Shironeko Project: Zero Chronicle

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Alternative Titles

English: Shironeko Project ZERO CHRONICLE

Synonyms: White Cat Project, Rune Story

Japanese: 白猫プロジェクトZERO CHRONICLE

Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 12

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Apr 6, 2020 to Jun 22, 2020

Premiered: Spring 2020

Broadcast: Mondays at 22:00 (JST)

Producers: NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan, COLOPL, Kadokawa, GREE

Licensors: Funimation

Studios: Project No.9

Source: Game

Genres: Action, Adventure, Magic, Fantasy

Duration: 23 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 5.29¹ (scored by 22,006 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #10169²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #2041

Members: 59,592

Favorites: 196

5.29

Ranked #10169Popularity #2041Members 59,592

Spring 2020TVProject No.9

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Episodes: /12

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Synopsis

The world is divided into two kingdoms: the Kingdom of White, which floats in the heavens and is ruled by their queen Iris, and the Kingdom of Black, which stands upon desolate land below and houses the King of Darkness as its ruler. As of late, forces of evil have amassed great power, posing a threat to the entire world. Being the main representative of the Light, it is Iris' duty to maintain the balance of the world and fight off the darkness in her kingdom.

Meanwhile in the Kingdom of Black, rampaging monsters annihilate a certain boy's village, leaving him the sole survivor. As he grieves in hopelessness, an armored man named Skeer notices the child and comforts him. Soon after, Skeer recognizes the boy's potential to change the kingdom's status quo and makes him his heir before passing away. The boy then vows to become the Prince of Darkness—the one who will replace the King—to bring the world back to its rightful path.

As Iris and Prince of Darkness each challenge the impending doom the world faces in their own respective ways, their destinies will converge with each other, and perhaps, their bond will decide the fate of the world.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

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Characters & Voice Actors

Prince of Darkness

Main

Kaji, Yuki
Japanese

Iris

Main

Horie, Yui
Japanese

Groza

Supporting

Adelle

Supporting

Takanashi, Kengo
Japanese

King of Darkness

Supporting

Akagi, Susumu
Japanese

Teo

Supporting

Iwabata, Takuya
Japanese

Bal

Supporting

Iizuka, Shouzou
Japanese

Alantia

Supporting

Sima

Supporting

Nakamura, Chise
Japanese

Valas

Supporting

More staff

Staff

Jinbo, Masato

Director, Script

Horie, Yui

Theme Song Performance

T.M.Revolution

Theme Song Performance

ASCA

Theme Song Performance

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Opening Theme

"Tenbin -Libra- (天秤-Libra-)" by Takahiro Nishikawa x ASCA

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Ending Theme

#1: "through the dark" by Rei Yasuda (eps 1-11)
#2: "Yasashiki Yami no Uta (やさしき闇の詩)" by Iris (Yui Horie) (ep 12)

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Reviews

Jun 22, 2020

12 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 1

KANLen09 (All reviews)

22 people found this review helpful

When you see the words "GAME adaptation", there are a list of catalysts in mind: decent story plot and characters from the game (that's if you ever played the game before), decent visuals and generally good music (because if you cannot sell the show, at least sell the music to make up the profit). And that's Shironeko Project in a nutshell, but with a sharp decline in almost every category. And unfortunately, most of what's here is total garbage and a waste of time and money (which the anime industry STILL hasn't learnt their lesson and kept it that way), unlike the boisterous amount of game adaptations in this season (5 to be exact, including this one). And before you ask, the game's no better too, just a very generic tactical RPG.

First of all, who'd think that the cliché "Light vs. Darkness / Black vs. White" Romeo and Juliet-esque" would sell the show? I'd give you a clap if you generally enjoyed this despite the lack of content, but for such a "story", it was squandered of its potentials and squeezed of almost every trope you can think of. Heck, the only thing that I can say was unique is on the side of darkness, something like an underdog story of sorts. That is fine and all, but the rest was a total misfire. The two kingdoms being forced into war is a given, but the sequence of events that conspired and transformed the "forces of nature" was just so dumb a.k.a "the war started because of somebody's ill-fated conflict". Needless to say, this was one of the worst and boring stories I've watched so far, much from a low-expected game adaptation anyways.

Secondly, the characters, much of the weight on their shoulders, playing the "Balance of Power" trope. It's "fantasy fiction" I geddit, but in the right hands, is a power play and crucial plot onto itself (sans One Piece, Beezlebub etc.). But Shironeko Project just managed to have a very lackluster character cast that are nothing more than "support" positions (I don't really care if that character is playing the king/queen, it's one and the same), much less its vibe going for it being "I must uphold the balance between my kingdom and yours, to acquire peace no matter the hardship between the two kingdoms." That just about turns most people off.

But same like the story, I do commend the underdog story of the Prince of Darkness, first a regular commoner and fighting to be in the position that he's in now through thick and thin, a battle against other people that could be in his position that of the one who's to be in the position, will uphold responsibility for peace-sake. But the aftermath of like guides trying to control his every move, that part I didn't really like (which begs the question: if you're gonna be the protagonist, be a man/woman of your word and don't be a parrot to others). Similar to the story, bland and boring characters (which I always miss who's who, so that's a consolation).

