The Price of Smiles

To me, science fiction and is a genre that has been somewhat underappreciated in our generation. It feels like many shows are treated as ticking time bombs that starts off with promise but eventually degenerates into a dumpster fire. Egao no Daika (The Price of Smiles) is an anime project serving as a celebration of Tatsunoko Production’s 55th anniversary. To celebrate, I should say The Price of Smiles should try to stand out as a show of its own and not be a clone of other similar popular works. What do we really get? First impressions are important and with no doubt, war themes makes animpact. It also gives off a political war feel with the conflicting nations, ideal clashes, and world building. We meet Yuuki Soleil, the 12 year old princess of the Kingdom of Soleli. Having lost her parents at such a young age, the show puts her character into the shoes of a leader. Red flags show early on when I see Yuuki as a naïve child and incapable of leading her kingdom. It doesn’t take long to realize how oblivious she is to the state of war. This is a sharp contrast to Stella Shining, a fighter of the Imperial Army serving for the Grandiga Empire. As a war orphan, she exhibits quiet strength although is also known for her untimely smiles. The show chronicles both characters’ roles on opposite sides of the war. But did this show really capitalize on its sci-fi war story? To an extent, it definitely does as we we’ll quickly realize the reality of war. Smiles are shattered when Yuuki sees bodies hit the floor. Death is a harsh reality and it’s a hard truth to bear. Episode 2 is an easy example when Yuuki realizes the death of a close friend. And she finds out in the most gruesome way possible. Make no mistake. If there’s an episode that features extended focus on a character other than Yuuki or Stella, you should expect a death flag raised and set sail. That is to say, I do appreciate the show making time to gives some characters a chance to tell their story such as Joshua, Pierce, and Layla. The more important focus however falls under the main characters especially Stella and Yuuki. From the very first moment I laid my eyes on Stella, I knew there was something unusual about her presence. The easiest way to say it is that she smiles a lot. In fact, she smiles under different circumstances that even includes on the front lines of war. During one particular episode, she shows an unstable side of herself after expressing a disturbing smile upon completing a mission. While a smile is often represented as an expression of joy and happiness, Stella’s smile instills an ominous feeling. It doesn’t also help that she is willing to kill children including Yuuki for her nation. Still, I do feel some sympathy for Stella after seeing her background story. Despite being an orphan, a family took her in and gave her love until they had a child of their own. From then on, her own world collapsed even more to the point where she abandoned her adoptive family. By the time we meet her in the present, she is considered “broken” as even stated by some of her comrades. However, the background storytelling about Yuuki is far less interesting, so much so that I don’t even feel it’s worth mentioning. As a war driven show, there’s different elements that also includes politics. The Royal Order and Empire of Grandiga both adapts policies to maintain their existence. Even if needed to be, military dictatorship is used to maintain order. However, on the frontlines, there’s heavy emotions, bloodshed, and death. Stella’s squad undertakes the more direct frontline approach with their military expertise. Prominent members includes Lily, Gale, Huey, Pierce, and Break. The show explores some character relationship dynamics, most noticeably between Lily and Stella. For Stella herself, she may also be capable of expressing genuine smiles. In other words, while she can be a cold blooded person on the battlefield, she is still human and capable of showing human emotions. On the other hand, the more I watched more of this show, I felt distanced from Yuuki. I’ll be honest. Yuuki is by far the WORST part of the show. She is not intelligent as a leader, naïve as a child, and incapable of being a realist in this war conflict. I cannot take Yuuki seriously at all with her overly dramatic screams and personality. To make matters worse, she often doesn’t learn anything and has to have her advisors do the work for her. Now given her age, some could argue that she is too young yet to be a leader. Well, I say otherwise. She could take the better initiative and even support for her people. Instead, she gives the impression of a useless fool that others have to carry. Unlike Stella, her actions never speaks louder than her words and exposes the weakness of her character nearly every episode. By the time this show concluded, she became my very least favorite character. That being said though, Stella herself isn’t a very well written character either as she undergoes little development. Price of Smile seems to be more of an anime about showing rather than telling. The war speaks for itself and we can see the consequences of both sides. It’s not complicated to understand the story and to be honest, I don’t find it very well executed. Created and produced by Tatsunoko Production, I could say this show is cool enough to be a science fiction war story. The mecha designs are distinctive enough to make an impact felt on the battleground. Meanwhile, characters on both sides are designed with military and political creativeness in mind. As one of the better executed part of the show, I would say the world building stands out for being able to craft these fictional worlds with complex systems and even technology. One of the key selling concept of the show is the smiles. The Price of Smiles, as they call it, is the title and we do get plentiful of that in different ways. On the other hand, I hate to bring this up again but Yuuki is really hard to take seriously when she shows emotions. It’s the typical scream of horror or anxiety you can picture from any war show. The Price of Smiles. I don’t know if I should be smiling after completing this anime. It’s not too easy to recommend considering the length of its storytelling and lack of character development of the main leads. In truth, my feelings of this anime doesn’t change much from the first episode to the finale. It’s a mediocre mecha/sci-fi/war/drama story that did a lot of showing while failing to deliver a cast to remember.

