Kuragehime

Description

From Kodansha:
Tsukimi Kurashita has a strange fascination with jellyfish. She’s loved them from a young age and has carried that love with her to her new life in the big city of Tokyo. There, she resides in Amamizukan, a safe haven for girl geeks who regularly gush over a range of things from trains to Japanese dolls. However, a chance meeting at a pet shop has Tsukimi crossing paths with one of the things that the residents of Amamizukan have been desperately trying to avoid a beautiful and fashionable woman! But there’s much more to this woman than her trendy clothes! This odd encounter is only the beginning of a new and unexpected path for Tsukimi and her friends.

Official English: Azuki, Inkr

Note: Won the Kodansha Manga Award for best shoujo manga in 2010 and was nominated for the Manga Taishou award in 2010.

Type

Manga

Associated Names

Công Chúa Sứa

Jellyfish Princess

Jellyfish Princess: The Heroes Series of Biographies

Kurage Hime

Kuragehime: Eiyuu Retsuden

Kuragehime: Heroes Retsuden

Princess Jellyfish

Принцесса - медуза

海月姫

海月姫英雄列伝

Groups Scanlating

N/A

Latest Release(s)

N/A

Status in Country of Origin

17 Volumes (Complete)

Completely Scanlated?

Yes

Anime Start/End Chapter

Starts at Vol 1, Chap 1

Ends at Vol 3, Chap 29 (Chap 21-29 abridged and changed in E11)

User Reviews

N/A

Forum

4 topics, 20 posts

Click here to view the forum

User Rating

Average: 8.6 / 10.0 (869 votes)

Bayesian Average: 8.52 / 10.0

37%

24%

20%

Last Updated

February 16th, 2025 2:57pm PST - 8 months ago

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Genre

Comedy Drama Gender Bender Josei Romance Slice of Life
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Categories

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Recommendations

Author(s)

Artist(s)

Year

Original Publisher

Kodansha

Serialized In (magazine)

Kiss (Kodansha)

Licensed (in English)

Yes

English Publisher

Azuki (Digital)

INKR Comics

Kodansha Comics (9 Omnibus Vols - Complete)

Activity Stats (vs. other series)

Weekly Pos #609

(-153)

Monthly Pos #1396

(-275)

3 Month Pos #2184

(-209)

6 Month Pos #2621

(+53)

Year Pos #2928

(-274)

List Stats

On 2794 reading lists

On 1458 wish lists

On 788 completed lists

On 157 unfinished lists

On 738 custom lists

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Forum Posts Click to view the forum

Kuragehime Heads Toward Final Chapter

10 years ago

what do you like of this manga?

10 years ago

Cross Dresser vs Virgin

10 years ago

HIATUS!!!

11 years ago

User Comments [ Order by usefulness ]

Conflicting identity: This manga doesn't know whether it wants to be a romance or an informational panel\

by Lokin
2 years ago

Rating: 7.0 / 10.0

Sparkly sparkly, the series open up with a "magical" fantasy premise of a Cinderella story.

Throughout the series, there's very much that vibe, or teasing, where there's going to be romance. Hell, there's even such developments, like love triangles, parents meeting, whatnot.

But then, the series eventually devolves into much more technical concepts and industrial insights about fashion... In that case, the problem is with the balance of the subject matter. The potential drama with the "romantic elements" teasing kind of intrudes on the technical part. While realistic, it just felt incongruent to read, flow-wise. Maybe it is because the author wanted the series to stay grounded, and have the series face challenges, hence it is why they have made things that way.

That being said, I still enjoy the novel presentation of the author's passion subject. But it still remains that it feels unsatisfying that not all knots are resolved. Is it a bad series? Well, do it for the journey, but don't expect a masterpiece. It's OK and I didn't feel like my time was wasted, but somehow I feel like it could have been better executed.

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The ending feels abrupt

by Raebit
2 years ago

Rating: N/A

The premise is okay but

When I read the ending it feels like "that's it?"
It feels like it left with loose end..
It feels like out of nowhere it becomes like that, disjointed, not naturally flow into an ending

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Entertaining but Flawed Experience

by CCheshire
3 years ago

Rating: N/A

I remember reading this entire series as it came out each ch at a time and damn it’s already been 6 years later? I feel like there a definitely great parts like the Amars skits, their friendship, creative dress designs, Kuranosuke’s amazing fashion sense, and how relatable Tsukimi is as a protagonist to readers. However, there are quite a few flaws like the constant body and virgin shaming that appear in different scenes.

In the end, I feel that the weakest parts were the romance between well, most of the male characters and MC like I can kind of understand Shu since he’s pretty awkward like Tsukimi but then again she does reject him in the end so yeah. I’d get if Kuranosuke had platonic feelings towards Tsukimi but their entire arc felt half-hearted and he never even got a real reply to his feelings at all. The part where it did derail was the entire avidy plotline that felt random and pretty rushed even when I read all the vol so it’s still meh. I felt that the manga-ka did the best when it was a small focus on the immediate characters and saving their homes and it fared less when it tried to tackle broad sweeping themes like the entire wasteful fashion industry and politics.

About the ending, I honestly originally thought that I didn’t really care if Tsukimi ended up with anyone as she is still young and everyone is just focused on dressmaking now. I do feel that it felt flat after the entire build-up with Shu proposing and then in reality he just got rejected…technically they had 3 dates so that did feel rushed. I did like the final theme focused on the Amars remaining friends and saving their home along with kinda finding jobs working on dressmaking but still remaining true to their otuku interests too.

