Akagami no Shirayuki-hime

I’ve tried watching this anime twice now. The first time when it came out I got up to episode 5 before I stopped. The second time I decided to watch all the way through, because I rarely disagree with anime that are rated highly on myanimelist. I go through the anime on this site that are highly rated, when I'm wanting to watch an anime and have no idea to watch. This is actually the first time I have disagreed with the overall good rating of a show.

I don’t get the hype. At all.

Sometimes, even if I don’t like an anime, I can see ... why other people like it: It’s just not my taste. I don’t click with the characters. I’m not particularly fond of the art style. Etc etc. But I honestly just can’t understand why this show rated so well. In my opinion, there’s barely anything good about it.

I love fantasy anime. I especially love fantasy anime set up in a kingdom setting. Love shoujo and romance, so this should have been right up my alley. But it’s not.

This may contain the slightest bit of spoilers, but only because I can’t criticize what is wrong with it, without mentioning plot points. I will keep them as vague as possible.

Everything is so pseudo-melodramatic it’s irritating. The “problems” the main character faces are presented as super dramatic, even life threatening, blah blah blah, but then get resolved so easily it’s laughable. They try to make Shirayuki “different” from the typical damsel in distress in that she tries to solve problems on her own, but ultimately in the end, the prince always shows up at the last minute to save her.

Everyone is in awe of Shirayuki because of her red hair and because of her character, but all she does is act like a typical, normal person. She doesn’t do anything extraordinary. Everyone else acts weird and super stereotypical towards the archetype they’re created as, so her utterly normal actions get glorified like they’re wondrous/amazing/so odd and quirky and charming, when they’re just normal, human responses to problems. So many of the side characters and minor characters are irritating, judgmental insufferable idiots, so of course, Shirayuki, who is just a plain, nice person, is a hundred times better than they are. Anyone set up against those types of people will shine.

Seriously, it’s not an exaggeration. Skip this one paragraph if you want to avoid spoilers completely, because it will contain a slight minor scenario spoiler (but doesn’t affect anything about the story). In episode 4, a sick patient comes to get medicine. Yet, instead of being grateful to the herbalist he insults them horribly to Shirayuki. Like… how believable is it that a patient will show up to the doctor, then directly insult the doctor to one of the staff, instead of just getting the medicine they need. Like I said, side characters and even minor characters are set up to be so unbelievably stupid and rude so as to contrast with Shirayuki’s not-so-amazing character to make it seem amazing. And of course Shirayuki won’t stand for the insults and insinuations against her senior (as any plain, normal person wouldn’t) so she’s seen as super amazing and different and shocking when she takes offense towards the incredibly offensive comments.

So of course, since a normal, nice person is apparently the rarest of the rare in this world, the prince (and everyone else) end up being so utterly charmed and surprised by Shirayuki [insert massive eyeroll here]. It's really not amazing when someone doesn't want to be insulted or treated poorly, nor is it amazing when someone doesn't like it when their friends are insulted/treated poorly, but apparently, in Shirayuki, it's utterly amazing and unique and seemingly in this world, Shirayuki is the only person in history/existence to ever feel that way, so everyone is in complete awe of this aspect of her character episode after episode after episode. -_________-

Because of this, the story is lacking. It revolves around Shirayuki doing these “amazing” things, that really aren’t so amazing, so there’s nothing to build off of. We don’t learn much about the characters besides the prince. We don’t have a solid plot to follow. It’s just Shirayuki getting into predicaments, then she struggles with solving them, solves them a bit but then gets stuck again, then gets rescued by the prince. Then she encounters more new people. Some of these new people cause her problems, which then repeats the cycle. To mix it up a bit, they throw in problems that are ALWAYS plant/medical related, so unsurprisingly, Shirayuki as a herbalist, is always able to easily solve them.

They try to develop some side plots revolving around the prince and related royal conflicts, but they’re so shallow and laughably simple and barely concentrated on (and of course, following the pattern of this anime, easily resolved) it’s just an annoyance.

You never even have the slightest bit of worry that problems won’t resolve themselves because they’re so incredibly simple. It's marketed as a drama anime, but there's nothing dramatic about the story, just that things are presented in an overtly dramatic fashion.

