Princess Resurrection

If anything good came from me watching the 26 episodes of Princess Resurrection, it’s only that I can write this review in good conscience in order to try and prevent other people from wasting their time. In all honesty, there isn’t really any good reason for anyone to spend their time on this show, so don’t! However, I don’t make such statements without reason, so if you’d like to know why I feel that way, continue reading. Story: There’s a story here, but you’d barely know that. Our main character Hiro is killed 5 minutes into the show when some steel beamsrandomly fall from nowhere, and he pushes Hime out of the way, thus saving her. In return, she grants him half-immortality and makes him one of her servants, as apparently here entire family is trying to kill each other over some right of succession. Not that you’d ever know that though, as you effectively see 4 of the siblings in the show, and there is only a single 2-part arc where any of them seriously fight. So, the show revolves around a war between siblings, that isn’t in the show! Outside of that, it’s truly a random monster of the week format, where they introduce some new monster during each episode that our hero’s have to defeat, and half the time, said monsters are sent as assassins by the siblings that you never see, but are supposedly out there trying to kill Hime. This show never, ever, EVER goes anywhere! There’s no more conclusion to the whole sibling war at the end of the show, than there was at the beginning of the show. Actually, you don’t even know how many siblings there are! There could be a thousand, or five, you never know, but by about a third of the way through, you simply won’t care. Characters: This show’s one claim to fame is that it sports literally the single most useless character in the history of the world! Hiro, Hime’s first servant in the anime, is your average teenage boy, no powers, no martial skills. For some shows, that’s perfectly fine, but in a show where supernatural monsters are trying to kill your boss, normal teenage boys aren’t particularly useful. The only thing he ever really does effectively is throw himself in front of attacks, and DIE! I actually lost track of how many times he dies, and after a short bit, you simply kinda wait for his inevitable death and resurrection. It’s not like any of the other characters are all that useful either though. Riza, the half-werewolf has about two or three episodes where she’s actually useful, most of the rest of the time, she sucks almost as bad as Hiro. There’s the vampire Reiri, but she’s got a reason not to fight almost every time. And then there’s Hime (who goes by that since she’s a Princess and apparently hates her name) who for the life of me, I can’t understand how she’s survived. She’s got no real powers other than granting half-immortality to others, and the first one she goes and does that for, leads her enemies straight back to her half the time. The robots….ugghhhh…if I hear “Huga” one more freaking time! The bottom line, these characters suck! They don’t progress, there’s no depth to any of them. They each boil down to being a single thought regurgitated throughout the entire series. There’s about a half an ounce of personality between ALL of the characters combined, they aren’t likable, and by the end of the show, I was actually rooting for them to die. Presentation: The music isn’t good, but it won’t make your ears bleed, so I guess that’s a bonus. There really isn’t much else to say about the sound, it’s passable if you aren’t looking to remember it five seconds after it’s passed. The art is not good, but not terrible. The characters are plain and boring, with the princess being the only character that’s remotely interesting, and only because of her eyes. The backgrounds are flat and uninspired, and the colors are pretty much a complete wash. In the end, I suppose it’s all done with competence, and if this show were put together by college students, it’d be alright. There’s very little to keep you interested from an artistic view point. Also, I think this a good place to point out that I did actually buy these from Sentai Filmworks. If these DVD’s are indicative of their work, I’ll never buy their products again, and I will actually highly suggest people simply get fansubs. If you’re only putting out a subtitled product, then your subtitles had better be good. But these aren’t even ACURATE! Characters names are misspelled, there are mistakes and missing letters in the subtitles, and worst of all, the subtitles aren’t even on by default!! It’s a sub only DVD, and you actually have to turn ON the subtitles. Thinking about this makes my head hurt, so I’m moving on. Enjoyment: There’s none to be had, at all!! In the end, this is a show that doesn’t quite veer into my depths of truly god-awful, but it’s certainly bad on almost every level. There’s really nothing to keep you interested in watching this show, as the 20th episode is exactly the same as say the 5th, and that’s not a good thing. The characters are dull and boring, if not downright offensive (Hiro’s naturally huge breasted sister borders on mentally handicapped). Even if you were just looking for mindless fan-service, this show wouldn’t deliver. There’s no real story, no character development, sub-par art and music, and no mind-less fun to be had. There’s really nothing redeeming about this show, so simply avoid it, trust me, you’ll be better off for it.