Egao no Daika (The Price of Smiles) has to be one of my favorite anime of the winter 2019 season, not because it is a fantastic work with stunning visuals, a detail by detail plot and story, or flawless character creation and world building, but just because it's enjoyable, accurate to the subject, and there are clear developments that dont feel rushed along, as well, the name, The Price of Smiles, fits fantastically as the theme of the show. The story told is about war, and it keeps the theme well, it doesn't sugar coat death, reason, or emotion, war is war and i felt thatThe Price of Smiles did a good job at telling it as such, people die, friends die, family will die, none of it gets skipped over, it shows that even the strongest people on the outside are harboring the same or greater pain than those around them who are wearing their hearts on their sleeves, our examples being the two main protagonists Stella and Princess Yuuki, respectively. The story progresses well and it shows war as it is, it's a horrible thing to witness and especially being thrust into it out of not even knowing there was a war, it will shake a person, that person being Princess Yuuki. Overall i never noticed the art making any significant dips in quality, it was well animated and the backgrounds were also done well, it wasn't anything fantastically stunning save for a few moments to give a greater impact to the scene or action, an example being the Last Episode with the literal world spanning rainbow, there were nice touches throughout but nothing too worth note and very few small quality dips. I will say that the CGI and movement of the Mechs didn't look out of place or take away from the show at all and i was happy to see that. The sound design and music also catch no complaints but also no rewards from me, the effects weren't overdone (I'm looking at you, Fate/Apocrypha), but they provided what was needed, the BGM flowed nicely with the scenes it was placed in and the Voice acting was good, but again, nothing fantastic or particularly negative either, there were a few scenes where you could feel the emotion put through by the VA's which added well to the scenes or the story being told during the episode, the OP and ED were fairly good as well although i will admit i enjoyed the OP much more than the ED. Where i did find most of my love for this show was in the characters, the supporting cast was written well in my eyes, with most having a back story, their own goals and lives they want to live, and motivations, only a few felt like they were fluff characters though they did help progress the story and other characters growth and motivations (Huey, although i dont like him at all, did this job well). Through our 2 Main Protagonists of Stella and Princess Yuuki we get to see two almost polar opposite people, Yuuki, who wears her heart on her sleeve, and Stella, who faces everything with a Smile, no matter what she feels inside, through multiple character interactions and plot progressions, Yuuki develops into someone who is actually fit to lead her country, make the hard decisions, and learn just how much it costs to be able to afford Peace and Happiness, which is where the name of the show fits in perfectly as the theme, it takes Death, War, and atrocity to reach Peace, even if it is all hidden behind a curtain, it still happens, even if it's being shunned when it gets brought to light, there is more behind the scenes than anyone truely knows besides the ones that are on the ground doing what needs to be done, Stella being our experience of that, she acts near autonomously, always with the same fake smile, she doesn't act on emotions even though she does feel them, she keeps them down deep and bottles in anything she feels so she can act as a soldier. Princess Yuuki, as much as i detest how she started as a character, develops very well, she learns, Although not quickly enough, that the perfect peace that she desires wont be achieved unless she learns how to make the hard decisions, "Even if it means everyone hates me," she keeps her motivation until the end, she wants as little people to need to die as possible, on both sides, she hates death, she's experienced far too much loss in her own life and does not want anyone else to have to experience it through violent means, this does get in the way of her making rational decisions when it comes time for her to lead, she acted on emotion too often which ended up with more lives lost than needed to be, however as time progresses she does learn The Price of Smiles and makes much better, more rational decisions to achieve her goal of ending the war as quickly as possible and with as few deaths as possible on both sides. Stella Shining, was the perfect opposite to princess Yuuki, on the outside atleast, her character for the most part was developed when we meet her, she's The Smiling Soldier, anything that comes up she will face with a smile, even if it is fake and she's in agony mentally, however through the course of the anime she softens and takes down some of her own emotional walls, Stella, who tends to not act on emotion and thinks logically and weighs the consequences of her choices and her emotions, begins to act more on what she thinks is right and what should be done on the ground, instead of what her superiors are telling her to do, during the last few episodes this change takes place rapidly, delving into her backstory and her motivations and reasons to always be smiling, and during the last episode her shell finally cracks, the fake smile is replaced with a genuine feeling of happiness and the feeling that she's done what was right, even if it meant consequences to herself. The Price of Smiles was a very enjoyable anime for me, one of the most that i enjoyed this entire Winter 2019 season, it wasn't for the reason of it being a perfect animation, or the story having no holes, or even the characters being flawless and interacting perfectly, it was just well done, everything meshed together well, the characters were placed where they belonged and interacted well with each other, and the plot progressed smoothly, it felt realistic, but kept its touch of fantasy. All being said, in general the show was nothing to put on a pedestal, it was just very enjoyable and well produced and directed. 8/10, would hate Yuuki's decisions again.