Meh.

The best thing by far in this anime is the artwork and the setting/world building. Stylistically, it’s not the best or the highest grade of artwork, but it’s richly detailed and the details of the kingdom setting are nicely developed and pleasing to see. However, nice artwork can't save a show that is lacking in every other aspect.

So yeah, I don’t like it. Plot is lacking and undeveloped, and what is developed is always predictable. Problems follow the same repeat pattern over a over. Problems also lack any depth or complexity. Characters follow their stereotypes, so it's easy to "get to know" them, but that leaves them incredibly one dimensional and predictable.

I guess though, I could recommend it to people to watch if they’re in a really bad mood/having a bad day/week and want to watch something that is incredibly easy to follow and doesn't require thinking if you're exhausted, and everything predictably always works out so your day won't get worse than it already is. Like how adults watch simple kids cartoons sometimes when they're feeling bad, because it's simple and easy and you know you don't have to think or feel or see anything that might disappoint/hurt your heart/worry you, about the characters or story.

Okay the score is a little low but this is based on my opinion so everyone who's seen this and really liked it please put your knives down...
Story 3/10: the main reason for the low score was the story, I had high expectations for this anime when I heard about it, a girl that has to run away from her kingdom because the prince wants her and all that, but when the anime aired I realized that the first episode was the only good one. It wasn't bad, it was just boring! I found a complete lack of plot, and the only thing it had ... was romance. I mean don't get me wrong I love romance anime but there has to be a scenario that can back it up.
Art 7/10: the art was what initially made me want to watch it, it's not something unique but that's not really a bad thing in this case, it's good art.
Character 5/10: well I liked Zen, the whole prince with a tragic past was nice and was at least making an effort for a storyline even though it failed, Shirayuki on the other hand was boring, she is a strong character which is a good change from the weak high school girl we usually see in shoujo, but I felt like she didn't really have a purpose in life, she was going on and on about a place to belong which would have been nice if her previous home was terrible and people there hated her, but she was really loved and apart from the thing with the prince she had a nice life there. Also the only thing that she seems to be interested in is alchemy which would have been nice if it wasn't ONLY centring around medicinal herbs.
So overall it is not the kind of anime that you will hate, and if have free time and just want to watch romance than give it a shot, but if there is something better in your "to watch" list then see that one.

Akagami no Shirayuki-hime, the story of one Mary Sue and one Gary Sue, a tale of love and dreams, a story that Panders to the generic fanbase of 12 year old girls, the boring and uninspired tale of Snow White with red hair.

[Story-3/10]
Lets cut straight to the chase, Shirayuki-hime is the same thing I've seen in a thousands of different movies, anime, books, games whatever medium of entertainment you could ever indulge in, there is always going to be a Shirayuki-Hime, its been done to death, the nice prince and the peasant girl vice verse, while I would love to say that this show is ... trying to celebrate the ideas of old romance tales, I just can't, it feels too much like it's trying to be something different so It doesn't feel like its celebrating the cliches of the genre in which it subsides, but feels more like it wants to pander to the audience and the masses that will enjoy it because it feels familiar while also trying to be something different, it feels so conflicting with how it presents itself and makes for a lacklustre story and overall experience.

The story itself follows Our young Mary Sue (Who everyone unconditionally loves or comes to love), her name is Shirayuki and only Shirayuki, why she doesn't have a family name I'll never know, hell she even meets her father yet there's still no explanation for this, but whatever, enough pedanticism, were all waiting for the meat and crux of the story, basically massive douchebag Prince raj decides he wants a lovely female companion, and guess who he decides, why of course the very well loved Shirayuki, I mean who could ever hope to stand up against Shirayuki? Isn't she just fucking perfect?

[Side thoughts about - Shirayuki]
I should most likely write about Shirayuki in the "character" section of my review, but I just can't contain myself, Shirayuki is loved by everyone, everything goes well for her, even what seems like a curse is secretly a blessing in disguise, another thing I absolutely despise about Shirayuki is the fact that she is presented as the type of girl who don't need no man in her life, but this idea is constantly being contradicted with behaviour around characters such as Zen and Obi, if they wanted to present the strong female character then why the fuck does she always need to be saved by the prince, they very clearly want us to believe that Shirayuki is a strong female lead while also trying to make her some sort of wish fulfilment for men and women, its contradictory and fucking annoying to watch.
[side thoughts concluded. On with the show!]

