Gallery: Kilala Princess

Shoujo manga Kilala Princess is an official tie-in with the Princess franchise, and features the supporting appearances of six princesses in the initial run, in order: Snow White, Ariel, Cinderella, Belle, Aurora and Jasmine. The sequel series features Mulan.

The story follows Kilala Reno, a regular girl who gets caught up with a fantastic adventure. Her journey starts when she crosses paths with Rei, a mysterious boy who is in search of the Seventh Princess, whom he believes can save his kingdom. Rei has a magical tiara that belongs to the Seventh Princess and can be used to identify her.

The tiara is what enables Kilala and Rei to enter the various worlds of the six princesses as mentioned above. In each world, Kilala meets and befriends the respective princess while they are in the middle of their stories, and the princesses teach and are taught something in turn by Kilala. For her part, Kilala is thrilled by this, because she is a fan of the princesses (whom were previously just fiction to her) and is delighted to be able to meet them. Kilala also encounters the various villains of the princesses' stories, most of whom are drawn to the magical tiara and want it for themselves.

In the Little Mermaid portion of the story, Kilala meets Ariel while she is still a mermaid. Ariel inspires Kilala to be strong and fight for what she believes in, and in turn Ariel is touched by Kilala's love for Rei and hopes to find love of her own. It's fun to see Ariel's world depicted in the manga format, which does require some adjustment from the usual style but the reinterpretation is still very recognisable, though some of the character choices are a little bit odd (such as Ariel's thoughts about her father).

My understanding is that Kilala Princess was first released in typical serialized manga chapters starting in 2005, and that these chapters were later compiled into five volumes. The first two volumes were translated into English in 2007, but they were split for the English market into four manga minis, with the Ariel portion of the story being located in manga minis #3 and #4. In 2016, the complete series started being released in English, in the same manga mini format. A sequel series began in 2019, though I don't know the status of the story since then, or if Ariel appears in any other issues aside from manga minis #3 and #4. Additional info would be appreciated, let me know in the comments!

The scans on this page are only of the Little Mermaid portions of manga minis #3 and #4.

For those unfamiliar with the manga format, the individual pages are read from the right side to the left side.