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Dokuhime ("Poison Princess") is a manga by Mitsukazu Mihara, who also wrote Beautiful People and Doll. It was serialized in the shoujo magazine Nemuki from 2002 to 2012. The story focuses on a group of women raised from birth to be assassins, and have had all their bodily fluids converted into lethal poisons.

It starts with poisonous herbs under the cradle. Then under the sheets. And inside the clothes. Even mixed in the milk that they feed the newborn. This way the child gradually gets used to poisons and becomes the perfect assassination tool — the "Poison Princess", whose every kiss, tear and even touch bring death. Her only chance of survival is to fulfill her duty as an assassin and find a way to live on in the enemy land to which she is sent... If her heart is strong enough.


Tropes featured include:

  • Acquired Poison Immunity: All of the Poison Princesses. It's only a problem for them if they can't have poison.
  • And Call Him "George": Kait has a habit of accidentally killing things like pets, random animals, and his dad.
  • Badass Cape: The King of Gandol wears a pretty cool dark red one.
  • Big Bad Wannabe: The Queen comes close to being the main antagonist of the work and indeed is the closest thing the manga has to a Big Bad but by the end, the scope of events travel far beyond anyone's control and her plans come crashing down with her powerless to do anything.
  • Bittersweet Ending: The Heroine dies, and the kingdom is ransacked. Fortunately, one of the princes hid most of the kingdom's wealth for rebuilding, and Lycoris' efforts helped save her remaining siblings. Two out of four ain't bad.
  • Can't Catch Up: This causes Lycoris and Hal to take levels in badass.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: The medieval methods are particularly gruesome too.
  • Costume Porn: The poison princesses wear Pimped-Out Dress (That's partly why they're called princesses). It helps them serve as Femme Fatale to wealthy nobles and kings.
  • Decadent Court: All of the kingdoms aside from Ischia.
  • Decoy Protagonist: Belladonna served as main character for the first chapter, but then died and was replaced by Lycoris from then on.
  • The Evil Prince:
    • The deposed prince of Gandol is plotting against the current prince(s).
    • Averted with Prince Haoma of Ischia, who only looks sinister due to his tattoos and piercings.
  • Eyepatch of Power: The two Zakuro wear patches on their opposite eyes, though the stories of how they lost their eyes are very different.
  • Fake King: Hal masquerades as his father, the previous king.
  • Foreshadowing: In chapter 24 Lycoris dreams her hands are filled by red flames; by the end of the chapter her red hair is falling out because she hasn't gotten her regular diet of poison.
  • Fetishized Abuser:
    • The princes make for terrible boyfriends but that's ok, they are sexy, so they must be portrayed in a positive light.
    • Hal's hobby is humiliating his mistress, Lycoris. Hal is presented as dutiful and caring.
    • Mao, a jerk all around. The narrative treats Mao as charming and mischievous and a fine love interest.
  • Floral Theme Naming: Most, if not all, of the princesses are named after flowers or plants, and usually toxic ones at that.
  • Half-Identical Twins: The triplets started out identical, but after the king's death they started changing (or not, in the youngest-looking one's case). The twins who hunt Lycoris are mirror-images due to one blinding herself to be her punished sister's other eye.
  • Hate Sink: The repellant Queen and Mandrake create the "poisoned princesses" as a means to gain power by killing political rivals and making as much money as possible for themselves. Caring for no one else, the duo have the princesses who fail their objectives executed and when their crimes bring an enemy army upon their capital city, can only think of their own safety in the chaos.
  • Meaningful Appearance: Lycoris wears white. It emphasizes her kind nature in a Crapsack World and becomes the key to freeing her in the climax.
  • Military Coup: How the princes' father became King of Gandol.
  • Not What It Looks Like: With Hal summoning Lycoris to his room every night, most people assume they're lovers. In fact, Hal is just a sadist who likes to humiliate her regularly.
  • Older Than They Look: Kait. He's 17, just like Hal and Mao, but he hasn't grown at all since he killed his father when he was 13.
  • Pimped-Out Dress: Everything Lycoris gets to wear, as well as the Queen's outfits.
  • Poisonous Person: It's right there in the title.
  • Rape as Backstory: Every poison princess has this. When a poison princess reaches adolescence, she is repeatedly violated with a wooden rod covered in poison.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: The reason why the Queen of Mitragnya wants the King of Gandol dead. He figured out parts of the secrets of her country and controls her water supply.
  • Secret Test of Character:
    • When the Queen of Mitragnya first met the princes' father, she set up a prank that involved poisoning people disguised as royals. He saw through it immediately and she's hated him ever since.
    • Kind of an accidental one: Prince Haoma of Ischia nearly forfeits his right to rule when he interrupts his test of endurance to save a little girl. He accepts his punishment but then his father tells him that his compassion proved he's fit to take over.
  • Screw Destiny: Lycoris is going for this. So was the king, when he gave his two other sons the cursed mark and dressed, raised, and treated them alike; it didn't work out too well for him, though.
  • Single-Minded Twins: The Zakuro, who became assassins for this exact reason.
  • Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Lycoris has feelings for Kait, the kindest of the three brothers and the only one who cares for her.
  • Star-Crossed Lovers: Princess Belladonna and food-taster slave Asebi never had a chance together.
  • There Are No Therapists: Justified in that it is the medieval period.
  • Together in Death: Lycoris and Kait die together. They are also implied to be reborn as a new species of Lycoris flowers.
  • Training from Hell: Childhood if you are a Poison Princess.
  • Traumatic Haircut: After they out Lycoris as a Poison Princess, Hal hacks off most of her long hair. True to reality, parts of it are left uneven.
  • Tyke-Bomb: All of the Poison Princesses are these. And Kait, though this is mostly his brothers' fault.
  • Unresolved Sexual Tension: Three princes and only one princess. And touching the princess means death. It was bound to happen.
  • You Can't Go Home Again: Once the Poison Princesses have been sent out on their mission, the penalty for returning home is death.
  • Younger Than They Look: Hal looks considerably older than his brothers since he secretly replaced his dad, despite the fact that he usually wears a mask when he's in public as the king.


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