There is something about a reverse harem that invariably leads one to wonder whether or not it was based on an otome game. In the case of Kiss of the Rose Princess' first volume, those fleeting thoughts vanish fairly quickly as it becomes obvious that Aya Shouoto's shoujo series is less a serious story and more a silly one that uses its “ordinary girl, extraordinarily hot guys” premise to crack jokes rather than to foster romance. While not on the level of super-parody Ouran High School Host Club, Kiss of the Rose Princess gets some laughs as we start to get into the story of a reluctant princess and her motley band of...protectors? Helpers? Eye candy? That's actually one of the jokes that works the best in this book – there's no clear purpose that the Rose Knights serve. While each boy does have a specialty (alchemy, protection, fighting, and finding things), none of them really use those skills for anything particularly important. On the one hand, it feels like Shouoto has no clear idea of where she's going with the story. On the other, it's pretty funny that Anise calls them to help her go through the trash looking for a necklace – it's like asking Superman to help you hang curtains.

The basic story is that Anise Yamamoto has a special necklace – a choker with a rose on it. Her father, who appears to be largely absent from her life, has told her that taking it off will result in the most horrible punishment that she can possibly imagine, so she basically leaves it alone and deals with the fact that it's made her a well-known figure at her school, Shobi Academy. This is because jewelery is not allowed, so the school Dress Code Enforcer is always after her as a flagrant violator of the rules. The morning drama has given her a notoriety she'd rather not have – Anise tells us that she'd really prefer not to be noticed, although this isn't necessarily borne out as the story progresses. In any event, Anise couldn't take the thing off if she wanted to; during a rebellious phase she even tried cutting it off, with no luck. So she's particularly stunned when one day it vanishes when a small black cat/bat thing drops a red card on her head. The card turns out to be used to summon her Red Rose Knight, who, much to her horror, turns out to be her classmate Kaede. Playing by the rules of shoujo manga, the two appear to hate each other, and Kaede (who apparently knew about this whole rose knight thing) is just as unhappy with the situation as Anise. Yes, it looks like love, especially since Anise's first choice of love interest, gorgeous third-year White Rose Knight Tenjo, turns out to be a creepy masochist.

Shouoto plays with the established character types of the reverse harem to good effect, with Kaede being the least humorous and straightest arrow of the bunch. Super bishounen Tenjo, as has been mentioned, has some special tastes, while dark and broody Black Rose Knight Kurama claims not to be human, and adorable and effeminate Seiran's apparent wasting illness turns out to be something much less sinister. Anise herself is wondering if being stuck with these guys is the horrific punishment her father was talking about, and by the end of the volume, she seems to be leaning towards the answer to that being “yes.”

The main issue with this book is that it doesn't appear to have any firm direction. It is a series of jokes at the expense of reverse harems of the Hiiro no Kakera type, and while those can be quite funny, there's really no unifying premise for them to build on. Anise's mysteriously well informed teacher makes a comment in the second chapter about not knowing why the Knights have been assembled since the Demon Lord doesn't appear to be hanging around, and while using supernatural powers to make sure the school festival runs smoothly is amusing, it isn't exactly story-building material. Shouoto's art can also be confusingly crowded, with lots of lines, text both in and out of speech balloons, and a lot of screentones making it difficult to figure out which panel or word to read first. Anise's hair is in a perpetual flyaway state, which also can make the art difficult to decipher as it takes over the area immediately surrounding our heroine.

At the end of the day, however, Kiss of the Rose Princess' first volume is a lot of fun. It lacks plot direction and gets confusing to read, but the jokes are spot-on and Anise is a strong, albeit confused, heroine who holds a position of sanity in her increasingly weird world. Volume two will need to add some clear plot, but right now this looks like a series worth reading – if only to see what Shouoto will poke fun at next.