I must say, at first I was a little confused about Scrapped Princess. I
investigated the title superficially, and found the following: it is a fantasy
story which has a princess and knights. In addition there are kingdoms.
Needless to say, I thought better of watching the anime.
A couple of months
later, it was recommended to me as a decent post-apocalyptic anime. My
perverse fascination with the apocalypse quickly took over and I decided to
watch the show. During those 24 episodes that it lasted, I was very positively
surprised.
Scrapped Princess Anime Review
The world of Scrapped Princess, while well-made, is not particularly
astonishing. Not until about 4/7 through the anime. The reader is cast into a
seemingly usual and mundane fantasy world. In this world the Church of Mauser
is the dominant sect, one which has much influence over politics.
There is
another sect in the anime, the followers of Browning. The followers of
Browning form a majority and most believe them to be an organisation of
blasphemous wrongdoers. Both faiths demonise each other in their teaching,
which will be very crucial later on.
Scrapped Princess Characters
Pacifica Casull
It is in this world that our protagonist Pacifica Casull was born nearly 16
years before the events of the story. Once born, she was condemned to death. A
prophecy foretelling that she would bring destruction to the world effectively
convinced her father the king, but really, all followers of Mauser that she
must be killed. An order was given to this extent, but as as usually the case,
the execution failed.
Pacifica was taken in by a couple who became her foster parents and their
children her adoptive siblings. Raquel and Shannon, the siblings in question,
protected her almost her whole life. This was a task they were entrusted with
by their parents. Scrapped Princess is essentially the story of these three
individuals, interwoven with that of a number of others who each play their
role very well.
Apart from the handful of key characters, the personae of the inhabitants are
not overly complex. The reader must be aware that Scrapped Princess, albeit a
fascinating one, is a shounen anime. Characters can often seem scripted, but
compared to other shounen titles, Scrapped Princess demonstrates perhaps a bit
more autonomy in crafting the characters’ personalities.
On the other hand,
the characters play their respective roles in a very realistic and well-timed
manner. The anime has to deal with a large number of characters, but does it
very well. This can be seen best in the second half.
Pacifica is well aware of her own identity, unlike of her own place. She is,
effectively, a spoilt princess. Her siblings take care of her in every
possible way, and despite their ‘nomadic’ way of life, she cannot even cook.
Because she is the putative harbinger of destruction, there is someone
attempting to kill her every corner. This causes her siblings much distress,
but they patiently endure.
Shannon Casull
Shannon is a young swordsman with a calm and often seemingly apathetic
personality. While he is incapable of using magic, he demonstrates high skill
with the sword and excellent swordplay. Pacifica often gives him directions
and uses him to take care of her tasks. At some point there appears to be a
romantic bond between the two, but the story abandons this early on.
Raquel is Shannon’s genetically related sister, a spellcasting mage with
immense magical powers and agility of mind. She is able to utilise her magic
in swift manner. Her personality is very calm and forgiving with few
exceptions. She is sort of a mother figure able to handle most disagreements
and arguments that arise. Much like her brother, she wears dark clothing as
well, and would throw her life away to protect Pacifica.
The story is overall interesting. Not so much the first half, but the second.
The first half is more fantasy with the emphasis on a small number of
characters and how they get to know each other. The reader may consider it a
form of long, drawn-out introductory part.
In the second half, however, things
speed up to a considerable degree. Hell breaks loose and the anime presents
the viewer with a problem that must be solved. An issue that goes to the roots
of the story and existence. The characters embark on their true journey
towards the ending about halfway through the anime.
Raquel and Shannon Casull
This second half is very praiseworthy in many regards. I am positively biased
towards some of its themes, but it cannot be helped I’m afraid. One noteworthy
aspect of the anime is this ‘humanity’s last stand in a post-apocalyptic
world’.
I exaggerated a bit perhaps, it is not a last stand per se, but major
calamity threatens. Another important thing I must note is the lack of
definitive foes. While there are actual enemies in the anime, they are but
footsoldiers. This is comparable to Neon Genesis Evangelion and Xenogears.
In neither one
could the viewer/player grasp who the true enemy was. This is only a
comparison in respect of the absence of definitive enemies, it is not to say
that Scrapped Princess anime is to be judged with the standards of Xenogears or
Evangelion. Scrapped Princess is a shounen show and accordingly delivers in a
different manner to a different audience. There may of course be an overlap.
There is, in the anime, an absence of malicious plotting. Yes, it is true that
some inhabitants of the anime are oblivious of the notions of honesty and
fairness altogether, but there is no ‘Grand Cosmical Evil Scheme’, which is a
very cool idea in my opinion. Most characters high up seem to have positive
intent, albeit horribly twisted by utilitarian logic.
The ending of the anime was a bit diluted. It is not my wish to spoil it for
anyone, so I will not go into details. The problem I see with the ending is
that the story kept building and building up. The steam in the end was
improperly released.
There was great theoretical suspense in the sense that a
very serious premise was introduced by the story, one that deals with the fate
of humanity itself, but the ending was decided on a much lover level. Imagine
Shinji at the end of End of Evangelion suddenly returning to the Earth with
Eva 01, and there you have it: happy end. This is essentially what I felt
after watching Scrapped Princess anime.
By introducing such a complex back story,
Scrapped Princess aimed high, but from the ending it becomes apparent that it
settled for low. This is an annoying fact, but let it not stop you from
watching the anime if the rest seems to be to your liking. The ending is not
horrible, it is not an entire mess, it is merely average.
The music was so-so. I could watch the opening an ending only once. The songs
were ok, but it is really not my sort of music, so I cannot comment much on
it. The seiyuu, as usual, did an excellent job. One thing that pissed me was
Mr Knight using boku all the time. It may just be me, but the use of boku in
all circumstances drives me mad. I am finding it very hard to tolerate it.
The graphics and the animation quality are both good. The anime aired in 2003
and for the 2003 standards the animation quality is average. Average in the
good sense. There is nothing I could really criticise apart from the general
unusual movements that sometimes took place. On the other hand the graphics
style angered me a little bit. There seems to be a presumption that in a
fantasy story, almost everyone must wear cloaks. I cannot seem to understand
why is the anime so full of people wearing cloaks, as there is no
justification offered for this.
Now to draw a full circle and conclude things I must say that Scrapped
Princess is worth your time. I, for one, surely do not regret watching it. At
all times, when watching the show, keep in mind that it is a shounen
production. I wish that this was not so, I wish it delivered the raging chaos,
death and destruction the anime industry really needs, but it does not.
This
does not detract so much from the worth of Scrapped Princess although. It is
very professional in what it does. Viewed with shounen standards the story is
deep and well-thought out. And to really finish this up: Watch Scrapped
Princess online for yourself and see the underlying premise. I doubt that anyone
would claim it is superficial.
Do I recommend it: I do in fact!
Scrapped Princess | |
| Genre | Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi |
|---|---|
| Episodes | 24 |
| Status | Finished Airing |
| Aired | Apr 8, 2003 to Oct 7, 2003 |
| Producers | Kadokawa Shoten, A-Line |
| Studio | Bones |
| Rating | PG-13 - Teens 13 or older |
| Themes | Mecha |
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