When I first came across the Princess Resurrection manga, I bought it out of boredom. The summary on the back didn't impress me, but I was out of things to read at the time. I find myself now on volume six of this series, and when I first was aware of the anime, I really wanted to see it. After watching all 26 episodes, I was split down the middle, but found that it's kind of an enjoyable filler show if you are familiar with the manga. STORY: As said, most of the anime is filler, but the general basis of the plot isimplemented. From there it becomes more of a wacky, whimsical cache of misadventures with Hime, Hiro and friends involving supernatural monsters like vampires, mummies, werewolves and witches. It's fun to watch in passing, and this keeps it enjoyable as they battle whatever monster has shown up to challenge them. An interesting thing to do is watch for Hime to fight using weirder weapons than before. ART: The characters are beautifully designed, and the four females Hime, Liza (or Riza), Reiri, and Sawawa are just cute/hot. However, once action picks up, the animation kind of dips a bit. MADHOUSE usually does great animation, but it seems they kind of took a day off and called in the C squad to work on this title when you see some of the fight scenes. Since the show is rated PG, a lot of the violence has been toned down considerably. A mild issue I had at first was Hiro has to drink Hime's blood to stay semi-immortal, but for the show, it's the Flame of Life. It kind of waters down the bond Hime and Hiro share a little, I think. The reason the art gets an 8 despite the less than stellar animation is the atmosphere. Hime's mansion sitting atop the hill overlooking the quiet and unsuspecting residents of Sasanaki town with it's ominous swirl of clouds above it just seems like such a classic seasoning of old-school horror movie appeal that quite honestly look great. Especially in the Princess Sacrifice episode. SOUND: I fell in love with this soundtrack immediately. The opening theme Blood Queen preformed by Misato Aki is very catchy, the ending theme, ALI PROJECT's Hizamatzuite Ashi Wo Onami, is really twisted and addictive and a lot of the BGM in the show has a dark, haunting melody that gives you an aura of walking through a spooky castle all by yourself. The voice acting has no english track, but that does not hurt it, by any means. All the voices are terrific and fit each personality to perfection, from Liza's voice filled with a bold sense of strength and werewolf pride, to Reiri's light, almost seductive vocals, to even the androids, Flandre and Fransisca's monotone "Huga", and Hime's sense of coolness and calculation when she speaks, there is no flaw in any of the voices in this show. Maybe the crazy vampire doctor, Housei Sanagida, but even thats so over the top annoying that it works. CHARACTER: If anyone wanted a reason for me to recommend this show is for the title character herself, Hime. Normally, I'm not too big on main characters, I mostly see them as tools to market the show they're a part of (Pikachu, Naruto, Doreamon etc.), but Hime is just so calm and calculating that you might pass her off a cold, heartless princess who can toy around with anyone she feels she can take advantage of. But this demeanor she puts on just shows how well she can face adversity in even the most grim of situations without panic or worry, never allowing the enemy to pinpoint her weaknesses. This execution is really a big redeeming quality of this show and I fell in love with her instantly. She's honest, blunt, cold, and full of mercy all at the same time. Yes I've seen it done in other titles, but it just works so well in this show, and in a current state of anime where I don't think there are many strong female leads, Hime stands out to me, and thats why she's one of my favorite characters. Also, I'm not too big on the gothic look, but her attire, her blond hair, the crown, her laugh, and her eyes just make her, oddly enough, a combo platter of fan-service that I never expected I would be attracted to. She's dead sexy, no pun intended. I probably should mention the others, but there isn't really too much difference from their manga counterparts. They just arrive and their personalities bounce off one another. There's no real main antagonist in the show outside of Zeppelli, who I sort of enjoy more in this version. I really like the Sherwood character and was happy to see her get more time to shine in the show than in the manga, so that's an extra plus. I actually got a kick out of Hiro's ditzy big sister Sawawa, who's barely in the manga, but is here to add a bit of cuteness with her love of parfaits. It's kind of weird, the relation I have with this show. ENJOYMENT: Most of this show just feels like a trailer to buy the manga, but I think you can find enjoyment in it as a collection of random adventures. It gets a little episodic in the second collection of DVDs, but it's still fun to watch, but it just sort of stops. The comedy isn't laugh out loud funny, but it's pretty amusing in it's own right. Most of the gore is toned down, yet there is more light-hearted fan service ( I won't complain, I think these girls are beautiful). The Royal Blood/ Flame of Life change might not sit well with manga fans, but I got over it after a while. OVERALL: I think if this title stayed true to the manga, it would have been so much better. It's got a great vibe to it, but since most of the key story points aren't in it, it's a bit of a let down. I found some enjoyment out of it, as I am a fan of the personalities and the manga. I would keep my fingers crossed for a season 3, but if not, it's a decent title that doesn't have much of a plot.

Monster Princess is about how a guy (Hiro) who saves Hime (Princess Of Resurrection / Monsters) but gets himself killed in the process. Hime gives Hiro a flame of life which means that he can't die by ordinary means. In order for him to live he must stand by Hime and receive the flame of life every few days. Those who recieve the flame are also known as servants as the Royal Family. Hiro is a servent. It's great. The only bad point that it gets tedious after a while but it has a great storyline and some funny parts too. It's a shame thatHiro has permanent hat hair but it could be worse. I liked it mainly because of the art, plot and sound. The opening tune has to be one of my favourites.

I was online, on just some random anime sites. There was this huge list of anime on a list of anime in alphabetical order. I was hopping to find an anime online that I really wanted to watch. Sadly, I didn't find it. So I had to have something to watch, I picked this out just because the name intrigued me. Needless to say, I watched it. I'm impressed. It's got some sweet fight senes (I'm a sucker for anime with violence :)), and pretty good characters. They didn't seem like... messed up... The ending is amazing as well, and it has that sweet humor thatjust makes you laugh. So yeah... it's good... really good...