Princess Principal

It has never happened to me before that I have blindly reached for an anime series based solely on its genre or themes, then remained speechlessly amazed at how accurate I was. I have seen a few good shows that happened to come my way, but Princess Principal is a bullseye even with almost zero expectations. Apart from the change of pace of the alternative Victorian era, which is the reason why I embarked on this journey to Albion in the first place, it has everything. Amidst references to historical facts, personalities, or novels, there is a plot in which there are princesses, spies, high school, humor, suspense, elegant action, catchy lines, childish moments, humanitarian messages, flying, politics, car chases, and emotions. Sometimes, in the span of a single episode, I experience a range of moods and I'm not sure whether I'm reading a Charles Dickens novel, flipping through The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, or playing Gravity Rush on a console. With such a collection of fragments (with subgenres relatively precisely separated by an episodic concept of the cases), it seemed impossible for the result to hold together, but that's exactly the miracle that happened. It does end a bit hastily, which would disappoint me with a typical twelve-episode portion, but when the series of movies kicks off, I can't wait to see where this group of girls (led from the first start by my favorite Dorothy) will go next. For viewers whose smile freezes at the first sound of infantile squeaking, there won't be much room to appreciate it, but I found myself with my Cavorite in my pocket. (2019.04.10)

It is hard for me to rate this anime series because there are many things I found interesting, even though at the same time, after the final episode, I am not quite sure what this anime series will leave me with. What I definitely want to remember was the setting. The idea of the Berlin Wall relocated to London, and the whole location of industrial England, in general, was very charming. Then again, I would quite like to forget all the nonsense about the Cavorite and the fact that the main protagonist uses it to fly. The Cavorite was unnecessary after all, and even without the main protagonist flying, it would still be a decent spy-thriller anime series. I mean, even the individual cases were not so badly thought out, the spies’ work was portrayed quite realistically and interestingly at some points. I, therefore, could not understand why they shoved a useless thing that was not even used that often (I mean, I certainly did not get the impression that we could not live without it). Another thing I was quite pleased with were the characters as they became more likable with each passing episode. Quite possibly, it was the fact that some episodes tried to be emotional and move me besides all the investigations, deceit, and conspiracies, and sometimes they succeeded. However, there was also a certain revelation that I had been suspecting, which really pleased me. It proved that someone was trying hard when writing the screenplay. Of course, if they had put adult women instead of young Lolita girls, it would probably have been much more believable, more adult, and it would have worked out much better. On the other hand, however, I am probably the last one to mind the Lolita girls in the lead role because I found them likable. As I have already written, I felt that someone went to quite a lot of trouble with the narrative, characters, and descriptions of the spies’ work. They, therefore, managed to convince at least one viewer that watching this anime series was worthwhile, interesting, and even very good at times. The conclusion itself may not have been that intense, and I did not feel very moved (or rather the wall around my heart still holds firm), even though it was not actually a bad conclusion either. I liked the animation, and I had no problem with the soundtrack. I do not know if I am rooting for 3Hz animation studio, but once again, I was quite impressed with their production. So, I am going to leave the fourth star there. 6.7/10. (2017.09.24)