So prince Raj, wants to marry Shirayuki, but being the strong female lead she is, she goes and says I'm out of here, of course she believes that price Raj doesn't care about her personality and only cares about her illustrious and stunningly beautiful red hair, so what does she do? She leaves prince Raj devastated by leaving him her hair, so where is our strong and independent women supposed to go now? Fend of by living on her own? Learning to accept her fate and unwillingly become a concubine? Continually hiding from prince raj and learning how to fend off in the wood son her own? Nah fuck that shit, lets throw in a hot guy, oh and lets make him strong and a prince boom problem solved no need for any of the other potential ideas, maybe instead of making Zen a rich prince, maybe make him a self righteous commoner boy who is just like zen but is held down by constraints such as poverty and famine, instead of making him the prince therefore eliminating all challenges in his way with his title, I would watch that anime instead of watching what we got with this show, anyway back to the story! Now despite what you might be thinking prince zen was suspicious of Shirayuki at first, that is of course until about 6 minutes into there initial meeting, some lite banter and a bit of Shirayuki pretending to be the the strong female character she so desperately does and doesn't want to be.

So this her Ladies and Gentlemen, is the failure of a story that was Shirayuki-hime, It may see like I have been absolutely shitting on this anime so far, but I would be reminisce if didn't say that I enjoyed some of it. As little of the political stuff we get to see, it was easily the most interesting part, I would have liked to have seen a more historical and political series but thats not what I came to Shirayuki hime for, I came for a good romance, and for the most part the romance is good, its very clear that zen and Shirayuki have good chemistry and are a good source of wish fulfilment, other than does few and far factors, Shirayuki hime story is a pitiful disgrace to humanity.

[Art-9/10]
Credit were credit is due, the art is very good, in fact I think it looks quite beautiful, while the character designs are nothing but absolute garbage , the art itself was very good, the animation wa Clean, polished and slickly made, no complaints about the art.

[sound-8/10]
sound was also very good, while the voice acting isn't all to memorable they all mostly did good jobs, the Ost was great, it brought a bit of life to each setting and character, the scores were very fitting and made the anime just a tad bit better, the openings and endings to the anime are slo very good, I think overall they deserve the score of 8/10. Well done.

[character-4/10]
I've already said what I wanted to say about Shirayuki so I'll just quickly skim over each major character.

Shirayuki- typical Mary Sue with no real personality.

Zen- Cute anime boy

Obi- Cute anime boy, but this time the boy is less righteous and a bit more rough for all you naughty girls.

Mitsuhide- stereotype number #456712, he's basically your average and run of the mill, "must protect the master" type of character.

Kiki- Copy and paste Shirayuki but give her a sword and do what Shirayuki wanted to be, Kiki unlike Shirayuki actually is independent, why wasn't she my dear Fräulein instead.

Ryu- SHOTACON!

Garack- MILF!

my point is, it that each of these characters aren't characters, there shallow cutouts of a character, while I can skip out on the fact that characters in series like Jojo and Hellsing are shallow and two dimensional, in those shows it seems to add to the enjoyment while here it makes the show crumble.

[Enjoyment and overall score-4/10]
I have no more words to describe how I feel about this show.
1. I basically said all wanted too
2. i'm tired of writing about this
so boom,
4/10 bad anime don't watch.

Akagami no Shirayuki-hime has been riddled with so many plot holes it had hurt my eyes.

I tried for a few years to just get past the first half of the first episode and it took me until my fifth time through to get through just that. I found myself always pausing to rant about a certain plothole or just how stupid and contrived a situation was. All throughout the first half, I saw ranting and screaming at every stupid situation that was presented to us. Every situation is supposed to build up the main character Shirayuki who is so stagnant as a character that ... it melts the mind. The whole appeal is that you get this cute love story between a prince and a commoner and it just makes me want to hit my head step of the way. I genuinely thought that only one seen had been competently executed because it was actually cute and made some sense, however, my praise for that one scene cannot be shared with the rest of this show.

