Classical Medley Volume 1 by Sanae Kana

Cute art and musical names don’t make up for the lack of an engaging story in the first volume of this fantasy series. Prince Soprano’s companions are his ambiguously gendered bodyguard Alto and the dragon Mezzo. One day Soprano is summoned to participate in a secretive mystical ceremony. In an attempt to seal the hereditary dual spheres of light and darkness that the royal house guards, evil takes over the King and the prince is forced to flee with his companions. They set off across the Classical Kingdom in search of Soprano’s older brother, the Prince Grave, fleeing members of the Royal Quintet who have also fallen under the King’s evil spell.

The art in Classical Medley features thin lines and round faces that make every character look very young. So it is a little startling when Prince Soprano’s mother is drawn in a way that makes her breasts constantly threaten to overflow her tops. I was hoping that the references to music would somehow reflect the personalities of the characters, but it just seemed like a convenient source of naming terms. A guard named “Klezmer” didn’t seem particularly Klezmer-like and another character named Enka didn’t appear to have any affiliation with the Japanese music genre.

The best thing about this manga was the intricate costume designs for the characters. Unfortunately the plot didn’t really capture my interest and the personalities of the characters didn’t really make me want to read further.