Princess Principal was a good show, but beeing a cute-girls-do-cute-things show stopped it from beeing a great show.
Story (6/10)
While the world is well built and defined, the actual story, a political intrigue surrounding a spy team, was all over the place. It starts out straightforward, stating our characters main goal (one of them wants to throw over the governement and become queen), with the others left to decide where their loyaltys will be. Interesting enough, a good setup, and a well developed world that made me hope for a decend thriller. Sadly, most episodes only focus on the girls backstorys, wheter this is relevant to
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the plot or not. Especially the japanese girls backstory was annoyng; while the culture crossing was fun to watch, cshe could have been taken out of the show entirely, and NOTHING would have changed. Every other character at least had a story more or less bound to the plot, and be it just an unskilled girl getting into the world of spies in order to help the viewer understand that world. It was infuriating.
Art (7/10)
The world design was typical steampunk, but it was woven into every aspect of the show; the clthing, the gadgets, the food; it felt very well rounded, and the designs fit very well together. The side charcters designs were also quite distinct and varied. Only the main girls designs bothered me. They were so generic, when to of them kept talking about how similiar they looked, and how only they could perform a id-switch, i nearly loughed out loud, because they all looked so similiar. It was really sad, espeacially because most of the other charcters in the show had quite distinct faces....
Sound (6/10)
Op was nice and different enough to actually remember it, backround music ranged from generic to actually good and some songs, like the spy-theme have at least some recognition value. The voice acting was mostly ...ok. Typical cute girl anime stuff. The only one whose performence stood out was Ange's VA, who could switch between deadpan and cute girl, which was well done and a good gag.
Character (6/10)
The five main girls are introduced in unnecessary detail, wether their storys further tho plot or not, so i will review each of them.
Beatrice: at first the most annoing of the group, unskilled and at first a bit tsundere, her story is mostly used to introduce the viewer to the world, wich works pretty well. She (thankfully) drops the tsun-tsun act and turns into an actually useful, though still unskilled ally. Mostly there for emotional support, but at least no longer annoing and useful.
Chise: Japanese Samurai(?); while her interaction with western culture is handeld really well, it doesn't add to the story at all. One could leave her out and nothing would change. She doesn't have any noteworthy relationships with the other charcters, she doesn't have a real arch, she isn't needed as the muscle of the group because wo other girls already fill that role, even the maybe-double-agent threat goes nowhere. Easily the most frustrating charcter
Dorothy: Leader of the spy team, and both the most competend and well developed charcter, despite not beeing the main girl. Her backroundstories introduce you to the world, help expand the relations between the girls, and make her a 3-dimensional character, even though she's the boob girl. It feels like she is the only one who actualy has to sacrifice in order to proceed, which makes her a lot more the other girls.
Princess: She is basicly the plot charcter; her desires, her story her will is what drives the show, and i really wish she would have gotten more attention. Whenever she revealed more about her goals or past, the story moved along AND we sympathised more with her. From a story telling standpoint, she would have been an ideal main charcter.
Ange: the quiet, wierd girl. A very capabel spy and the muscle of the group; while she was a fine charcter, i don't think she made a good main charcter; her iner workings weren't explored in enough detail to make her intersting, eventhough they tried to make her the emotional core. She would hvae been better of as a mysterious charcter seen through another persons eyes, like f.e, princess
Enjoyment (7/10)
Cute spy drama with some good charcters and well build world. The action was always fun, even though the story was side lined way too often. Still fun to watch.
Overall (5/10)
A few tweaks like a different MC, getting rid of unnecessary plots (chise) and beeing willing to go dark when necessary would have made this show great. It would have propably been enough to focus more on the (actually good) story they had going. Tho they might have needed 24 eps to make that work propably without loosing all the worldbuilding they did... hard to tell....
They way it was now, it was entertaining, but full of unfullfilled potential, and therefore just mediocre.
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Sep 27, 2017
Princess Principal
(Anime)
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Princess Principal was a good show, but beeing a cute-girls-do-cute-things show stopped it from beeing a great show.
Story (6/10) While the world is well built and defined, the actual story, a political intrigue surrounding a spy team, was all over the place. It starts out straightforward, stating our characters main goal (one of them wants to throw over the governement and become queen), with the others left to decide where their loyaltys will be. Interesting enough, a good setup, and a well developed world that made me hope for a decend thriller. Sadly, most episodes only focus on the girls backstorys, wheter this is relevant to ... 
Sep 24, 2017
Vatican Kiseki Chousakan
(Anime)
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Hands down the best comedy of the season.
Do you like the davinci code? Would you like to see what it would be like if mashed up with scooby-doo? Then this is just the show for you! Story (1/10) two priest hve to check wether reported miracles are actually true, yet all they find are drugs and evil secret societys. It's very ofer the top, each case ending in a conspiracy theory that makes the x-files seem like a research paper. And they play everything straight. Always serious. The characters just accept everything that's thrown at them. Not that they would have any time to process it; the show ... 
Apr 4, 2017
Hoozuki no Reitetsu
(Anime)
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If brutal honesty in polite situations is your idea of comedy, this show delivers!
Story (6) Story wise, it's mostly just slice of life / office storys; most don't even have a real story arc. The Setting is japanese hell and chinese heaven; japanese hell seems pretty accurate and well researched, and the enviroments unique propertys are used for comedy. As for chinese heaven, it's only a side thing; they're rarely there, but it seems fine, but you already notice that they don't use the places full comedic potential (also way less respect). It only gets really obvious when they talk about western ideas of hell ... 
Mar 19, 2017
ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu-ka
(Anime)
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Decently build Fantasy world with political powerplay for the throne.
Story (8) While the story moves very slowly, with slightly too much slice of live in the first third of the show, but still engaging. There isn't much action; if you are looking for gunfights, chase scenes or even stealthy action, this will dissapoint. It' dialolge driven. The- to me- best parts are the presentations of the different states, they not only help to expand the world and scale of the story, but also further and intensify the plot. The Royal Backstory we get was also quite enjoyable, interesting mostly due to the perspective it was told ... 
Mar 19, 2017
3-gatsu no Lion
(Anime)
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Strong first half with minor problems folowed by unfocused second half and a very unsatisfieng end.
Story (7) (spoilers) The generell blend of sport and slice of life elements works really well in this one, because it's presented more as a character study then a tournament arc. It works best when it's either especially dramatic, or focusing on the warm, but somewhat melancholic relationship between the sisters and Rei. The (to me) most intresting aspect was Reis incredibly negative relationship with his "sport", something you rarely see, and defenetly not that well done. That being said, the show kind of fell apart it's second half. I think ... |
