The Princess's Jewels

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Rating Summary

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Background
One person joined the forum to complain about this webcomic and recommended it be listed. We agreed, but several people just didn't care to read enough of this webcomic to write a review. So I took on the task.

Downfall
This thing always sucked.

Story and Plot
The home page of the webcomic explains the storyline:

""Princess Ariana de Secramise knows that becoming the first-ever empress of the Arbezela Empire will be no small task. That’s why she collects five beautiful “jewels” -- talented, handsome men from all across the lands -- to help her reach her goal. Can Ariana maneuver her way through court politics to become the empress, and can these jewels help her shine?""

Doesn't sound bad, does it? A female deciding she wants power for herself instead of having to let a male have the privilege? But let's describe the plot:

Episode 1: Princess Ariana is at a ball, surrounded by men who want to dance with her. Then the story talks about one year ago, when Ariana meets her father, the emperor, who has come back from a successful battle where the empire has gained more territory. Bavilo, his son, says he wants to accompany the father into battle to also fight, but the emperor insists the son stays home. The younger brothers, seeing this, note that Ariana is a woman and cannot take her father's place, and instead would become the wife of another prince. But Ariana desires to become empress of the realm, and to even have several husbands to achieve that goal.

Episode 2: The emperor describes the war in which an enemy nation attacked, only to be defeated by his forces instead. The dark-skinned Duke Phantom is the hero of the latest victory, and the emperor is about to present him with an award, but Ariana insists on doing so, and she does. But the emperor is later displeased when Ariana would later meet with Phantom in private. Of course, he is recruited to be one of the "jewels" to help her become empress of the realm.

Episode 3: It turns out that Ariana is a talented swordfighter as well.

Episode 4: Efrit Karzia is another noble that goes up to Ariana, voluntarily offering to become one of her "jewels".

Art review
As said above, it is very good manga, with occasional pictures of distorted figures thrown in as occurs in other manga comics. Overall, the art style is baroque, and drawn with proper proportions and no big inaccuracies.



Unfortunately, I could not retrieve even a single frame, so this will have to do. But this picture, of the title princess and Duke Phantom, one of the men she intends to help her become empress, does illustrate what I mentioned about coloring problems. Not only is the princess too pale, but Duke Phantom has unnaturally dark skin and yellow eyes, making him literally look like he has hepatitis, which I assume wasn't the intended idea.