While visiting my friends in seminary, my companion needed to do some essential physical fitness and left me alone with his TV and Netflix account. After scrolling through the anime options, I happened upon Princess Jellyfish and said to myself “Well, why not?” The show pleasantly surprised me, and I found myself hooked within the two episodes I watched during that time. The otaku weirdness of the residents of Amamizukan and their inability to deal with “the Stylish” delighted me all the way through.
However, toward the last few episodes, a sense of unease came over me. Then, I realized the cause: Princess Jellyfish leaves a ton of loose ends, refusing to resolve certain issues which would naturally have arisen. That might be the natural result of creating an eleven episode anime of a manga that has been running since 2008, but these kinds of anime which serve as mere advertisements for the manga cannot help but leave the viewer unsatisfied. For example, I would like to have seen how the revelation of Kurako as Kuranosuke would have played out for the other otaku women, my curiosity over what the manga writer who never left her room looked like was never answered, two romantic relationships were rather left hanging, and we remain uncertain whether Tsukimi shall truly break her shell and become a world famous designer. At least one more episode could have provided us with a nice epilogue!
All the same, the show was a pleasure to watch. I thought that Kuranosuke’s cross-dressing might have been off-putting for me. But, it is rather his spoiled rich kid manner which was more offensive than anything else, and he is a normal heterosexual guy. Otherwise, the other characters were mostly likable or at least amusing to watch. While I recommend this anime to everyone, let me remind my dear readers that it opens up too many plotlines and does not give itself enough time or focus to resolve them, which is sure to vex many others.
Medieval Otaku 
The manga is so funny! Yeah, this series deserves more than 11 episodes. There’s a live action movie of this coming out. I can’t wait to see it!
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I might have to give the manga a shot in order to see all those questions I have answered. So many things to read and so little time!
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I was reading about that one after reading your article. From what I read, surprisingly few objectionable elements (the crossdresser guy and the yaoi author girl).
But it seems that the portrayal of these two is different from other productions. You already wrote about the guy. Speaking of the yaoi author girl, is a hikkomori, so is clearly shown as someone with problems, instead of a typical otaku pandering approach, that would be presenting her as an stellar character or something like that.
The rest of the otaku characters are in the same vein, a more realistic portrayal instead of the style of other series that touch the topic.
About these type of adaptations, yes they are frustrating.
There are many series I want to watch, but being short adaptations that ended early compared to the manga (or the manga is still ongoing) has prevented me from watching them for the moment.
In some productions, the anime staff manages to do a good ending, that tends to be an open ended one, or, a closure for a particlar story or character arc.
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The yaoi author barely has any character to speak of. She is neither seen nor heard, only read. That really excited my curiosity, but interest was never satisfied.
It is nice that the description of these characters was very realistic. The only anime with a more realistic representation is Welcome to the NHK–but that representation, especially in the comics which I have not read, is very dark indeed.
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Yes, I was reading about that. A nice narrative device to portray a hikkomori.
I remember that one. It was full of messed up characters. Something that I didn’t liked, were some of the images portrayed that showed the protagonist’s thoughts. The one of the first episode after he began to imagine the visiting girl as a nun was very offensive and vulgar.
I haven’t read the manga either.
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What is the fascination with some manga and anime authors with crossdressing?
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Well, I find that many male characters in manga are effeminate. So, they’re likely already two steps from crossdressing.
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It’s been a while since I watched this…very sweet and funny. The scene screen-shotted above where the ladies show up at the community council meeting after getting the Kuranosuke “treatment” was priceless.
I seem to recall that at least part of Kuranosuke’s motive for cross-dressing was an attempt to deflect being saddled with the family business, leaving him free to pursue his dream to become a stylist.
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Yeah, that is a unique way to avoid becoming involved in politics! Also, it allowed him to associate with the otaku women without being discovered. I greatly enjoyed the series despite it feeling incomplete.
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But why.. why that too. Is something cultural? or a recent “custom”?
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God knows! I can’t even give a good hypothesis.
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