Oshi no Ko & Record of Ragnarok Creators’ New Rapunzel Spin Has a Horrifying Twist

Märchen Crown is the latest Weekly Young Jump series written by Aka Akasaka and illustrated by Azychika. Furthermore, Aoi Kujira, the creator of the Greek Circle Crisis, will be contributing as a series composer. Akasaka is best known for writing Kagua-Sama: Love Is War and Oshi no Ko, both being fairly popular series. Right after Oshi no Ko’s ending last year, Asakusa wasted no time in announcing a new project. This time, he is taking a different approach as the story is set in a fantasy world based on a popular fairy tale. Meanwhile, Azychika is a collective pen name of a group of illustrators responsible for drawing the manga Record of Ragnarok.

The release date and the publishing magazine of the series were revealed in February 2025. Märchen Crown has just made its debut and is simultaneously being released in Japan. Global fans can read the manga on the official Manga Plus app, where you can find Shueisha’s finished and ongoing works. Märchen Crown was being promoted as a “fairy tale romance,” so no one would have expected it to have such a horrifying twist.

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What Is the Plot of Märchen Crown?

The story is set in a fantasy world where a young girl named Rapunzel lives on a tower all alone. The tower is located in the middle of the forest and because of the witch, no one ever dares step foot anywhere near it. While everyone fears the witch and her powers, Rapunzel trusts the person who raised her. The witch claims the outside world is dangerous and full of wicked people. And so, Rapunzel grew up without ever meeting anyone other than the witch or knowing what the outside world was like.

That is until she meets a young, ordinary boy from a village. The village has an old legend that the great Northern Forest has a witch’s tower. Curious to see if the legend is true or not, he embarks on a journey to find the tower. The boy loves climbing in high places, so despite the risk involved, he climbs all the way to the topmost room of the tower. However, instead of finding a witch, he sees a girl as beautiful as a flower and blurts out the word “Rosa,” a multiflora.

They continue to meet often and gradually fall in love as Rapunzel’s yearning for the outside world grows. She requests Mikel to take her to his village, hoping to explore the world she has only heard about through his stories. While she was expecting the world to be as beautiful and charming as his stories, the reality is far greater than she realizes.

Märchen Crown Turns Dark From the First Chapter

Rapunzel was first introduced as a German fairy tale recorded by the Brothers Grimm as part of Children’s and Household Tales published in 1812. The story has had several variations since then while keeping the basic theme of “a girl trapped in a tower by a witch.” Most of the chapter contains the basic theme and story of Rapunzel with the main characters already falling in love after meeting several times. Rapunzel’s journey is full of anticipation and a little bit of fear as she finds the world overwhelming after being trapped in the tower for so long.

Upon reaching Mikel’s village, she is horrified to see a strange monster waiting for them. Rapunzel is even more baffled to see that Mikel is addressing the monster as his Uncle. She makes a run for it as soon as possible, leaving Mikel confused. We later see that the village is full of such monsters and he’s trying to convince everyone that the girl is on their side. The eerie village may not be the only thing odd about the boy as he is genuinely confused about why she is scared because this is the “outside world” she desperately wants to see.

The story has a promising start with a surprising horror element blended into a fairy tale romance. The artwork is gorgeous and has a different tone than Record of Ragnarok but is still intricately detailed and captures the horror moments perfectly. There’s a twist that the witch was right all along. For now, Mikel is the only human in the village he calls home. The manga released Chapter 0 (a prologue) and the first chapter simultaneously. The series will be published weekly, so the next chapter is expected to drop on March 25th for readers in North America.