Princess Principal: Crown Handler Movie 1

There are series that tend to fade into obscurity when they are finished, whether it be because their sequel took to long or perhaps they never generated a large following to begin with. Princess Principal is a series that falls into the latter category, though it has fairly high production values and arguably a very interesting setting, it never gained much traction. Personally I actually really do enjoy this series, a lot even, and as such I decided that it would be worth reviewing the first of the new movies. This review will look at the various qualities that an anime requires to be good ... and consider how this movie performed.

The story seems to involve another regular mission for the commonwealth spies, they are attempting to stop a major disaster from occurring and give their side an edge again. Nothing about the plot is particularly deep but its executed decently enough, don’t have any complaints, the character growth in the first movie isn’t really there but it is just the first movie and it should get better later on.

Visuals and soundtrack were the strong suits of the first season and this movie continues to deliver, from an aesthetic and catchy opening to a very detailed steampunk world, Crown Handlers continues to build on what the original series gave us. Characters, as expected, looked cute and attractive, while the fights were fluidly animated and chisato’s swordplay is an impress as ever, though not to the level of the train scene in the original season.

Character wise, it’s the same adorable cast, nothing particularly new with them or any notable growth, but its great getting to see them again and they certainly felt done right similar to the first season with no significant out of character behavior or decline in quality.

In short, this movie is worth watching if you liked the first princess principal and want to see more of their world and watch the other movies in the future. As it’s the first movie and nothing to notable occurred, I will have to give it a lower rating than the first season at an 8, but its still a good watch if you enjoyed this series.

First of all, if you haven't watched the anime yet, do that before watching this or else you won't understand some important plot points in this movie.

Now, if you're reading this I'm assuming it's because you want to know if the movie is worth watching and the answer is, it depends.

Now since I don't know what you particularly liked/disliked from the anime I'll just tell you what I liked and disliked about the film.

Things I liked:
+ Same epic, steampunk, espionage action from the anime
+ The soundtrack (I relistened to LIES & TIES like 8 times now)
+ Some of the expressions in certain scenes are priceless
+ ... The art is just as good if not better than the anime (Definitely making some wallpapers out of a couple scenes)

Things I disliked:
- It's kinda short at almost an hour long
- Nothing TOO exciting happens. There were moments that had me on edge for sure but, the threats just didn't feel that threatening to me

Random note: Ange does have a different voice actor if anyone feels like she sounds off.

Overall, if you liked the anime, you'll probably enjoy this movie... but not as much as the anime. It's only an hour so you don't have much to lose by watching it.

Maybe my expectations were higher since the release was delayed due to the pandemic, making a long wait even longer, but they did a pretty great job all things considered.

Color me impressed.

Another ark added to this fantastic series.

TLDR:

As far as princess principal arks go, this is the middle ground, it's not as good as the best of season 1, but it's also not the weakest part of the series. If you disliked the original, this won't change your mind. if you did like it, well then this is just more of the same greatness.

*****

... Story/writing: great 8.25/10

princess principal has one thing over most anime, and that's how well put together and well structured it's story arks are. The writing is near flawless. while yes you can dislike or see certain elements of the story as weak if you want, you simply can not find a single issue with the execution.

This movie is another part of that same good old pattern. The ark doesn't have anything you haven't seen before, even if you only look at this series, and the stakes aren't the highest we have seen. But don't let that distract you from the greatness of it, there is character growth, extremely clever mystery writing, and near perfect pacing.

I do have one small concern though.

and that one thing that has me worried is the ending, which is great on it's own, but it is something that is starting to become a pattern in this series. I hope they stop doing it again, because it is close to losing it's effect, at least for me.

*****

Art/animation/directing: very good 7.5/10 as a movie and great 8.5/10 as a tv series

it looks amazing. idk if I should judge it by movie or tv series standards, but both ways it doesn't look bad or even generic.

and the directing is just A+ tier no matter how you look at it so there is also that.

