Tags: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Drama, Harem, Romance, Ecchi, Seinen

After Kadokawa’s recent first English Light Novel release, Higehiro, came out to some rather mixed reviews when it came to its translation. I decided to check out their latest series, The Insipid Prince, to not only review the story and characters but to take a closer look at whether their translation is up to scratch.

This fantasy series sees Arnold embroiled in a battle of survival when inheritance for the throne is left up in the air after the eldest son the Emperor tragically dies. In order to save his Mother and twin brother Leonard from the certain death that awaits them if any of the other candidates win the throne, Arnold ends up scheming from the shadows to ensure that Leonard is placed on the throne. The only candidate that’ll allow for his current lifestyle to continue.

Don’t be ridiculous. I’d lose my life of leisure if I ever became emperor. My life plan involves marrying a beautiful woman and having fun.

Arnold Lakes Aadler

Arnold’s motivation can be perfectly summed up by this quote. He has no aspiration to become the Emperor and can’t quite fit in with how royalty is supposed to act. He wants a more laid back lifestyle, one which mostly revolves around the exciting life of adventuring. There, as his adventuring alternate, Silver, he’s respected and relied upon, he is one of the strongest adventurers in the country and is seen as a trusted party when it comes to defeating some of the toughest monsters and foes. That isn’t to say that as a prince he’s completely useless. He’s incredibly intelligent and has a certain manipulative streak, he knows what strings to pull and which contacts to make in order to help his brother succeed. Yet, people still seem to find him trustworthy and someone with a good heart – they know that he won’t cross lines that should never be crossed.

In the first part of this novel, Arnold puts these skills to the test in trying to gain the support of one of the only neutral ducal families left in the game, the Keinert family. Here, he uses his personality as Silver in order to help them with a high ranked monster problem that they’ve been having recently. Things go according to plan as he’s sent away and given the perfect opportunity to put the Duke into Leonard’s debt. We get a really good scene as a part of this chapter when Arnold and Silver play off each other adding pressure and guilt onto Finne, the ducal house’s representative. Arnold knows exactly that she has an honest personality and will do anything for the sake of her house making his manipulation all the easier. However, after defeating the Mother Slime, Arnold manages to slip up revealing both identities to Finne leading to her becoming a member of the “get Leonard the throne” team.

Finne Von Kleinert serves as a great character addition to the series. For Arnold, she as a good source of motivation as well as a good anchor point in order to keep his moral compass in check. She believes that he’s got a good heart and that everything he’s done as been for the sake of the people and his family and whilst he says this isn’t true he always does his upmost to ensure Finne isn’t in any unnecessary danger. Finne also works into Arnold’s plans to further Leonard’s cause for the throne. With her on his side, he can perhaps move some of the other neutral nobility to their side as well as stoke some rumours of a potential courtship between Finne and Leonard.

Hopefully as this volume continues, we actually get to see Arnold and Leonards mother and her opinions on the battle for the throne. Furthermore, I hope we get to see a more direct confrontation in regards to the throne battle, perhaps even a part of the volume dedicated to showing one of the other candidates point of view to see how they are scheming to get the throne.

The Translation

Given some of the reviews that I had seen concerning Higehiro’s translation, I was expecting some terrible level of translation for this series, however, its not that bad. It could certainly use another passover through editing but it is certainly still enjoyable to read.

Whilst I’m certainly no English major, I did manage to find some problematic translation points. There are some localisation problems that crop up, although these are few and far between, for example “having a laugh at me” instead of “making fun of me” or “having a go at me,” and there’s a confusing small paragraph within the first chapter where they talk about how someone could rise to the level of duke. Otherwise most of the other problems are small grammatical errors or have to do with uncommon words that aren’t used in a specific context e.g., proffered or supplication.

One thing that I do have to mention concerns ease for the reader. A section of this part of the volume has a scene where Arnold talks to himself as Silver trying to convince Finne of a slight caused. This could be rather confusing to the reader as is, considering there’s no mention of differences in their voicing or a clear difference within the text. Putting Silver’s talking moments in this section and having them in italics or in bold may fix this problem.

Overall, a pretty good start to the series and I look forward to seeing how the battle for the throne will develop as not only the volume continues but also the series into upcoming volumes.