Rui has a problem. Being short, unathletic, and unpopular, he's finding it impossible to get a girlfriend. What's more, all the girls he has a crush on end up confessing to his female childhood friend, Mia! But the princely Mia has a solution—what if she teaches her awkward friend how to score points with the chicks? It may just work if not for Mia's insistence on her lessons being hands-on! Can this high school boy resist his handsome childhood friend's charms?

A Prince of a Friend has art and story by Sukeroku. Translated by Chase Brown and lettered by Rebecca Sze, with an adaptation by Matthew Jackson. Published by Seven Seas Entertainment. (February 24, 2026) Rated OT.

Erica Friedman
Rating:

Rui is not good with girls. His best friend Mia is the school prince—she practically has to peel the girls off her. Rui wants tips from Mia on how to get girls, then proceeds to ignore, misinterpret, or just flub that advice for an entire volume. But that's okay because Mia and Rui's sister are in a big-chested competition for Rui's attention that he will utterly fail to notice, while whining that he can't “get” girls and also not actually trying at all in this incel cookbook of a manga. I can't even call this a rom-com because not a single thing about either the premise or execution is romantic or funny.

Rui's dilemma is typical for a young man who has lived under a rock and somehow never actually talks to the women in his life, whose little sister is oversexed and obsessed with him, and who thinks of “girls” as something one “gets.” Which is to say, not typical at all, but catered to quite often in certain media. Rui's smile is terrifying, and he manages to be not only confused and annoyed at Mia's advice but manages to warp it into situations that are frankly bizarre and yet are presented as both romance and comedy.

If you ever wanted a guidebook on how to take a normalish teen boy with a slight propensity towards pathos and turn him into a raging loser, here you go. Isn't it hilarious?

The rest of the story, thin as it is, is breast-forward pinups of Mia and Rui's sister. Really, that's all it is. Until one of Mia's girlfriend wannabes gets herself involved in the non-existent love triangle with Rui and Mia. She is exactly the sort of character I want to pluck out of the story and deposit her somewhere safe and healthy so she can address her sexuality, not be put into the role of a shrew who screams at characters lying on top of one another.

While I found this exhausting and not at all entertaining, if you like humor about sexual dysfunction and comedic misogyny, this is a series for you.