) into letting me review it, so let’s sample the confection that is Princess Chroma.
Synopsis:
The story begins in the other dimensional kingdom of Elysium, a place of color and magic, as Queen Juno summons Sir Leopold Gryphon to give him the task of traveling to the dimension inhabited by Earth, discovering the girl with the sterling qualities necessary to become Earth’s “Princess Chroma” who would be able to do battle with “The Shade” a demonic creature who, with it’s minions the “Monochromes”, seeks to destroy all color from Earth. Leopold is given the royal Elysium Prism, a pendant with the power to enable it’s wielder to defeat the (literal) forces of darkness.
Sir Leopold, a powerful, magic user possessing wings, and so good-looking that he should be enveloped by a continuous cloud of Bishie Sparkles, accepts the Prism and sets out for Earth’s dimension. Once there, he receives the first of many nasty shocks: On Earth, he’s a white, lop-eared bunny rabbit with vestigial, disappearing wings.
Leopold soldiers on searching for the perfect girl, and finds May Flowers, a Middle School girl perfect in every way to be Princess Chroma, except for two: She can’t hear Leopold, and the Prism doesn’t react to her at all. As Leo is dejectedly considering this, he is accosted by rude, violent, selfish, lazy June Summers who accuses him of being a stalker. Unfortunately, she can hear him, and the Prism reacts to her. Leopold tries to explain thet she is the new Princess Chroma and give her the prism, but she wants nothing to do with either it or him. As he is leaving he is attacked by a Monochrome. he is losing the fight, when June, having been alerted by the Grim Reaper himself (June’s mother seems to have some sort of deal with him to help keep June in line–June calls him “Julio”), stops watching her favorite TV show, Blood Grudge. She takes the prism, utters the activation words “Chroma Elysium” and is transformed only to be horrified by her Princess Chroma costume, a….well, see for yourself.
June wades into the fray only to be told that she must dance, not fight, casting the “Magical Petal Dance” spell, ending the fight instantly.
Unimpressed with all this, and learning that Leopold (whom she named “Spiders”, since “Bugs” was already taken) healed quickly, she began beating him with her mace when he tried to tell her about her new duties. Another Monochrome attacks and injures June’s friend April Showers (are you seeing a pattern, here? April’s twin brother’s name is Sonny). June deals with a third attack, and announces her retirement.
June manages to antagonize classmate Randall March O’Hare by rudely shoving him out of her way, breaking his glasses and smashing his face into the ground. He is not pleased. She also laughs at classmate Cordellia Si Wol’s misfortune, gaining her another enemy. Cordellia, who happens to be a witch (Yup, another type of Magical Girl), and Randall seek revenge. June is tricked into fighting a magical construct that isn’t a Monochrome. When her usual tactics fail, June furiously employs an ultra-powerful spell that she doesn’t know how to use properly.
The results are….unfortunate.
We are then taken back in time several thousand years and to another dimension where we meet the original Princess Chroma and learn that the oh-so-despised costume…
…is her regular wardrobe. We also learn that the triggering words “Chroma Elysium” work because that’s her real name, and that since her brother Brunswick Elysium is the King of the nation of Elysium, she really is Princess Chroma.
We also learn how Leopold spent his time before he was knighted, what the Elysium Prism is and how it works, how The Shade came to Elysium, why red flower petals are so important–all sorts of interesting things.
June and company (April, May, Sonny, Randall, Cordellia, and Leopold, make their way through utter devastation, but with no clear destination, one direction seems as good as the next…
How I Found It:
I followed an “Other Groovy Reads” link from Charlie Wise’s webcomic Groovy, Kinda. In fact, all of Charlie’s recommendations are excellent.
Why I Like It:
Three reasons: The art, the humor, and the writing.
Sarah started off pretty strong with simple manga style line art, good composition, good perspective, good grasp of expressions and body language, and good color sense when applicable. As her mastery of the tools and the tools themselves improved, she added shading and more subtle lines, layering, and stuff I don’t understand since all of my experience is with ink or pencil/charcoal on paper or paint. My day job is framing other peoples artwork, and choosing colors that enhance it, so I can speak with some authority, at least.
Her latest work is very lifelike with a 3D feel that emphasizes the fluidity of motion and form that emphasize body language and action so well.
Sarah once gave me a list of artists that she admires. I checked them out as a matter of course, and agreed with her, but…. In my opinion she is a lot closer to their level than she thinks she is.
The humor is both wide ranging and deep, with no comic opportunity that I can see left out. Sarah has that vital-to-the-humorist slightly skewed way of looking at things that allow her to see both the ridiculous and the ironic, and the comedic possibilities in both. The comic itself is a parody, and, boy, does she parody everything from Magical Girls to manga to formulaic writing–anything that presents itself as a target, she goes after with gusto.
She also has a fondness for puns, both verbal and visual (as exemplified by her character names), and a weakness (which I share) for pratfalls and other physical humor. She also has a masterful hand at “Easter Eggs”, and other rewards for the careful reader that the more impetuous may miss–just look at everything, carefully. (one example, she includes many cameo appearances of characters from other comics)
The writing is something special. I can say with the authority of a long life and thousands of novels read, Sarah can write. Her main character, June, is one of the most unsympathetic, aggravating, annoying and just plain nasty people I have read about. Her faults are many, and her virtues are very few–but I still find myself pulling for her, hoping that things will turn around for her. I am invested in June, and that is a mark of superior writing. All of the webcomics I read are well written–I wouldn’t read them otherwise–and Sarah is one of the best. This will sound strange, but if you stripped away all the humor in Princess Chroma, all the jokes, all the puns, all the silly situations, you’d still have a story, and an engrossing one, and that’s impressive.
One thing you must do, is to go to the Archives, and look up the Unchaptered pages, especially the Elysium Extras. It will be well worth the effort.
What Could Be Better Done:
Honestly, I can’t think of anything. There may be something in the social media world where I don’t go, but there’s nothing I can think of out here. (Dan here: PC has a Facebook page, and Sarah has an active presence there, but there is no Twitter presence that I am aware of, for example.)
Final Thoughts:
It’s worth noting that it is because of Sarah that I am writing this review, and not just this one, but any of them. You see, Sarah personally recommended The Demon Archives to me. Without that, I may never have met Dan, Nick, and Seba, and that is a debt I can never repay.
Princess Chroma isn’t on Top Web Comics, so I can’t pester you about that, but I can recommend, highly, leaving a comment just to say “Hello”. It would mean an awful lot to someone who really deserves it.