Moving on I find that perhaps my main problem with this is that I thought the show would be what the description says. A show where a girl with red hair runs away from a kingdom, however, I find that I was sorely mistaken as the problem we are presented within the description is solved in the first episode. That is how every episode plays out as well, the problem is presented and then the problem is solved and every time I want to scream because I as a viewer do not care about the problem that is presented in that episode so every conclusion is duller than the last.

Also, I don't find myself sharing the same praise for the art as many other people have. Starting off the character designs are competent but hardly new or impressive. Every character is just so bland I couldn't even consider it good. Secondly, we get these janky close of shots of characters and sometimes it's so unappealing to the eye's I get wildly frustrated. I am a firm believer that if we get a close-up more detail should be involved however this show rarely adds extra detail when doing said close-up. The only place I can find praise in the art is with some of the backgrounds. Some backgrounds are super pretty and look really nice and it adds a feeling of depth compared to the rest of the show.

Overall I found the show boring and in lack of competence.

"Most shoujo female protagonists tend to be weak, so let's make ours the strongest willed person to ever walk across this god-forsaken world."

I guess this was roughly the general idea when creators were coming up with the premise of Akagami no Shirayuki-Hime. And I'd gladly support that under normal circumstances. Having a female character who doesn't blush every three minutes does spark a lot of interest and promise in an otherwise very average piece of fiction. Sadly enough, the show is not able to capitalize on its strong premise and instead gives us a world full of empty characters and meaningless emotions. Which is a ... shame, because this anime really wasn't doomed from the start.

It doesn't take a lot of time to realize that the supposedly strongest aspect of the show, that being Shirayuki, is actually the one bringing it down the most. Why? Well, let's start the actual review, shall we?

Shirayuki is absolutely perfect. She's strong-willed, intelligent, beautiful, caring, kind, brave, considerate, moral, gutsy, useful, cute when drunk, cool and I don't know what else. Everybody is obsessed with her. It doesn't matter if it's a kid, old woman or a prince of a country, everybody is astonished because of how perfect of a person she is, and how uniquely red her hair is. The first prince fell in love with her just after hearing about her beautiful hair. That's right, he hasn't even seen her at the time and he already knew she was the prettiest girl alive. The second prince fell for her just after a first glance at the striking red of her hair. Random people casually show up out of nowhere just to kidnap her because her hair is just that fabulous. I really do throw around the word 'hair' a lot. Well, watch the show and see for yourself, there is legitimately not an episode that would go without someone admiring Shirayuki's bEAUtIfUl hair.

Back to her characterization as a whole, I thought she was a pretty endearing character at the start. She is different than most females in shoujo romances, and that is a welcome change. It really seemed like the creators genuinely cared about making her a strong character. However, it only took a handful of episodes to realize that it was just a tricky bait. Shirayuki's writing goes nowhere. She's presented as strong in will and never in any other way. Basically every single episode adds just another positive personality trait to her already admirable arsenal. She's never portrayed as a character who's struggling, never makes a bad decision, always comes up with solutions for problems. She is just that amazing. Maybe she could be considered a 'strong' character if we were to talk about her strength in personality. However, she is not a strong character when it comes to writing. Strongly written characters are believable, which means they have flaws. Every human being has flaws. Shirayuki doesn't. She's perfect in every sense of the word, and I find that disgustingly sickening.

Well, now that we got the main point of this show out of the way, you could basically look at any other shoujo romance review because the originality of this show ends exactly when you stop talking about Shirayuki.

Her male counter-part Zen is, surprise surprise, the manliest male in the world, exactly how it tends to be with shoujo characters. Just like Shirayuki, he's perfect. Almost everything I said about her can be said about him. He's also an amazing prince who genuinely cares for all his peasants even though every other politically active character is presented as arrogant and greedy. He's amazing, absolutely flawless. Even his obsession with Shirayuki, which could technically be considered a flaw, or at least weird, is made to be a positive trait in this case because why would the writers of this anime want anyone to have flaws?