*****

music/sound-design/voice acting: near flawless 9.25/10

This is my second favorite Lisa soundtrack, and if you don't know, she is one of the most famous and highly praised anime composers. so that is not low praise. let me put it like this, The soundtrack is absolutely amazing. every track fits it's scene perfectly, there isn't really that many repeats and the opening sounds straight of persona 5. and if you have listened to the persona 5 soundtrack, you should know how high of praise that is.

sound-design wise, it's good. this aspect is not really something that i pay too much attention too unless it's noticeably great or terrible, and this was neither.

the voice acting is one of my favorite aspects of this show, I Adore it. the British accents are just perfect. what was that? you watched it subbed?

here's the thing, I am personally of the belief that this show is a 100times better dubbed, so much so that I waited a year for the dub and didn't watch it before it came out. idk about the sub, but the dub is flawless. shout out to Sentai for their work.

*****

characters/chemistry: very good 7.5/10

There wasn't really any major development or moment of shine for any of the characters. now, they still have extremely good chemistry, they do have small character growths and the old man which this arks focuses on is very well written.

but well written is the key here. don't expect anything more than what you had in the show, for the most part it's still the good old same, which is not a bad thing or even a "mid" thing. but it isn't really too impressive either.

*****


Enjoyment: 9/10

great pacing, great animation, great writing, great music and more...

how can I not enjoy the hell out of it?

it wasn't life changing or anything, but if you think it wasn't a fun watch, I'm sorry, but I don't think we can be friends.

*****

overall: great 8.25/10

I say the tv series was slightly better overall, but this was for sure worth the long wait and I can't wait to watch the other movies.

Thanks for reading :D

A das Finale style staggered movie release, one VA change, plus several delays later, we are finally at the first part (out of six) of the sequel series to Princess Principal, four years after its initial release. So how exactly does Princess Principal das Finale part 1 fare? Does it fulfill its premise of "spies and lies"? Do the two turtledoves consummate their relationship in Casablanca? Does it meaningfully build upon its unique Victorian era Cold War London setting?

The answer to all of these is "No". But it's still a pretty fun CGDCT show.

It's effectively the first two episodes of a hypothetical season ... 2 to Pripri, with relatively low stakes and a simple enough thread to follow through the however many years this film series will take.

Plotwise it's pretty basic, but I'm a sucker for Twin Switches in plots and Part 1 certainly utilizes this aspect more than the original series did. It's nice to see the main cast back in action, though Beato was surprisingly absent for most of the runtime. The few action sequences in this were fun and accompanied by the same-ish score from Kajiura from S1. The shift to a feature length production doesn't result in necessarily better animated or directed action sequences compared to S1, but they're still fine.

So long as you temper your expectations and come into this knowing it's the first two episodes of a CGDCT series and not a spy thriller, you'll enjoy the film. It remains to be seen whether the rest of the film series will live up to the foreshadowing and the expectations set by part 1.

And let's hope it's a one/more films per year kind of deal and not a GuP-style one film per two years kind of thing.

6/10

Besides exceptionally impressive art style, lolis and a very nice song during end credits this show has literally nothing else to offer.

The story is shit. I didn't even get the story. There are just a bunch of lolis who act like some sort of spies but they don't do any spying, they just talk and walk and act cute. The plot is convoluted as hell. At first they save some old guy, then they get in contact with the Queen's assistant or some shit. Then there are a bunch of other spies too, but who the fuck knows what all of them are doing. ... They are just doing random shit. There's some war going on in the background, some weapons being tested but all of that is just a filler because the center of the show is just showing off the lolis.

I mean I get it.. the lolis are very nicely drawn and look very appealing. The art is great. Even the fight scenes are pretty good even though seeing lolis fight is corny as hell.

What else? Ok I liked the dub and how they made it with British accents.

I'm telling you this show is all about showing off these cute lolis and it's fine. They look good. But it doesn't make it worthwhile setting through this whole movie. If this was a 10 minute clip then it could be ok to watch but a whole fucking HOUR?

I mean unless you want to look at these lolis for an hour then I can't recommend this. There's really nothing to see except them walking around or sitting at the table and talking. There's no hentai or anything sexual whatsoever, so what the fuck is the point of showing these lolis for 1 god damn hour?

I give this 5/10 purely because of the lolis and how cute they are. In all other cases I would've given this a 1/10 because without these lolis this show would've made no sense whatsoever.

So if you want then watch it for the lolis then, but I don't recommend watching the full show. Only like 10 minutes of it.

So like MIXED FEELINGS.