I Want to Escape from Princess Lessons

This show kept pissing me off. First the story. (spoiler free as possible) The show is called I Want to Escape from Princess Lessons, but there is very little of princess lesson actually happening. Through the hole show there is only ever 2 episodes that actually show the main girl in them. It's more of her trying to leave and be free but then falling in love with the man she is supposed to marry. It's boring and at time anger inducing. An Example, there one episode where a friend hears the man guy say something and the friend can't believe it. Then what Ican only explain is the worst game of broken telephone. Miss communication plages the whole episode only making things worse. But then nothing came out of it. It built up to nothing!!!! The whole show is pledged with horrible stories. There are no stakes in this show whatsoever. Second the characters. Everyone sucks. The main girl is the worst. I don't know why we have to hear her breathing ALL OF THE TIME!!!! Like it's an ungodly amount of scenes of her just breathing really loud really loudly and it's so gross. I make me feel like she's in my ear. YUCK!!! I just kept yelling "STOP BREATHING SO LOUDLY!!!" It makes me unconfutable. Also, her and a few characters (but mostly her) will turn to the audience and info dump a bunch of information. I don't understand why they just can't have the characters have inner monologues. It's like if they don't have them saying it to you, you will never know and never will, because there no other way you give information in a show!! Everyone is very bland. They are all one note. They just ... suck!!!! They all are so pointless. Finally, the art. When you see the cover art for the show it looks really nice but when you get into the show and .... it's not great. It looks different enough that I felt cat fished. Theres also some animation errors threw out the show. While I normally don't hate a show for only the animation but when you have a lot of problems other than this, it's just makes it worse. Overall, I can't say I would recommend this show. It has a lot of problems and it's not worth the migraine you will get after yelling that the main girl to stop BREATHING IN YOUR EAR!!!!! IT'S NOT CUTE!!!!! MOUTH BREATHING IS CREEPY AND DISGUSTING!!!!!!!!!!

Small preamble first. Before even watching this I couldn't help but notice its unnaturally low score and the wild reviews-to-views ratio. Reading through a few of the negative reviews however, it was quite clear something was off. They all read like sought after outrage, rather than legitimate reviews, to a point I felt none of them even watched it, so I just had to see the film for myself. After all, it just seemed like any other romantic series aimed at women. Now, going into the film with this predisposed knowledge I certainly didn't expect to ever enjoy it myself, as I expected some sort ofTwilight/50 Shades-esque woman oriented romance slop, which regardless of "troubling content" I likely wouldn't be interested in as a guy. Little did I know, and what is apparent from the very get go, compounding my suspicion of these "reviewers" actually ever watching the show, is that it's simply a silly, lighthearted comedy, primarily targeted for young women, or teen girls even. Now, enough "commentary", onto the actual film. The premise is quite simple, a medieval tale of this noble girl set for an arranged marriage (a concept clearly unfamiliar to many) with a prince she doesn't want to marry, at least initially. What follows are comedic hijinks of the to-be-princess clowning around, with a cast of equally goofy characters joining along the way. What definitely most surprised me about this series was the likability of all the characters, and that it was actually quite funny at times. I mean this is a straight up comedy, complete with your — *looks at camera* "get a load of this guy" — moments. It's nothing more, it's not creepy, it's not "dangerous" and the goofy-ass prince, the supposed horrible villain if others are to be believed, is almost always the butt of the jokes. It's genuinely sweet, wholesome and funny, and I'm not exactly the target audience for this, and clearly the people it reached aren't either, if they can't separate reality and a fictional medieval comedy. But I felt like putting out this positive review here, in hopes it might, however minuscule the effect, help the show actually find its way to its target audience. The production is certainly ass though... shame that.

