Wolf Girl & Black Prince Collection Anime Review

Wolf Girl & Black Prince is a shojo anime that narrates the love story of Erika and Kyoya during their high school years.

Erika Shinohara is starting her freshman year of high school, but she’s afraid of not making friends. Her best friend, San-chan, is not in the same class and it seems like everyone else has paired up. Desperate, she starts talking with her desk neighbour Marin, not knowing how things will turn out…

Marin and her best friend Tezuka love talking about their boyfriends and how much they get spoiled by them. Afraid to not fit in, Erika lies about having a boyfriend too and that he’s into BDSM play. However, the lies build up so much that both Marin and Tezuka find it hard to keep believing Erika, especially as she has never shown them a photo of her boyfriend. Even more desperate than before, Erika takes a secret picture of a guy she sees on the street, not realizing that he’s a student in the same school.

Kyoya Sata doesn’t know what to do about the girl who sneakily took a picture of him. But when he sees her at school and meets Erika’s friends, Kyoya is roped into helping her out as her fake boyfriend. When he accepts, Erika is over the moon—she won’t lose her newfound friends! But Kyoya is not the prince and saviour he appears to be— that is only what he shows to other people, when in reality he’s so far away from being Prince Charming. He accepts to help out Erika only if she becomes his dog! Of course, Erika cannot come clean now, and so their love story commences…or does it?

Wolf Girl and Black Prince is based on a pure shojo manga that takes place in high school. While the story can seem cute and lovely at the first glance, the characters raise some red flags that would be considered quite problematic now compared to when the series first released in the early 2010s.

Erika, like many teenage girls has a lot of insecurities, but the biggest one is to not fit in. And her decision to avoid that bring her down a path that she can’t leave. She eagerly accepts Kyoya’s help and the demands that come with it, which fortunately are not that unreasonable although Erika imagines the worst-case scenarios. While Erika’s feelings and thoughts can be read on her face, Kyoya is the complete opposite. He has closed himself off from love, and Erika’s willingness to fulfil his requests makes him enjoy their fake relationship. He doesn’t abuse her, but he doesn’t treat her correctly either. He’s harsh with his words, no matter how much Erika takes them to heart, but he’s there for her whenever she needs help, even outside their fake relationship. And when real feelings start getting involved, both Erika and Kyoya need to decide if they are willing to give real love a chance.

Other side characters are introduced in the series and help (possibly) Kyoya and Erika’s relationship. While San-chan appears to be a true friend, Marin and Tezuka have quite peculiar characters, making it hard to understand if they want to cheer for or undermine Erika’s relationship. For those who are following the original manga, the characters’ personalities become clearer the more volumes you read, but for the anime’s only season that captures just a few volumes, it’s hard to grasp. Another peculiarity of the series is that some characters are called by their last names as is usual in Japan, while others with their first name. For some of them there is no apparent reason as to why they are called by their first or last name—San-chan goes by her last name but Marin goes by her first name. But shouldn’t the best friend go by her first name instead? Did the author do it on purpose in the manga as well or does it depend on the producers of the animated series?

Wolf Girl and Black Prince Collection contains two discs encompassing the first and only season of the anime with its 12 episodes. Disc 1 has nine episodes, and Disc 2 has three episodes accompanied by a special feature showing the opening and ending songs of the series. The anime is in Japanese with English subtitles, with the lead voice actors being Kanae Ito for Erika and Takahiro Sakurai for Kyoya.

The viewers are able to sing along to the theme songs thanks to the English translation and westernised reading of the Japanese characters that appear. The majority of the episodes end with the theme song followed by a preview of the next episode, but don’t assume it’s the same for every episode! In fact, a few of them have a few scenes continuing the episode right after the ending theme song.

While overall I enjoyed the series and I ended up cheering for Erika and Kyoya’s relationship, I’m aware that it has quite a few issues. The animation is rated 15+ years old, but I wonder if 15 is old enough to understand that a relationship like this is not ok. I’m also familiar with the manga, so I know what will happen and how the characters will develop, but for those who aren’t, the 12 episodes might raise more questions than answers, especially as the opening song shows scenes not present in the discs.

Wolf Girl and Black Prince Collection is the latest Blu-ray release of the anime by MVM. It’s an adaptation of the homonymous manga written by Ayuko Hatta and published by VIZ Media, which is still ongoing. A live action version of the series was released in 2016.