Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Sleepy Princess in Demon Castle volume 2

 If am I being honest, I didn't enjoy this volume quite as much as the first one. The art is still good and the stories are still creative. The problem, to me at least, lies with Princess Syalis. She seems less sympathetic in several of these stories than she was previously. 

In volume 1, it is easy to write off her behavior as being side-effects of sleep-deprivation. She is too tired to be fully aware of her actions. So if she were better rested, then she wouldn't being killing demons so she can use their bodies as sleep aids. That doesn't appear to be the case in some of the volume two stories. 

There are two stories in particular where this stands out. The first of these is the story that introduces Harpy. This is a female soldier in Demon King Twilight's army who has been rotated out of active duty so she can take a break in the Demon Castle. So she decides to spend her leave time befriending Princess Syalis. Harpy appears just as benign as the other demons, but friendlier because she is actively trying to become Syalis's friend.

Princess Syalis is unresponsive to Harpy's entreaties until she notices how Harpy's feathers would upgrade her current comforter. So she agrees to be Harpy's friend and even to have a sleepover in her cell, just so that she can sleep on Harpy's feathers. She even tells poor Harpy to be quiet so she can sleep. Harpy is, of course, heart-broken that Syalis only "wants her for her body". 

Yes, I know that is the punchline for the joke, but the illustration of seeing Harpy so upset spoils the joke for me. I don't see the Princess's antics in this chapter to be Comedic Sociopathy in this case. 

The second story line I want to point out is the nightmare one. In a nutshell, Syalis discovers that everyone in the castle has nightmares about her every night. She recognizes this and then immediately dismisses it as unimportant so long as she, herself, is not having nightmares. Stories like these make one question, who is the real demon here? 

Fortunately, these are more of an exception to the rule. The other stories are not like this. For instance, there is a story that has two layers to it. 1.) Demon King Twilight is holding council with his generals about the progression of Hero Dawner's quest, and their future actions. 2.) Princess Syalis spilled fruit juice on her bed sheets and wonders how to clean them. 

The Demon Castle Council lists the magic items they plan to secretly give Dawner and the machines they will send against him to make his quest challenging-but-doable. While this occurs like a voice-over, Syalis finds each item and ruins them all in the process of cleaning the mess she made, unaware of how priceless and important each item is. The dramatic irony here is great, and the expressions of the Demon Castle Council when they see the Princess's good work is priceless. 

Then there are the cases where Syalis makes a mistake with a magic hourglass. It doesn't shrink her as much as make her younger. This leads to a "fawn over the small child" event, which annoys her. There is also the case of her getting sleep paralysis, and her loyal teddy bear demons cause her much comedic embarrassment in their attempts to help her. 
So not everything goes Syalis's way all the time, which helps to balance out the other chapters.  

The quality of the artwork continues. It is cute and comical, and so it is perfect for most of these stories. Even the one about the nightmares has its cute moments, particularly how Syalis resolves the nightmare problem. It is just those moments of unintentionally unsympathetic that bother me. 

Trickster Eric Novels gives "Sleepy Princess in Demon Castle volume 2" a B

Click here for my next book review: The Hero is Overpowered But Overly Cautious volume 1

Click here for my previous book review: SAO Spinoff Girls' Ops volume 3

Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.

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