Scrapped Princess

Born to the royal family, Pacifica Casull has earned the nickname "Scrapped Princess" after an apocalyptic prophecy foretells her destroying the world on her 16th birthday. Rescued from certain death by a kindly family, she takes shelter with her adoptive older brother and sister, Shannon and Raquel Casull. When news of her survival reaches the ears of the God Mauser's worshippers, they issue her death at all costs, forcing Pacifica to flee for her life.

Plagued by threats from the church, the nobility and even the common people, the three siblings attempt to outrun the fate Pacifica is destined to bring, all the while questioning if one girl's life is worth the world's demise. The true nature of the Scrapped Princess, along with the harrowing revelations of the world itself, becomes more and more apparent as the princess' 16th birthday fast approaches.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Casull, Shannon Main

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Casull, Pacifica Main

Orikasa, Fumiko Japanese

Casull, Raquel Main

Ohara, Sayaka Japanese

Fulle Supporting

Konishi, Katsuyuki Japanese

Zephiris Supporting

Mizuhashi, Kaori Japanese

Armalite, Christopher Supporting

Mizushima, Daichuu Japanese

Scorpse, Leopold Supporting

Kondo, Takashi Japanese

Cz Supporting

Hanba, Tomoe Japanese

Gillot, Kidaf Supporting

Ono, Daisuke Japanese

Natalie Supporting

Koorogi, Satomi Japanese

Minami, Masahiko Producer

Hayakawa, Hitoshi Producer

Okada, Kunihiko Assistant Producer

Ogawa, Takumi Assistant Producer

Reviews

Apr 12, 2009

Skadi

Recommended

Scrapped Princess has been a show sitting on my shelf for quite a while and for some reason I had never gotten around to viewing it. For that I am rather disappointed in myself as it turned out to be a wonderfully entertaining and charming series.

When starting the show you will be treated to what is seemingly your normal medieval era sword and sorcery fantasy adventure. And for the first half of the series that is exactly what you get. The second half in some ways almost feels like a completely separate show as mecha like combat starts to replace your standard ... swords and magic fighting. I imagine some people who are expecting a more traditional kind of adventure might feel a bit disappointed but I thought the transition was logical and seamless. Pacifica, known as the Scrapped Princess is on the run with her two older siblings because everyone wants her dead as she is prophesied to destroy the world on her 16th birthday. Of course it will become obvious to the assassins sent after her and the viewers that she is nothing but a sweet girl who poses no threat to anyone. The plot moves along fairly slowly but the pace was quick enough that I never got bored with it. A number of interesting twists emerge, some predictable others not so much but all and all I found the mix of the old and modern technology quite fresh and original. The action and special effects are quite good but my one complaint with it is that towards the end it does feel like it drags on for a few episodes with little really going on. The ending was also pretty solid and I felt very satisfied with how many of the storylines wrapped up.

Pacifica shines as the main protagonist of Scrapped Princess. She is a very likable and character and I think most people will find it very easy to relate with her. Rounding out the rest of the main cast is the siblings and Pacifica's guardians, Shannon and Raquel. They were very fun characters and I liked them both a lot. Unfortunately we didn’t ever get that much back story on either of them. Things were hinted at with them both but I was left feeling a little let down that these were not better developed. The supporting cast is also very strong as several characters shine, particularly Leo, but others feel a bit flat and stereotypical.

The music was very good. Both the opening and ending songs felt very appropriate and set the tone of the series. Voice acting is also very strong. Do to some issues I had with the subtitle timing on my DVDs, I was unfortunately exposed to the English dub of this show for an episode before I couldn’t take it anymore and had to download the corrupted episodes online. Honestly I don’t know how or why people watch English dubs, particularly from Bang Zoom! who has some of the worst actors in the industry. Why do I always feel like you’re trying to hard when you speak? Just talk normally, you don’t have to talk like your trying to be 12 years old. Just stay away from the dub. Remember: friends don’t let friends watch dubbed anime.