Up front Egao no Daika is nothing special. If you look at the raw of it, it's fairly entertaining but nothing special. The reason I love this anime though is the message behind it, the problems with war - how war is sometimes necessary but other times useless. This overall message presented throughout the show is really striking to me and is a topic that should be discussed more especially the realness it portrays with killing off some key characters. The name of this show translated truly reflects all of this...The Price of Smiles. I do wish it would not have been as rushed and we couldhave seen more action as for a mech I really enjoyed the battle scenes.

The Price of Smiles focuses on two young women living on a distant planet with both their kingdoms at war. The first, Yuki, is the princess of the kingdom of Soleil and national symbol following the loss of her parents, who has an idealistic belief in wanting the best for everyone while oblivious to the true reality of war. The second, Stella Shining, is a soldier within the Grandiga Army attempting to find purpose in her life after having been raised as an orphan and has difficulty expressing her true emotions to others due to her rough upbringing. To start things, I'll just say first impressionswith this series can be a bit misassuming. The first episode has you believe this may be a light-hearted mecha series with the typical story setup it establishes with Yuki's character and I've read that this has led some folks to not watch the series beyond this point as a result. The Price of Smiles isn't afraid to explore how harsh the realities of war can be. While the series explores how both kingdoms have justification to fight in their war, it shows both sides committing morally questionable acts to accomplish their goals and the series isn't afraid to kill off major characters to emphasize this. It also shows that having the more capable mecha within the series can mean squat as Grandiga's greater numbers for their armies are occasionally shown to overwhelm Soleil in spite of their superior technology. Plus, idealism isn't always a good thing to have in a brutal conflict such as war, which Yuki is painfully shown to realize throughout this anime's 12-episode run. As far as the storytelling for the series goes, it has its ups and downs. Yuki and Stella serve as the focus characters for each side of the war to explore how their kingdoms are faring. The series does a solid job showing off the justifications both sides have in their conflict and that the characters focused on in both factions are not irredeemable. Stella's character focus was largely solid in exploring her rough upbringing and shown to undergo gradual development as she comes to develop bonds with her brigade members and finds purpose for herself. Yuki's character focus is more weaker as the series chooses to still have her stick to her idealist beliefs throughout the series in spite of the hardships of war she is confronted with and makes her feel quite out of place in the story that Price of Smiles is going for. The ending for the series also felt both a bit rushed and rather anti-climactic in how it addresses both a certain element of Stella's past and how the war gets ultimately resolved in spite of hints to this direction being alluded to. In addition, the series can get fairly heavy-handed in how it expresses its themes at points and this could potentially turn off viewers who hate this approach to storytelling. In short, Price of Smiles offers a mostly solid, though somewhat flawed, series that takes some creative risks with bucking a number of the typical cliches of a mecha war series in exploring the realities of war and exploring how the focus characters withing both kingdoms cope with these realities. Personally, I felt Stella's developments with the series were better handled than Yuki's and I do realize this series is likely to not be everyone's cup of tea with the rather mediocre first episode and the heavy-handed approach to handling its themes. Still, I'd at least recommend sampling the first few episodes of the series to see if it's something you may have interest in watching the entirety of.