Ultimate Princess Ai

If you haven't read Courtney Love's Manga "Princess Ai" now is your ultimate chance. Prince Ai - The Ultimate Collection was released this week through Tokyopop, and collects all 3 manga volumes in one book. As the story goes, Ai is an amnesiac alien that finds herself lost on the streets of toyko, with only a memory of her name and a mysterious heart-shaped box. To get by, Ai takes up residency as a rock musician at Club Cupid and befriends a sensitive musician named Kent, who she later falls in love with. Just as Ai begins to remember parts of her past she discovers that her talent agents are plotting to destroy her home world Ai Land.

For those of you who might be saying why should I care that Courtney Love is writing a manga, I say because you gotta love Courtney! She is America's Sweetheart! What you might not know is before Courtney formed Hole and became a rock star/actress, in the 80's she lived and gigged in Japan and became obsessed with manga.

Princess Ai is loosely based on Courtney's own life. Ai in Japanese means love, and the character acts as her alter ego. The character Kent is also based on Love's late husband Kurt Cobain, and the Heart-Shaped Box that Ai carries is a reference to the Nirvana song of the same namesake. Courtney is famous for giving Kurt a Heart-Shaped Box when they met which led to
their romantic relationship.

Princess Ai is currently being adapted into an anime called "Princess Ai ~ Ai Land Chronicles." Here is the only low quality trailer I could find:



So for Love's sake check out Princess Ai. Oh, and ask me my Courtney story sometime...

-Jon