One of my favorite elements of SP, is the artwork and animation. The backgrounds and spell effects were beautiful. The character designs were truly exceptional though. The girls were all adorable and the guys were handsome and manly and bishounen free. Some of the girls bosoms were a bit out of hand though, particularly Winia's. Those looked like they might get in the way.

Overall I am left with a very favorable view of this anime. A satisfying ending, great characters, I am sad to see this one end. The story feels very original and delivers a unique cautionary tale about mankind and his struggles to not destroy himself.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jul 19, 2013

Lawuser

Mixed Feelings

The thing about the fantasy genre is that, as far as I’ve picked up, a large focus is put on creating a fantastical world that the characters inhabit. There are numerous ways to go about this, whether it’s focusing a lot on the magical aspect of the world versus blending the fantasy elements with science fiction, or letting the audience know very little and have them figure out the history of the setting themselves versus letting them in on every little detail, or something else entirely. Scrapped Princess takes all of the wrong turns when it comes to this, but more of that later.

The synopsis ... for the anime you can find up there, so I won’t bother with it. Instead I’ll focus on what I liked or didn’t like about the show.

In terms of production Scrapped Princess does alright. The visuals are nothing too fancy, which one might find strange since it’s made by Bones right after they made Wolf’s Rain and right before they made the original Fullmetal Alchemist. Point is, it doesn’t look impressive, but it looks okay. The same can be said about the music; nothing outstanding, but alright. In fact what I like the most are the character designs and more specifically the costume designs. Bones have a thing for character designs, and it really goes to show. I don’t know why everybody is wearing shoulder pads, but I like it.

The characters are, to put it simply, fun. Most of them are incredibly shallow, and much of their internal conflicts can be seen as a bit dull. There is development, mind you, but we never know anything about the characters for better or for worse. The good thing is we get to see them here and now and how they change as the story goes along. The bad thing is we can’t sympathize with them well. More than anything the characters bounce off each other really well, and they make up for their lack of depth in interaction with other characters.

But where does this anime fall really flat, then? As I stated before, Scrapped Princess takes all the wrong turns in creating a mysterious and fantastical fantasy world – something I absolutely love. I have this idea of fantasy worlds that you have to immerse yourself into it, preferably by questioning the mechanics behind it and figuring out how everything works out by yourself. Scrapped Princess doesn’t allow you to do so. Scrapped Princess is filled with so much expositioning you can’t help but ask if it’s trying to insult your intelligence. “Now it’s time to explain this thing,” “Here’s an explaination of that explaination,” “Here’s an explaination of what we just talked about,” “Here’s a thing that can do this, now let me remind you that we still have that thing and it can still do everything we know it can do, just in case you forgot.” But why is this a bad thing? Because you can never be fully immersed in the world the anime tries to create. Every time you think of a question the series answers it within five minutes, along with giving you many more answers that completely kills the wonders of the setting. You can never immerse yourself into the world because there is nothing to grab hold of your interests – all of your questions have been answered, so why should you? Is this bad storytelling? Yes, because it doesn’t view the audience as an entity capable of free thought, a person who is able to pick up small clues and use them later when they’re needed to answer a question – and the audience has to do this on their own, I might add.

All in all Scrapped Princess had potential but ultimately fails under its own ambitions. It’s still enjoyable enough though, and it does have a set of fun characters that are fun enough to watch on their own. This is one of those “I’ve seen it just for the sake of having seen it” titles.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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May 21, 2021

Recynon

Not Recommended

This entry has a severe shortage of negative reviews on both MAL and Anidb, so I'll contribute my opinion to keep people like me from wasting their time with these 24 episodes.

Scrapped Princess is about Pacifica, a princess who is prophesized by this world's religion to destroy the world when she turns 16. As such, she was abandoned as a baby by the king and found by a family who have been guarding her for her entire life.