Well, that's a pretty convenient question actually, because once we move aside our main 5 characters (of which 3 are not even worth talking about) suddenly its pretty normal for people to have them. Almost every episode presents multiple characters that could be thrown into a pile called "horrible people". Shirayuki gets kidnapped by evil guys on daily basis, people who act selfish and arrogant are that much more normal. The point is, these people only exist so that the main two characters could seem that much more incredible. There's someone acting like a douche? Well, be sure that Shirayuki is close enough to start yelling at him and show her strong demeanor. There's someone talking bad about Shirayuki? Well, be sure that Zen is close enough to hear all that and start protecting his end-all-be-all love. It's ridiculous just how perfect the two main characters seem compared to everybody else. I've legit never seen a show so bad at portraying evil. Random people showing up doing bad things with zero IQ just to serve as a foundation so the main characters can act cool and complex for a while. Pathetic writing honestly.

In which we get to a very important point of Shoujo romances, or just romances in general. That is, of course, relationship development. Well, nothing to write home about here either. Okay, fine... I admit. It's true that the show creates a lot of space for Shirayuki and Zen to properly develop feelings for each other. Good job there. However, the way it goes about it feels very artificial, at least from Zen's point of view. He gets obsessed with Shirayuki basically the second he sees her. It's not rare for him to go out of his responsibilities just to see her pretty face. It doesn't matter if he has tons of paperwork to do as long as Shirayuki is close to chat. It's like that all the time. Whenever Zen pleases, he goes to see her, while never caring about his responsibilities as a prince. Speaking of that, he sure has a lot of time to play around with his love for someone who is part of a royal family. I always thought people like that would be short on time, but apparently, it's no problem for Zen to visit Shirayuki like 15 times a day or spend the night with her somewhere. It's also no problem for him to start freaking out every time she gets into trouble and such. My point is, that this "love" doesn't feel anywhere close to reality. I've been in love, I know how things go. Sure, you do think a lot about the person in question but responsibilities always come first, even more so when you are in a position Zen is. There is absolutely no subtlety in his feelings because all he ever thinks about is Shirayuki. We never see him getting involved in royal matters, we never see him doing casual things, all we see him do is talk to Shirayuki or think about her. Now that I think about it, we know basically nothing about him besides how much he loves her. If that's what's called 'raw emotion' nowadays then I'm probably very old-dated for my own generation.

Shirayuki's emotions are, in this matter, much more respectable, as we see her engage in more things beyond just socializing with Zen. That bit of humaneness on her part is enough for her feeling to be justifiable and no matter what I'd said about her as a character, her side of the relationship growth was pretty decent. If the show kept some time to portrait Zen's life the same way as Shirayuki's maybe I could view him as something more than just "a guy who likes a girl with red hair".

To not come off as a douche out of this, I also need to mention some of the things I like, though they are pretty modest in numbers. Shirayuki's character was really interesting the first three or four episodes, it's sad that her writing and development later on was shit. Animation remains fairly decent for the most part. I also like the half fantasy/half historical setup for whatever reason. Two midsection episodes containing flashbacks of Zen's past are actually not bad at all. Sadly enough, they are also the only two episodes in which Zen becomes a real character and actually develops a bit, which once again proves how horrible at writing characters people who made this are. You simply cannot throw a couple of flashbacks onto a shallow character and expect him to look better. Development shouldn't be happening in the past. It should be happening in the present.

That about wraps it up. It has been a long time since I last wrote a review for a non-seasonal show, but I guess that perfectly shows just how frustrating of an experience this anime was for me. What started out with tons of promise quickly faded into generic nothingness. Perhaps that is a sad fate for all shoujo anime.

----

Akagami no Shirayuki-Hime is really good at one thing. At tricking people into thinking that it's better than other shoujo anime. The sad part is that it really could've been one. If the interesting world and intriguing female lead got supported with good development and writing, I don't think I would be sitting here writing this negative review. The bitter taste in my mouth won't go away for a while.

Bad shows are just bad. Bad shows which wasted its potential are a general disappointment.

