Princess Evita lives a modest and happy life in a small country. But when the neighboring country attacks, the kingdom's land is taken, her family is mercilessly killed, and Evita is forced into prostitution. Going by the name “Priscilla,” she prostrates herself one day before the feudal lord's third son, when the knell of rebellion sounds out…

The Blood-Crawling Princess of a Ruined Country has a story and art by Yuki Azuma. English translation is done by Giuseppe di Martino and lettering by Chris Burgener. Published by Yen Press (August 25, 2026). Rated M.

Content Warning: sexual assault, mutilation

Lucas DeRuyter
Rating:

Ooooooh boy, it's been a while since I've experienced a piece of media as cynical and mean-spirited as Yuki Azuma's The Blood Crawling Princess of a Ruined Country. Focusing on Princess Evita, whose kingdom was conquered during her childhood, forcing her to go into hiding as the famed prostitute Priscilla, where she is regularly beaten and sexually abused. The narrative tying this series of shock-value exploitations together focuses on Priscilla staging a revolt with her fellow sex slaves as they try to escape from the slums and connect with factions till loyal to the old empire, which begins to go off the rails in this volume's closing chapter because one of the women involved made the mistake of trusting a man.

I think of myself as someone who is deeply aware of the abuse and exploitation that women and other marginalized groups suffer under patriarchal societies. I have no illusions about how, for a wide stretch of mankind's history, women were functionally treated as property and harmed while lacking any form of agency. This kind of rape-revenge fantasy does little to address the persecution that woman still face today, nor heal the historic wounds inflicted on them, and instead turns their suffering into a kind of perverse, graphic form of entertainment.

It doesn't feel good when Priscilla literally rips off the dick of a nepobaby whose lineage is responsible for the death of her family and her current circumstances, nor does it feel like any kind of social commentary is made when one prostitute's lover betrays her and her cause for no apparent reason. This all just feels like graphic, sexually charged violence for the sake of graphic, sexually charged violence. To The Blood Crawling Princess of a Ruined Country's credit, this violence is skillfully depicted with many characters, largely men, transforming into guttural, barely human monsters every time they do direct harm to another person.

A romp through a world where basically all men are rapists who would leap at any opportunity to harm women isn't a good time, though, and it doesn't feel like the disgust and discomfort The Blood Crawling Princess of a Ruined Country inspires is building to any kind of grander point. I love more viscerally uncomfortable works like Berserk, Dai Dark, and Eraserhead because all of the graphic imagery and violent circumstances in those works are building to a grander point about society or the human condition. The Blood Crawling Princess of a Ruined Country utterly lacks the kind of considerations necessary needed to make this kind of material work in its first volume, and feels more like an excuse to convey medieval-inspired torture porn than a worthwhile narrative endeavor.

Bolts
Rating:

I originally wasn't sure what this series was trying to do in its opening chapter. The grungy art style and the point of view from the titular princess made it seem like this was going to be some kind of nihilistic dark fantasy where I constantly see a woman get broken by a disgusting medieval society. I'm happy to report that I was only half right, because that is roughly half of what it takes place in this book. This is not a book that you should read if you are squeamish or put off by disturbingly cartoony facial features. I wouldn't even go so far to say that there are some scenes in this book that looked like they were ripped right out of THE MASK and I'm not talking about the Jim Carrey movie, I'm talking about the overly violent comic that movie simplified and is loosely based off of. Of all the manga on this guide, this is definitely one that balances exaggerated evil and almost cartoony facial features with incredibly real and visceral violence. It's enough to create nightmare fuel while also feeling gut wrenching in a realistic way.

However, there is technically a point to the violence. The second half of the story is a story of salvation and rebellion. This is about a young princess who lost everything during a siege and has had to basically work as a prostitute in order to slowly build up a rebellion behind the scenes. I like the fact that this story highlights how sex workers are looked down upon by this medieval society, but in being looked down upon, they can create access points to various unsuspecting people in positions of power. Seeing the princess work with fellow prostitutes to both gather information as well as bide their time to find the perfect chance to rebel did feel genuinely engaging. When you consider just how violent the series is as well, it also does a great job of generating tension because it feels like anything can happen. I'm genuinely left feeling scared for a lot of the women in this whenever they are talking with any other characters because it feels like a coin flip if they'll end up walking out of a scene being the stabber or the one being stabbed.

This is a series that is usually not for me, as I do not want to typically revel in the hyper realistic violence. In fact, I would go so far to say that this book genuinely scared me. But I was still intrigued by what I was reading because I'm a sucker for a good underdog story. I want to see these women that have been abused and mistreated for years come out on top so they can finally get back at those that treat them as less than dirt. Is it incredibly simple and purely reactionary? Absolutely, but it's clear that this is a story that doesn't really want to be more than that. Given its commitment to such a cause, I can't help but feel a little bit intrigued, especially considering how the first volume ends.