Mushikaburi-hime

For generations, the Bernstein family has been recognized as a house of nobles who favor books over everything else. Elianna Bernstein, daughter of a baron of the Sauslind Kingdom, is no different. But instead of being called a bookworm, she is known as the Bibliophile Princess.

Four years ago, the crown prince, Christopher Selkirk Asherald, offered Elianna a special arrangement: if she would become his fiancée, he promised that she could continue to spend all her free time reading. Despite having to inherit a title of great responsibility, she agreed to the proposal, enticed by the prospect of gaining access to the royal archives housing a wide selection of books.

To this day, Elianna firmly believes that her engagement is void of romantic sentiment. When she notices Christopher's interactions with another girl, she presumes that the days she spends with him will soon reach an end. Yet, during this period of uncertainty, Elianna and Christopher open a new chapter in their relationship, gradually uncovering their genuine feelings as they grow to better understand each other.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Bernstein, Elianna Main

Ueda, Reina Japanese

Asherald, Christopher Selkirk Main

Kimura, Ryouhei Japanese

Agnes Supporting

Neya, Michiko Japanese

Eisenach, Glenn Supporting

Uchida, Yuuma Japanese

Ferrera, Alan Supporting

Satou, Gen Japanese

Anna Supporting

Komatsu, Mikako Japanese

Rei Supporting

Maeno, Tomoaki Japanese

Bernstein, Alfred Supporting

Shimazaki, Nobunaga Japanese

Rona Supporting

Mimura, Yuuna Japanese

Slade, Sylvia Supporting

Yasuno, Kiyono Japanese

Nemoto, Yuuka Producer

Maruyama, Hajime Producer

Yoshida, Yuuki Producer

Nishimae, Shuka Producer

Reviews

Dec 22, 2022

Marinate1016

Recommended

Mushikaburi-Hime is a must watch for any shoujo/josei fan, because for one, we don’t get enough of these shows, and for two, this is a really cute watch with a couple that will quickly become one of your favourites.

Mushikaburi-Hime, like most other shoujo/josei is a character driven slow-burn in which your entertainment depends on how much you like the couple. Fortunately, Chris and Eli have one of the cutest relationships I’ve seen in a while. Premise is straightforward and honestly there’s not much story to speak of. It’s very slice of life based and through their daily struggles Chris and Eli get closer and develop ... a stronger bond. I personally enjoyed seeing their love blossom, but also the personal growth that Eli goes through. Going from a shy bookworm who could not express herself, to being a fitting future queen was a really cool journey and it was organically done with incremental steps over the season.

The show is of course pretty cliché and plays into many of those 90s style shoujo tropes with a beautiful princess being courted by all these different guys and a main guy who fawns over the MC, etc. And that would probably be one of my biggest complaints. While I loved Eli and Chris’ relationship, I felt the male MC did not really have any growth. If anything, he regresses from a cool noble prince to a simp who can only fawn over Eli. This is cute for a couple episodes, but over a 12 episode run time... it can get kind of old. I would have liked to see him get more development and come into his own as a character more. Obviously with it being a female demographic, that probably was not the intention of the author and I still enjoyed the show without it, but it holds it back from being higher rated IMO. I’d point to Fruits Basket as a gold standard of how that should be done.

As with most Josei and most Madhouse projects, art is amazing. Has a really unique look to it and while it doesn’t 100 percent recreate the light novel art, it stays true enough to it.

While it’s not the best Josei this year, or even this season, Mushikaburi-Hime is still a must watch for any fan of the romance genre and shoujo/josei fans in general. Our selections are just so slim we don’t have much opportunity to be picky. The plot may not be the strongest, but it is still a very cute story with a loveable MC that you can’t help but want to protect, and a fairy tale type feel.

Mushikaburi-Hime gets 8 out of 10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Dec 22, 2022

KANLen09

Mixed Feelings

It's almost a given that with the current landscape that anime is today, certain things will just get left behind in time. Such is the genres of focus being cash cows for everyone involved, diving deep into the Shonen and Isekai genres, because let's be honest: Japan's surplus for works like these haven't stopped and will keep on coming like Truck-kun banging just right outside of everyone's doors. One such particular demographic that you don't see get targeted much is the Shoujo genre, that with shows like the recently completed re-adaptation of Fruits Basket and the currently ongoing Tokyo Mew Mew New, there isn't the ... time and resource justified to make new Shoujo anime anymore to appease the minority.

But still, when people try, we at least get something that stands out from the rest of the typical copy-paste blurb that we've seen of both the Shonen and Isekai genres, and that's how we get novelist Yui's Mushikaburi-hime a.k.a Bibilophile Princess. And this also being another Syosetu title, it's definitely surprising to find a fair few stories that isn't the Isekai Reincarnation kind.