This anime is so bland and so shallow. I hate it when they serve romance in a silver platter without even any particular backstory or challenge. In this anime, protagonists: Shirayuki and Zen just suddenly fall in love with each other for no particular deep reason. Just, for some reason they're attracted to each other and for some reason they're suddenly inseparable and the best of friends. This anime has no particular solid plot whatsoever. I have picked up this anime just because it was recommended as something similar to Akatsuki no Yona. Believe me, it's a real disappointment. True enough, Shirayuki has balls of ... steel, can fend for herself and all that and has red hair just like Yona, but it's just that. No other similarity. Anime has other characters you would barely care about as they don't have any particular back story and would leave you without any attachment to any of them thus wouldn't care about their existence in the first place. I don't get why this anime even got a second season at all.

I'll tell you the problem in the first episode. You see it , you've seen the whole anime .there is NO change I'm their characters ,story, relations that's what's the problem
Also shirayuki is supposed to be a very different and against all the stereotypes (so ironical) but you find her doing what literally every disney princess do
As you can get from the name of anime (snow white with red hairs) ..she is special because she have red hairs( special enough I guess , whole first EPs is about it ) and SO ,prince raj wants her for that. She had 2 choice go to prince ... or to run away, which is a hard choice for her
Shirayuki cuts her hairs (till shoulder length) for prince raj and runs away and it is extremely painful do her since it's her homeland
My question was if she is so determined to tell prince hair means nothing to her , why not go bald , that would be different , that would be more challenging then for prince zen (who falls in first EPs *eye rolls*) to fall for shirayuki (here I gave a good plot) but she cuts half and runs away what's so surprising ?
There is no comedy , romance is even faster than disney movies (but reactions of shirayuki makes it SO irritating) , villains are typically made , friendship ( I don't even wanna start on it) is just about going places together ,and they all start smiling suddenly* (creepy) over a lame line like "I hope to look straight forward to you all in future " (and my brain is like drop it, drop it, I can't look straight at it now)
I loved the character of Obi , his and shirayuki story is more developing and changing with each EPs rather than "I love you always " of prince zen and shirayuki
Prince zen is rather irritating than charming ,he is made way too predictable, there isn't any kind of character development in him or in any other character cause all of them are made as perfect as possible ,no one's got a problem they can't cope up with , it looks really easy to solve and move on and make new friends ,get liked everywhere , shirayuki still special( yes) , still in love with shirayuki (yes ) , still loyal and trustworthy friend of zen( yes)......there is no fukin change or twists in story so it's not my type of anime . People who like this must be very simple minded (sigh)
Only intriguing character is Zens brother Izana ,I like the parts he is focused on.
See it if you are free and don't like much brainwork , and wanna just pass time :)

It was overall very cliche and bland. You could predict most of the events that occurred and it was pretty boring. It's strange that the characters were attracted to the main character, Shirayuki, just because of her hair color. Honestly, who cares about you hair color that much? I understand that it was a rare hair color but that was taking it a bit too far.

In most of the scenes outside there was always that wind blowing and that look on their face whenever the wind blew with perfect timing. Someone might've enjoyed it but quite frankly I found it to be cringy and ... very cliche, as well as annoying since it happened often.

But anyway, that was how I saw/viewed the show.

STORY: So what's so special about the story in this anime? I'll tell you. Nothing. Literally nothing. The anime had a good potential but I feel like nothing happened. Episode one and two were way too fast progressing and in the rest of the anime nothing happened. [5]

ART: The art was okay. Small details, not much but still noticeable. [7]

SOUND: Didn't like the OP or the ED. The overall music was decent but nothing special. [5]

CHARACTER: If you like girls who behave childish in front of a boy even if he already told you that he loves you this anime is for you. Same ... goes for the guy. He already confessed and still behaves like he didn't. [3]

So overall: I didn't like the anime and I can't recommend it either. I personally love romance anime but this anime was a disaster and definitely not enjoyable at all. [3]

Rating: 4,4 ~ 4

When writing a story, you don't nessicarily have to have this amazing plot filled with plot twists and rivetting developments. Yes, many a great anime has been driven by the characters.

So when your characters suck you know you're screwed.

