The Kept Man of the Princess Knight (Manga) Volume 1 Review

In The Kept Man of the Princess Knight, we are pulled into the dark and seedy world of Gray Neighbour, the city that is home to a great dungeon that houses the untold horrors that brought down what was once the Mactarode Kingdom.

The Kingdom’s only remaining heir, Arwin, the Scarlet Princess, now leads dangerous charges into the depths of the dungeon, all to find a sacred artifact which could restore her former home. Yet despite being a princess, she keeps some… interesting company.

Once homeless and destitute, the former adventurer Matthew finds himself being taken in by the princess. While they form a unique kind of master-servant relationship, Matthew can’t resist the allure of the darker side of town, spending what little money Arwin gives him on brothels and booze, much to her chagrin. Yet his loyalty to her is unwavering, and while Arwin is away in the dungeon, Matthew sees to it that she’ll still have a peaceful place to come back to, no matter how much he has to get his hands dirty.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I first picked up this manga adaptation of Toru Shirogane’s light novel series, but this feels like something different in a medium where most fantasy works are isekai stories featuring over-powered protagonists. Thankfully then, this is not one of those and isn’t your typical dungeon crawling adventure either. It may not be immediately obvious, but this is a slow-burn character study pitched as a raw, dark fantasy that gets down to the grit of the underworld, with a lowlife sleazebag protagonist working to take out the other trash that reside in the city.

I must confess this didn’t immediately grab me, as it takes its time to really get going and show us what it’s about, with its initial pages awkwardly painting a portrait of a man who is a grovelling, snivelling and horny thug, who not only just seems interested into climbing into bed with the next woman he sees, but is pressuring and seducing the Princess Knight herself into giving him the money to do so.

You might wonder if this is a black comedy you’ve just wandered into, but no, none of this is played for laughs as this guy is a seriously distorted individual, but maybe one with good reason to be as we get to see later. Yet my instant dislike for the protagonist was a turn off, and I questioned if this was all that we were going to see. Thankfully it does start to pick up as it starts running Matthew into fights with the other lowlifes in town and shows his interactions with the Adventurer’s Guild.

These interactions won’t change your impression of him – he is still a scumbag to his core – but they do help to guide and fill out the narrative, as it builds in mystery, intrigue, and some below-the-belt action. You can grab onto the side characters a lot better than you can with the protagonist, and it helps ground things as you get to understand more about the world and the people who live here. There’s April, the granddaughter of the Adventurer’s Guild’s head-honcho, Daz, the rugged dwarf who was in the same party as Matthew before it disbanded, and Vanessa, the appraiser who has a terrible taste in men. There’s a quickly emerging pattern where we see Matthew help out these supporting characters in resolving their problems and quarrels, while in the background of his misadventures pummelling goons, more is gradually revealed about him.

The plotlines always have a gruesome twist, but compared to the very start of the book, you do feel that actually, this isn’t so bad. It definitely could be less edgy for the sake of it, but it’s on the whole tamer than the mature label on the front of the book suggests. It’s still definitely not for kids, with plenty of nudity, violence and bad language, but honestly, I’ve seen worse.

If anything, I think it feels too plain towards the end of the book, and with the pattern it seems to be establishing I’m unsure of how much mileage you could get out of this idea. There’s some good backstory, lore, and unresolved demons that it sets up towards the end of this volume, and I think it needs to be moving to tackle those as its main plot rather than keeping the episodic, goon-of-the-week approach it seems to be establishing so far.

Visually, Saki Mashima’s character designs follow standard tropes, with pretty girls, hollowed-out villains with sunken eyes, and wizened old soldiers, which service individual character personalities well. However, I thought Matthew’s design was too plain for the lovable rogue angle that later chapters seem to be pinning him down on. He’s no Han Solo, that’s for sure! Keyyang’s artwork itself though is good and tends to make an impact in action scenes or particular set pieces, feeling very kinetic.

The series is being released in English in both digital and physical editions by Yen Press. This first volume has been translated by Stephen Paul with lettering by Ivo Marques and it reads well with no issues to note. As is often the case with light novel adaptations, this volume features a bonus short story by the original author which in this volume is a cute little aside showing Matthew and Arwin on a shopping trip.

Overall, I feel quite mixed on this first volume of The Kept Man of the Princess Knight. It’s a struggle to get into things at the start with it feeling quite brash and edgy alongside a protagonist that never really shines in the best light, yet it does mellow out with some good action scenes, as well as building in some lore and mystery as it closes out. I feel like it needs more time to pin itself down on its overall tone, for if it can get its balance right it has the potential to become a decent dark and gritty action series.