As a thematically focused series, Scrapped Princess fails on every account, but that will take time and spoilers to explain so I'll comment on more its ... more basic aspects first. The plot meanders too much in Pacifica's episodic travels and has large exposition dumps that diffuse all of the mystery in its setting at once. The places where the plot meanders is also used to introduce characters that react to Pacifica's status as the scrapped princess. However nearly all the characters have bland personalities and backstories that aren't worked on enough for you to care for them. They also all turn out the same way; they see Pacifica and decide that such a nice girl can't possibly destroy the world so they defy religious prophecy and the government. From what I can tell it seems like their further desire to risk their lives to protect her is mainly motivated by their observance of Pacifica's character but the problem is that Pacifica herself doesn't have the charisma or magnetism to pull that off. The other thing that the plot tries to do is constantly remind you of Pacifica's angst owing to her position as well as the strong bond between her and her guardians, Shannon and Raquel, which gets trite.

Yet for all her angst, Pacifica is not an active character. Her guardians do all the work and later when they get separated she instantly finds a stranger that takes care of her and protects her, so that she's generally shown living a comfortable life. She never has to fight her own battles or be the main source of income. She cooks but she's bad at it. When she does laundry she makes her guardians do it too. Despite this she spends half of her screen time complaining to her guardians about being tired and hungry and generally acting like a pampered princess. After 24 episodes of getting cocooned by her guardians and allies that she somehow charismatically attracted, she's given a choice that would change the fate of the world.

The major reason why I can see people being absorbed by this series is because it utilizes a lot of emotional porn. Pacifica will angst by feeling guilty about being the scrapped princess despite it clearly not being her fault and despite being told that the prophecy is wrong repeatedly. And as I said, this angst is overblown when she constantly has people protecting her from physical harm, and she's never had to suffer much from self esteem issues caused by the world because she was raised in a loving family and is fed constant emotional support from her siblings and allies. In fact, she's shown to have an almost narcisstic bend to her; she beats up artists who don't draw her in a flattering way, glares at people for not liking her cooking, and says a guy is out of her league when he asks her out. Shannon's desire to protect her against the world at all costs is repeatedly emphasized so you can take in the emotional beauty of such a dynamic, but doing this doesn't reveal anything we didn't already know about the characters from the first episode. To keep this going,

(SPOILERS)
the show gives Pacifica amnesia, gets her another guardian, makes him sacrifice himself to protect her, and then gives her back her memories by having her remember Shannon's love for her.
(ENDSPOILERS)

All of which does nothing to further either character or develop the themes. Emotional porn 101. As such, character development across the board is miniscule or trivial. Other than people doing what they think is right by not killing the obviously innocent girl instead of listening to religious brainwashing, you have the standard "logical AI's develop emotion" trash.

Of course, the series also tackles major themes that might give the semblance of depth. I don't think so, and I'll explain possible thematic connections and why they don't work:

SPOILERS AHEAD
1) Discussion of fate/religious prophecy/destiny. First of all, it doesn't exactly discuss destiny because a prophecy that says something will happen is different from the thing factually happening. One of the central conflicts is whether or not to believe in the religious prophecy that says the scrapped princess will bring doom to the world, which makes sense in the medieval setting, where religion would play a large role in people's lives. However, the general problem of using this as a theme is that prophecies in stories almost never work. If the story says the prophecy is true, then there's nothing else to be said except maybe accept your fate. Usually though, if the prophecy is something negative, the story necessarily has to eventually reveal that the prophecy is false, in which case the only thing that can be said was that prophecies aren't always accurate so you can't base your actions entirely on them. Then the aesop is too simple and there's nothing to be learned. In the case of Scrapped Princess the prophecy is so at odds with common sense and morality that the obvious answer is that the prophecy is wrong, which was confirmed by the story about 11 episodes in. Pacifica is obviously a normal girl that has not shown the slightest tendency nor power of destroying the world and killing her would be cold blooded murder. It's like when people thought the world was going to end in 2012 and the only evidence was that the Mayan calendar ended on that day. The only lesson learned is that prophecies with little basis in reality are stupid, which the characters of Scrapped Princess learn upon meeting Pacifica. There's nothing about defying destiny here.