Yeah this was a rough one for me, especially as it was a reccomendation by someone who's opinions on anime I respect, so to realize the show was just so mind-numbingly BORING was immensly dissapointing for me. Not that there weren't good elements or I could never understand why someone might enjoy this, but those moments were padded out by meaninglessness. Where I think this show could ... have shined is as a comedy. That would have at least made the moment to moment bearable and it has all the right ingredients as a slice-of-life, but there's no humor at all, giving the show a dry and bland feel.

The characters were terrible, as I mentioned earlier. There are others who would claim the main two are Mary Sues, and I came to that same conclusion myself while watching the show, but what really hurts the show is that there are very few major side characters and only one shows any modicum of personality beyond "nice" or "supportive of the romance" plus maybe a cliche if we're lucky.

And speaking of the romance, it's completely forgettable. There is very little chemistry between our leads, and many of their interactions boiled down to admiring that the other character was such a Mary Sue before resolving to become more like that person. There were moments that were sweet and charming but ultimately very hollow and providing nothing but a form of fanservice. There was more tension and interesting developments between our female lead and a side character(Not that that was good either, just better than the main romance.)

The few plot developments outside of the romance about the characters moving toward a goal were pleasent enough but without anything to get invested in. Problems are solved in the 20 minutes alloted with maybe a bit of epilouge in the next episode. It would be relaxing... if it was actually enjoyable that is. It doesn't help that the worldbuilding is nonexsistent

It looks and sounds fine. It's a mid-2010s anime after all

It really all boils down to that there's so little to like about this show even if there are no elements you explicitely hate. I strongly advise slice of life fans to choose something made with more charm and love rather than this flop.

this is really just okay, and here’s why. there was no more conflict or tension for me past the first episode because we simply knew she was set for life. she was good. but most importantly, there are no seven dwarves. this is my gripe of the year. imagine what this could have been. even just a shred of that reality: seven guys. seven different guys. i wouldn’t really mind watching it all. but instead it’s okay. if there are no dwarves in this universe, if she has red hair, what else is a qualifier into the “Snow White” compendium? the apples. it’s an okay ... show.

Hear me out!!This anime is not bad but it can be really predictable and tough to watch plus there is nothing to look forward, everything is crystal clear from the start,how the characters will end up, how the show will go forward etc.This is the type of romance anime I would recommend for new anime watchers who are seeking to watch a romance anime to watch. As for me I found the show to be too much predictable, but this is definitely the kind of anime I would have loved to watch when I just started watching anime, instead I got recommended to watch Sword ... art online, which I really regretted.

This anime has been heavily advertised and recommended on various sites, so I really, really wanted to like it as well. The first episode didn't win me over, but I decided to power through, and now at the end of the season, I can't help but echo other reviewers that this show is extremely boring.

From the whole royal court setting, I expected way more intricacy and political drama with the way the characters keep bringing up class distinctions and court etiquette, but every issue that arises is resolved pretty much instantly.
I also expected the main characters to have flaws or issues they have to work ... through (since you know, that is usually what happens in stories :)), but there is really... none? In my view, this show has a pretty black-and-white view of good and bad: the bad guys are caricature-like, while the good guys are completely selfless, and somehow always manage to do the right thing.
I am especially bothered about Shirayuki, because I love to see complex female characters represented in the media, but she is just the most textbook Mary Sue that could ever be. People act like she is incredibly special when there is nothing groundbreaking about her, and honestly, that would be fine by itself, because it can be really interesting to see a pretty normal character struggle and work hard towards their goals like a real-life person would, but Shirayuki just has everything working out for her.

The main couple has been advertised to me as a 'healthy couple' so I was quite excited to see that because it can be a rarity in the world of anime... And I mean sure, they are healthy, Zen is really respectful of her, which is cool but... They have no spice. No spice at all. They are both extremely bland, one-dimensional characters on their own, but putting them together it's almost worse. During their 'romantic' scenes, I didn't feel anything, as there was no build-up, progression, or chemistry of any kind, or at least it didn't reach me.

I don't think I can recommend this to either romance or fantasy fans, because the show does not excel in either, and it isn't funny enough to be a comedy, so I'd just resist the hype if I were you. I wish I did that as well.