As is with Shoujo anime, think of it as like the past glories of Kaichou wa Maid-sama! and the closest example being that of Ouran Koukou Host Club a.k.a Ouran High School Host Club, but with the show's premise being pretty much like Akatsuki no Yona a.k.a Yona of the Dawn or Akagami no Shirayuki-hime a.k.a Snow White with the Red Hair, only except that the female MC Elianna Bernstein, is like Honzuki's Myne in every regard. This is because Elianna is not just your typical girl: she is known as the Bibilophile Princess, coming from a family of bibilophiles and is a family heirloom of national treasures that benefit the Kingdom as the "brains of Sauslind", but choosing to be politically neutral in the sight of conflict. Being a bibilophile and a bookworm herself, after being engaged with Christopher Selkirk Ashelard, the crown prince of the kingdom, Elianna chooses to house herself in Sauslind's royal library just for the added perks of being able to access the royal archives and read all day long, which consequently earns the ire of many others in the kingdom's walls and labelling her as a phony fiancé: someone who completely ignores the happenings and proceedings, and most importantly, the crown prince Christopher himself to his own devices.

To be fair, I think that Christopher and Elianna's relationship is just about what you expect from a completely Shoujo work: the crown prince and his princess, there's so much uncertainty that's riding with the tumultuous commotion of the kingdom and going along with it, the not-yet husband-and-wife duo must act coordinated and soundly to ensure that their kingdom doesn't fall in pieces. And that is Elianna's Achilles Heel: with her presence almost being equal that of a wandering ghost trying to play catch-up with the kingdom's numerous political issues, whilst remaining close to her heart about the way that she would handle things. It's that tenacity where she feels like she's lost at times, though her comeback will vary since people MUST act like in a complete Shoujo environment of wavering feelings and decisions made that could affect her fiancee as well. And that always turn out to be that hit-and-miss feeling of lackuster aspects about the source material as well. The other characters of servitude, eh I can take or leave it being the fact that there's just way too many of them to even give us time to think about. Though I would say that the Ikemen that pretty much stuck with me is the butler character Alan Ferrera, he's the perfect embodient of a background character used as a running gag of a joke that to me, truly never gets old.

I'm just going to be frank: what's up with Madhouse being chosen to adapt very odd titles, outside of the ones that we expect them to have (i.e. Overlord), not to mention Winter's HakoZume a.k.a Police in a Pod (which that one I felt was within the acceptable range). Ironically, in the same vein, they have done shows like Ore Monogatari!! and YoriMoi before, so this should be a cakewalk...and as someone commented in a review, the strange white vignette that's used all the time as a filter, yelp. I mean, this is a relatively different Madhouse we're looking at now after all of the fiasco that the studio has undergone throughout the years, and is trying to find a groove for itself. Sadly, I don't think that this show ever fitted with Madhouse's abundance to begin with, but it just looks fine.

At least the OST fares somewhat better: DanMachi's Yuka Iguchi producing a really nice OP song, and Kashitarou Itou being the falsetto, perfect-pitch tenor guy with a unique vocal voice to boot. Music is generally enjoyable, but in the context of the show as a whole, it's not much.

I think I know the reason why we gravitiate less towards Shoujo shows: being the predictable premises that they are, it takes talent and creativity to spice all of the melodrama out of a series, and for novelist Yui, it would've been OK for the time had this show came out much earlier, but I digress that there's just nothing unique about it, aside from the tried-and-true Shoujo demographic hit points. Let's be real: the right for Shoujo anime to exist, is only if the writers and their source material have enough traction to go around, and this show didn't even generate any marketing about it other than the usual teaser and PVs to go around.

Is it a shame that there's no more Shoujo shows left to adapt? It depends honestly, but in the case of Mushikaburi-hime a.k.a Bibilophile Princess, it's a dud, a false perception of the Shoujo genre's comeback, even if miniscule. Only watch this if you feel very bored, you're not missing much.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Dec 22, 2022

jtsk

Not Recommended

This is garbage.

Elianna, the protagonist, has no personality outside of reading books, and the love interest’s only personality trait is being a creepy boyfriend. Yay! Her love for books means basically nothing by the way. It’s pretty much a gimmick to show she isn’t a piece of cardboard. Unfortunately, possibly the most boring gimmick imaginable was used so it doesn’t work. These characters are so bland it’s ridiculous.

Almost every episode goes one of two ways. First, some girls are jealous of Elianna and try to take her place while being gross toward her, and this somehow makes Elianna question whether her obviously obsessed boyfriend actually ... likes her, only for him to save the day. Second is there’s a villain doing evil things. Of course, there’s book damage involved because there has to be a reason for Elianna’s existence. And then her boyfriend saves the day, either directly or indirectly. The plot is truly obnoxious.

Nothing’s ever developed in this anime. Elianna’s wrongly accused of something? Let’s spend half the episode on flashbacks that never happened on screen during the same scene! Someone’s mad at Elianna? Time for a flashback of what she did because nobody knows what he’s talking about! This abysmal writing is all you get when her boyfriend isn’t busy being a total creep. I don’t know if this is just the fault of the adaptation, but it feels very much like someone’s first attempt at writing a story.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	Poll: Mushikaburi-hime Episode 2 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Oct 13, 2022	112 replies	by Hearts4MyLover »» Dec 1, 8:25 PM
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	Poll: Mushikaburi-hime Episode 8 Discussion Stark700 - Nov 24, 2022	20 replies	by tinker3bellz1 »» Feb 25, 10:18 PM