That's not to say the idea of prophecies or fate can't be used in storytelling at all. Rather, a prophecy or idea of fate has to be tied in a natural chain of causality such that things SEEM inevitable and thus characters actually have to grapple with the idea that most things are beyond their control, which definitely occurs in real life. In the case of Scrapped Princess, this would involve a Pacifica who manifests destructive powers and has trouble controlling her temper. That way, the prophecy would only be accentuating the human problem of not being able to control oneself and thus be doomed for a path of self-destruction. The idea of prophecy and fate would be relevant insofar as they describe how hopeless it can feel for someone to overcome their personal weaknesses. This would be similar to something like Lenny from Of Mice and Men, wherein the character seemed doomed from the very start. Done this way, the prophecy being proven wrong wouldn't be proving that it was a religious sham, BOOM all problems solved, but rather people worked their asses off to change the course of events from their most likely outcome. It would also make people's choice to believe in Pacifica much more significant, because they chose to see the good in a person who was so flawed, rather than make the obvious decision to not kill a perfectly normal girl.

2) Defying the gaslighting of religious belief--- if it was going for this, the series only touches upon this lightly, again owing to the fact that the characters decide to believe in Pacifica so easily. It doesn't explore the intense internal struggles that people who've grown up with a religion face when they start questioning that religion, and all the thoughts that go with it. In fact the series portrays religion in a pretty one-sided manner by making it the instrument of oppression on the human race. It doesn't offer any more depth than any one of those fake church episodes from episodic action adventures.

3) Humanity is too self destructive for its own good and should be controlled, freedom vs security--- the series is out of its depth when it touches on this subject. An alien race decides that humanity if left alone would destroy itself, so it fights a war with it. They fight a war to end all wars, basically. Then one of the humans decides the war will take too many more lives so she betrays the human race and gets it enclosed in a tightly controlled environment stuck in medieval times (apparently advanced technology is too dangerous). This is obviously too extreme of a solution that values security over a total lack of freedom. Furthermore the standard of living has generally increased since medieval times and international relations are much more heavily regulated now than it was then. But it still could have worked, if the series had explored the advantages of living in such a world weighed against the freedom or lack of freedom of the people living in it. Unfortunately, such worldbuilding is scarce. Instead, Pacifica gets the God of this enclosed world to free humanity after telling her that people should have the freedom to make their own choices and take responsibility for it, and God agrees just like that, as if she didn't have any basic historical knowledge about governance and this 16 year old girl who knows nothing provided this piece of wisdom to her. Basically, this series discusses the issue by swinging the pendulum between two extremes and thus produces no meaningful thematic exploration. Who would've guessed that humans should have free will, right?

ENDSPOILERS

That wraps up the themes. In the end, I don't think there is a single element that this show did well.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Scrapped Princess Episode 24 Discussion hznu - Aug 30, 2008	45 replies	by ZER0PT »» May 28, 2:19 AM
	Poll: Scrapped Princess Episode 12 Discussion Nande - Dec 21, 2007	10 replies	by GlennMagusHarvey »» Mar 24, 1:46 AM
	Poll: Scrapped Princess Episode 16 Discussion fedaykin - Jan 10, 2009	10 replies	by Alkimia »» Mar 24, 2023 12:45 PM
	Poll: Scrapped Princess Episode 15 Discussion jacobpaige - Aug 8, 2009	10 replies	by Alkimia »» Mar 24, 2023 12:13 PM
	Poll: Scrapped Princess Episode 14 Discussion jacobpaige - Aug 8, 2009	7 replies	by Alkimia »» Mar 24, 2023 11:16 AM