In the Land of Sheep with ‘Wolfa’ – people with wolf ears and tails, and ‘Sheepa’, those with sheep ears, Aki Rukijo, a Wolfa butler, is the private tutor to Momo Shiudafaris, a Sheepa princess. Princess Momo is known as the ‘frigid’ princess, and rarely leaves her rooms. After an incident with a wild wolf on a full moon which Aki saves her from, Momo has Aki appointed her private tutor, although that’s not really her true aim. On a night of a full moon, when wolves find their instincts harder to ignore, Momo sneaks into Aki’s bedroom and declares that she loves her, and she’ll ‘gobble her up’!

Despite what sounds like a racy beginning for Sheep Princess in Wolf’s Clothing, Volume 1, by Mito, nothing much actually happens in that scene beyond kissing and them getting naked. And it doesn’t happen again in this volume, although Momo is definitely thinking about it. Bluebell, Momo’s Sheepa maid, is fully on board with the princess’s courting of Aki. Aki is more reserved about the whole thing, mostly since she is a commoner, and Momo is, well, a princess. Thus, Momo continuing to try and court her. It’s all rather cute, really.

Momo, being a princess and possibly having some previous bad experience, is somewhat limited in her experience of the outside world – the two of them go on a castle date, which is cute, but Momo wants more. Egged on by Bluebell and aided by Sakaki and Kiku, fellow Wolfa friends of Aki’s, the two of them disguise themselves and go into town, which is suitably adorable, and actually shows them getting on as people, bonding over the play they went to see, and over books.

I wondered if there might be some class difference between the Wolfa and Sheepa, but if there is, it isn’t touched upon much in this first volume. The royal family is Sheepa, although we only see two here, third princess Momo and her mother, the queen, but other than that, no mentions are made. I think there might be other animal hybrids, but they aren’t mentioned by name. It feels very much more of an aesthetic choice than a story-driven one, which is honestly fine. A work doesn’t always need to have something to say in particular, and the mangaka likely just wanted to draw cute girls with wolf and sheep ears; not to mention the role-reversal of the more confident sheep courting a flustered wolf. I can understand that.

Ratings:

Story: 6 – more about cuteness than plot
Art: 8 – lots of blushing, but the art is nice throughout, the colour pages are very pretty
Yuri: 10 – definite courting between the main couple, possible background yuri couples
Service: 3 – Momo in her underwear, and Aki in butler wear. It suits her.
Animal ear rating: 10 – they even flap when the characters get excited

Overall: 9

If you like animal hybrids and a cute story, or always kind of wanted the princess to get with their maid/another woman close to them, this seems like a pretty good bet. Volume 2 is headed our way next spring –  I’ll certainly continue reading. Final aside, Aki reminds me a little of Zakuro of Tokyo Mew Mew, albeit only by looks, and Momo is a bit like a more assertive Elianna from Bibliophile Princess.

Thank you very much to Seven Seas for the review copy! The translation was by Jan Cash, with lettering by Rina Mapa – I didn’t notice any issues with either, which usually means a job well done!