... Last updated 3 years ago

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Spoiler-Included Review

by evehealy
3 years ago

Rating: N/A

Full Review With Spoilers

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A decent story if it isn't taken seriously

by star260
4 years ago

Rating: N/A

Art style and the light hearted comedy and romance is interesting if the story isn't taken seriously.

The manga shouldn't have a romance tag because there isn't any. At the end the protagonist decides she isn't ready for any serious relationships because she wants to continue living her life and grow as a person with her friends whom she loves and cares about.

Kuranosuke is a very selfish character. He basically forced a group of random people to carry out his dream of being in the fashion world by making them partake in making dresses. The reason why he was so determine to make it into the fashion world was to reach out to his mom! He wanted international fame or be famous enough that his mom might see him. All he thought about was his mom mom mom. Never gave a damn about the women in that house. None of those women wanted to be a fashion designer or a clothing designer. The two women that actually has experience making clothes only have an interest in making clothes for their dolls. They all complained about all the workload but no one listened and they continued to be forced.

The women kept going because they did it to save their house. They were going to lose their home. Kuranosuke convinced them to make dresses so they can sell and make money to buy the Amamizukan house.

... Last updated 4 years ago

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A top tier Josei manga with little to none romance development

by Siddj
5 years ago

Rating: N/A

For people who are curious if one should give this a read. People don't hesitate. This is a gem of a story about fashion designers. I don't know how accurate it shown but I most certainly am sure that one will love the way they portrayed it. The characters are not likable from the get go but you'll slowly will be able empathize with them. I just want to add one more thing to all this. The male lead is eccentric, quirky, cunning and very funny. I can assure you that his character is vastly different from the ikemen males you usually get to see in shoujo and josei mangas. He is absolutely the very best character and the reason why this story is good. Make no mistake though. The female lead might not have much of a personality but she has a great character development in the 80 chapters. Do not read this for romance. Read this as a sol/drama and witness one of the best josei story!

... Last updated 5 years ago

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Pretty shit. Anime was less awful cuz it wasted my time less

by Shellshock
5 years ago

Rating: 3.0 / 10.0

. This 17 volume series was too long with alot of downhill moments. The series is essentially a fashion, Ugly Duckling and a love triangle story. All 3 which i feel were poorly executed. The series just took too long to deal with anything in the series. This is a 17 volumes series yet it felt 11 volumes too long. Its way too slow to the point that the last chapter... didn;t feel rushed hillariously enough. Despite wrapping up like a buncha plotlines. I enjoyed the comedy when it involved the Vixen and the driver. However the comedy elements involving the main and supporting cast just didn't work. It was golden in the anime but failed in the manga. I liked the idea of becoming fashion designers but it was executed pretty poorly. there was some good moments but there were far too inbetween. Also the MMC's reason for crossdressing takes way too long to be explained. For majority of the series you supposed to believe he's just a horrible person that takes advantage of his father while simultaneously trying to make him mad. I don't think the father is a great person either. But for me the worst person in this series was the MMC he was selfish more majority of the series. The romance was also good fun in the earlier parts but at the end as expected it fell apart. I think the ugly ducking story as well was done poorly. Besides the FMC none of them have legitimate developments. Except maybe the tall chick

I didn't think this was a bad series but it was incredibly mundane. It had few good moments but was barely passable overall. The funniest moments in the manga were the bonus omakes about the author's personal life. so thats not something you should be the case in your comedy manga.

5/10 Rare case the anime being superior

... Last updated 5 years ago

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Does a 180 on its Premise, but a Sweet and Funny Comic Nonetheless

by darcy3
6 years ago

Rating: 8.0 / 10.0

This comic starts out being nerdy girl makeover/ cinderella story comic, but ends up becoming an in-depth look at an experience inside the fashion design industry. (This was due to influences of the author's new romantic partner). It's a fun comic with quirky, original characters.

My only critique (and it's a big one) is that the ending sucks. If you expected any threads to be concluded, prepare to be disappointed. The change of premise really affected the ending because at the beginning the two motivations for the main character was 1) to save her home and 2) to find the man she had been dreaming of. Both of these plots were shoved to the side midway through the comic and the driving force for the characters ended up being to jump-start their own fashion label. The beginning of the comic had so many cute romantic scenes and to have them all end up as nothing was just an unbelievable waste. I feel like part of it was because the author couldn't decide which love interest to have the main character end up with but to leave the romance between either love interest completely unresolved was just disrespectful to the readers.

Trying to pass off the indecision at the end to female empowerment/modern ideas was just complete and utter bullshit. It's clear the author couldn't bring herself to make a final decision

... Last updated 6 years ago

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Not so great as a romance

by kitty1826x
6 years ago

Rating: 3.0 / 10.0

To me it feels like the romance went from one of the genres to a sub-genre towards the end of the story. Besides the romance taking a backseat I had other things I didn't like. The story felt like it started dragging on after the first third along with some repetition and delayed conclusions from the characters. The ending felt both rushed and incomplete. Although I did enjoy the one twist, mostly because it was unexpected.

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I love it!

by theLettuceGarden04
7 years ago

Rating: 9.0 / 10.0

Also contrary to some other commentors, I disagree with the lack of character development. It's definitely there, yes its subtle and there isn't much, but you can't expect people to change that quickly. There were some girls that definitely changed more drastically than the others, especially the main leads. I do agree they gloss some rather questionable things that happens in the manga that wouldn't fly in real life, but hey- it's manga bro. If don't take it too seriously, then it's fine. Usually I hate endings like this one, but I was actually satisfied with it. The ending was actually pretty good for an open ending. I just love this story, it's funny, unique and the art is awesome. I also love the mangaka's side stores, would love to meet her in real life and become her friend. Ps, was surprised I know all of the Three Kingdom references; it made me enjoy this manga more for sure.

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