I Want to Escape from Princess Lessons — What kind of literacy crap is this? If your answer is Stockholm Syndrome, you're right! Let's all agree to disagree: with power comes responsibility...except that when this power is being used to hold someone captive, which turns up the dials to 11 of a love-hate affair, it is not a wise way to commit a rash act, the size of a politically-wedded marriage in the making. Yet, this is what mangaka Izumi Sawano concocted with his/her series of Kisaki Kyouiku kara Nigetai Watashi a.k.a I Want to Escape from Princess Lessons, a show where a princess gets heldcaptive and tortured for most of the strictly decentivized scenarios, only to want out when the prince consistently gaslights her into being in communion with other girls than the one he's wedded to. One thing's for certain: escape is foolproof; staying is insanity-proof. In fantasy shows, political marriages happen for 1001 reasons, which can lead to either good or bad outcomes depending on the situation at hand. But when you're the daughter of a duke who's betrothed to the crown prince from a young age and being forced to be subjected to strict education a.k.a princess lessons while your future husband goes around to cheat with other women, that's just a relationship of red flags all over. This is the scenario for the red-headed "not so Shirayuki-hime" of Leticia Dorman being roped into a political marriage for fame and fortune, something that her Dorman family desires but not the young girl herself, forced to take on princess lessons from headmistress Laila until the day of her certified marriage with Crown Prince Clarke. And enough is enough, for Leticia can't bear to see her going through hardship when Clarke himself is just fooling around like a dork and subjugating the red-headed girl into pure Stockholm Syndrome a.k.a forced love; that escape is imminent, and she'll risk it all just to get out of the control that her loved ones have on her. If it isn't already obvious enough, everything about this show ranges from cringe to pure weird, and even for a romance that's set in medieval times, arranged marriages don't get as creepy as this one does. I admire Leticia's relentless pursuit of freedom, but when her captors are one and far away, the many within the mansion itself, even having to think about escape, become second nature, guaranteed each and every time. And in hindsight, you'll definitely blame the crown prince for initiating this whole romance farce in the first place, but reality is far from the sweetest taste, because while Clarke genuinely had "love at first sight" with Leticia, it's at the circumstances of which he is in control of the entire situation, but he chooses to ignore it for the sole basis of teasing Leticia every now and then for her failures in escaping. Call Clarke every bit as deranged as you want; the red flags were there from the very start. And even though the contributors, ranging from Leticia's brother Nadir (who orchestrated the whole scenario) to the opposing kingdom outsiders of Prince Louis and his aide Lyle, are as ludicrous as they can come, this "comedy sitcom-cum-romance parody", while funny at times for breaking the 4th wall, is just painful to sit through and try to understand that this is a show where everything is "not" supposed to be taken seriously. I just don't get the gist of trying to subterfuge genres to create a thing that the outcome (as we know it) will turn out as bad as we foresaw. Not even the 3rd-rate studio of EMT Squared nor the OST does wonders. This is just bare-bones animation at its finest (while it does look beautiful at times), and the OST is just completely forgettable...or, I might as well say it: charred to the brim. A happy-go-lucky relationship that needs endless forms of psychological torture just to make ends meet? Sorry, no thanks, I'm outta here to puke my spit into a garbage waste trash for an infamy that we can "agree to disagree" is legitimate trash.

Since my other review was removed (not that I mind, it was more of a gag) and there have been people defending the show with some arguments, I thought I could use this chance to address some of the points being made in the positive reviews and why I don't think they really work. Because yes, everything else is said and yes, this show is still bad. 1) "Don't criticise the show for having different morals." Well, no. Because the moral of a show is an important aspect of it. What does it want to say? Sure, no one is saying that the author is telling peopleto kidnap the girl they like and keep her locked up until she loves them. But that is what happens in the show. The problem isn't that the prince does something bad at the beginning of the show. The problem is that he doesn't grow and even understand what the issue is. The "development" is all on Letty, who just has to learn to accept the prince and his weird quirks. Despite her not even wanting that engagement in the first place. Also, just to clear this up. The argument that it's okay because it is "a different time" falls apart rather quickly because these shows are written today. And it's not like they want to be historically accurate either. You can't just cherry pick certain aspects of the time to argue why the criticism is invalid. 2) "The show is a comedy. You are just taking it too seriously." This is a very similar problem to the one above. A comedy still needs to have some narrative structure. Unless it wants to be a complete random show which this one clearly does not want to be. It also wants to be a romance. Sure, the prince's actions are often used for a joke. But what does that matter if he doesn't actually evolve from that? If he gets exactly what he wants in the end and it is only Letty that has to sacrifice something? The problem of this show is not that it has some taboo elements. Or that it starts by you disliking the ML. The problem is that the show has no actual development in this direction which makes a lot of the story feel like it has no conclusion. A few examples here: 1) In the beginning, it is shown that Letty isn't just enjoying her free life, but that she also made friends with the villagers. Despite being a noble herself. This never comes back in any form whatsoever. What is the point of showing how much fun Letty has with a simple life if that is never used in her later "development"? Why is her decision to stay with the prince not contrasted with her happy life before? That would give the viewer a reason to understand why she now prefers the noble life over the simple life after all. 2) At one point, it is shown that the prince noticed that Letty was not happy when she had to do the princess lessons. At which point the show tells us that he felt conflicted, because Letty wasn't the girl he fell in love with anymore (so much for the arguments pro the show, because it clearly is aware that you want the girl to be happy). However, this is never used for his development. Quite the opposite. As mentioned in other reviews, he decides to take her away from her happy life, basically imprison her (which already makes her less happy) and even forces her into princess lessons again. In any half-way decent show, there would be a point where he understands what he is doing is wrong, because it removes "Letty's smile" that he likes so much and he would offer her her freedom again (which Letty could then refuse because she likes the prince so much). But not so here, the only reason Letty gets more freedom over time is because SHE got used to the life and stopped trying to escape in the first place. Which is completely backwards from a story telling perspective. 3) There is a mini story during an episode where a younger prince finds an animal and later they meet the mother of the animal. With the whole moral being that it is not okay to keep the animal to himself if that leads to unhappiness. No really, the show has a whole subplot of how it is bad to imprison an animal, but this is NEVER contrasted to Letty's situation. Where are the arguments about this "being a different time" now? Pretty sure, the nobles back then imprisoned a lot of animals and didn't care about their wellbeing. This one mini story completely shatters all the arguments for the show imo. So yes, this show is bad. And no argument presented so far can convince me otherwise. No, this is not because I apparently haven't watched the show, because I think I actually thought about it more than the authors themselves as proven above. Because those were just examples. The show has issues on all fronts. Which is why it is one of the rare instances where I actually gave it a 1. Because aside from you being able to see what you should not do, there is NOTHING redeeming about it.