First volume cover of Akagami No Shirayukihime the manga series.
Akagami no Shirayukihime is a shōjo manga series written by Akizuki Sorata. The series premiered in the September 2006 issue of LaLa DX magazine and is still on-going. In November 2011, the Lala Corporation moved the series into their main magazine, LaLa due to its popularity and all releases since have been in this magazine.
The manga is currently licensed and is being translated in English by Viz Media.[1] The first English volume released on May 7th, 2019. Since October 11th, 2019, there have been three volumes published and two volumes planned to be released in the upcoming months of November and December. It has also been licensed and translated internationally in French, Taiwanese, and Chinese.
Introduction[]
Although her name means "snow white", Shirayuki is a cheerful, red-haired girl living in the country of Tanbarun. She works diligently as a pharmacist at her herbal shop. Her life changes drastically when she is noticed by the entitled prince of Tanbarun, Prince Raji, because of her rare red hair. He tries to force her to become his concubine.
Unwilling to give up her freedom, Shirayuki cuts her long red hair, leaving it as a souvenir for the prince, and escapes into the forest of the neighboring country of Clarines. After being found by the prince, Raji, she is rescued by Zen Wistaria, the second prince of a Clarines, and his two aides. Hoping to repay her debt to the trio someday, Shirayuki sets her sights on pursuing a career as a royal court pharmacist in Zen's country.
Akagami no Shirayuki-hime depicts Shirayuki's journey toward a new life at the royal palace of Clarines, as well as Zen's endeavor to become a prince worthy of his title. As loyal friendships are forged and deadly enemies formed, Shirayuki and Zen slowly learn to support each other as they walk their paths.
Volumes[]
Chapters[]
As of June 2021, there are 24 volumes and 122 chapters in Japan.
For the whole list of the volumes and the chapters in those particular volumes, please see Volumes.
| Warning: This page contains spoilers. Continue at your own risk! |
Plot[]
The plot is a series of stories (also known as arcs) that tell the experiences of Zen, Shirayuki, Obi, Mitsuhide, Kiki, or another character. The first arc can be unofficially known as the Starting a New Journey.
Starting a New Journey[]
This arc contains the first volume where the reader first meets Shirayuki as a town herbalist, finding plants for her medicines and cures, creates such medication, and helping those in need of such medications. She takes her job seriously while also enjoying her daily duties and life as a town herbalist. There is one such striking feature about her that the townsfolk who see her gawk at is her "bright, red hair." A feature that gets the attention of the crown prince Raji who demands that she become her concubine, he sends a royal guard her way to pick her up from her town and send her to his castle. When the guard arrives at Shirayuki's pharmacy, he demands that she must leave behind her job and become a concubine, and she has one day to prepare before she is taken away. Stunned at such a demand, she gathers herself up and finishes her day's duties. When night falls, and all her work has been done, she prepares herself, but not to become a concubine but to run away to the neighboring kingdom Clarines. As a sign of leaving her life from Tanbarun she cuts her hair short, the feature "he so desires", and leaves it behind with a letter in her pharmacy's window.
Traveling to Clarines she stumbles upon an abandoned mansion. Tired and hungry she stops outside the abandoned mansion and takes a nap. Moments later she awakens to some birds eating her leftovers and some people talking in the distance before a boy leaps over a wall. As Shirayuki and the boy make eye contact the boy catches his trailing leg on the wall and stumbles, hurting his arm in the process. Two other people come around the wall, distressed about Zen jumping over the wall. After they lecture Zen about being "too careless," they notice Shirayuki, who is trying to slip away. Zen intimidates Shirayuki into stating her business and accidentally pushing her hood back, revealing her red hair, which amazes Zen. Shirayuki says that she is just an herbalist traveling to Clarines and states that she has a salve that could heal Zen's arm from the fall, but Zen doesn't believe her and thinks she is trying to poison him. Shirayuki then makes the bold decision of hurting herself by battering herself with the dull side of the sword and then putting the salve on herself, proving that it isn't poison. The others are bewildered as Zen laughs at such a bold move, and he allows himself to be helped by Shirayuki.
Meanwhile, Raji is notified that Shirayuki has declined his demand and has escaped. Raji, though, does not give up on his request and tells his guards to find Shirayuki and bring her to the castle. He was gripping her cut hair with fury.
Back at the mansion, the four have entered the villa. Shirayuki is tending to Zen's injury while the other two are playing a game of chess. Zen then introduces himself and his two retainers Mitsuhide and Kiki. Mitsuhide being the one badly losing to Kiki in their game of chess. Zen then asks Shirayuki why she is traveling to Clarines. Shirayuki gets uncomfortable talking about why she left her home, she then says that she's going for a walk. She goes outside the mansion, with Zen following. He says that it will be wrong to leave an injured girl to walk in the wood's alone. She then tells him that she's used this this, because she used to study to be a herbalist in this type of areas.
She leans back on a tree, and continues to talk about the area. Then, a strand that's longer then the others get's caught. She asked Zen to cut it, but then Zen said he wouldn't until she says why she left her home. She ends up telling him about why she left home. She tells him, about how the prince wanted her hair. Zen gets up, and tells that red the color of fate, even if its annoying now, it might connect to something good when you least expect it. Those words brought hope in her. As they walk back to the mansion, Zen sees something on the doorstep. As Shirayuki sees it, she realized that its tied to the ribbon that was on her hair that she left behind.
The blanket falls off, and it shows red apples and a letter. Back inside, Zen reads the letter. He says that she used to live in Tanbarun, as Shirayuki ties the ribbon to her hand. She tells him that the first prince of Tanbarun, did that. Zen bangs his wounded arm on the table. That.. idiot... prince... huh? He said, as he was facing the pain. He sits back down and starts moving his arm. He would go that far... Shirayuki says to Zen. He explained that if there's something he want's, he probably already counts it as his own. Shirayuki picks up an apple, and notices a bruise on it.
It's starting to go bad. The red is no good anymore... She said. She sees Zen staring at her. She quickly says just kidding, as she smiles. He gets up, grabs her arm, and bites the bruise on the apple. Mitsuhide tells Zen that he's impolite, as he was watching the whole thing. Shirayuki tells Zen that she said something stupid, and apologizes. He tells her that she shouldn't eat that apple, as the starts losing balance. He tells Mitsuhide and Kiki to not get mad, as he fall to his knees. Mitsuhide catches him before he falls down. Shirayuki rubs the part that he eaten on her bandage, and smells it. She tell Mitsuhide and Kiki that it was poisoned. Kiki tells her to look for the antidote. She looks in her bag, but as she was looking, the guard that came into her pharmacy came in. He says that a certain person has the antidote.
Shirayuki had no choice but to go with him.
More to be added!