And the animation, sorely lackluster as expected of the low-budget standards of Project No. 9. It's not as bad when compared to some other shows that use a mix of 2D and 3DCG for action and such, but it was just eerily missing its punches and kicks the whole time treading around. Generic character designs don't really help much to get invested right off the bat, as to be expected. I never had high expectations for game adaptations to shine, but this did in the worst of levels possible (which after watching so many boring anime based on game adaptations, I've grown completely numb to it).

What's the "silver lining in the clouds", is the music. I've said it before time and time again: if the show flops, the music sells. And this is kinda the best of the bunch though. An alright banger of an OP (by T.M.Revolution Takaniro Nishikawa and ASCA), plus a really good ED by Rei Yasuda, both which are solid songs in my opinion to get through the pumping and emotional feels for the somewhat un-inspiration of the overall narrative of the show. Plus, even with high-profile VAs (such as Yui Horie and KajiKaji), their voice talents lent to this show was decent, or at worse mediocre. Alas, the music is only the highlight and nothing more.

I think I needn't say more if my ranting is to persuade people to stay away from this BS of a "game adaptation", because it is just that and nothing more: a hollow shell with a decrepited plot so bad I just want to completely shut down and finish the show for good (and finish it I did). To the uphill at the start, but to the downhill at the end.

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Jun 26, 2020

12 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 2

Suavacious (All reviews)

14 people found this review helpful

Shironeko Project: Zero Chronicle is one of the most entertaining anime of the Spring 2020 season. It's not a good anime, and you'll only be met with disappointment if you expect otherwise. It's a very bad anime, and that's exactly what makes it worth watching. There's plenty of bad anime every season, but what sets this one apart from all of its contemporaries is the massive scope of its narrative, which makes its glorious failure of execution all the more brilliant.

This anime is a prequel to the 2014 mobile game Shironeko Project, hence the "Zero Chronicle", but that's not important. It's an entirely standalone story (aside from a flash forward nod to the game in an after-credits cut), and what a story it is. Basically, there's these two kingdoms, the Kingdom of Light and the Kingdom of Darkness, which, surprisingly, don't get along with each other. The protagonist, named The Prince of Darkness, is, surprisingly, the Pr-nah, I won't make that joke. So blah blah a little bit and you get a Shakespearean love tale between The Prince of Darkness and the Iris, the Queen of Light, set to the backdrop of the most Final Fantasy-y Final Fantasy story that never existed. The most notable part of Shironeko's story is the sheer variety of plot events, and the pinball pace with which it moves through all of them. In one episode, the fate of the world will rest on the outcome of an epic battle between godlike entities, and the next, the cast get together to frolic in the woods and pick berries and fall on each other into rivers, only to emerge soaked and embarrassed, as you do. Sections like these occasionally clash with the show's lengthy and poorly animated action sequences, but they do come with the advantage of letting the characters do their thing without any unenthusiastic explosions or cheap looking digital effects to interrupt them.

Which is a good thing because the characters are the highlight of the Shironeko experience. Again, our main character is The Prince of Darkness, The Prince of Darkness. You could call him a kuudere, but really his defining trait is that he's the main character. The highest praise I can give him is that he's not nearly as edgy as his appearance suggests. Iris is the female lead and deuteragonist. Interestingly enough, for being a western-style royal in a shitty anime, she doesn't behave like most of her peers. Honestly, she's really not that awful. She's powerful, she doesn't do anything too annoying, her mannerisms are a little cute in an old-lady-on-the-inside kind of way; all-in-all, she's a serviceable waifu (or that could just be the work of Yui Horie's vocal ASMR hypnosis). What really sold me on finishing this show, however, were the side characters. Groza is a green-haired milf general from the Kingdom of Darkness. I don't know if she's actually a milf or not, if this were any other anime, she'd definitely be a milf though. She has a quintessential fantasy milf design, but it's contrasted by the pure, innocent, almost virginal schoolgirl crush she has on the Prince. She comes with a retinue of bodyguards, and let me tell you, those guys MAKE the show, easily the best characters, they're the biggest reason the story feels so Shakespearean. They're basically Shironeko's version of the comic relief commoners. There's four of them, they all look exactly the same (although one is the leader), and they're the only ones in the show that are intentionally funny, I was shocked that such high quality characters wormed their way into such a low quality work. Not far behind them though is the captain of the Knights of Light, Phallus- or excuse me, Phious. He's great because his voice actor isn't, and when that's partnered with poor voice direction and a character that's written to be a dickhead, you get a convincing performance of a knuckle-dragging nutjob prone to socially-inappropriate outbursts of emotion. Groza's guards aren't around often, so he's the one who carries the show the most. There's also another Kingdom of Light shota who I'm pretty sure goes through a whole character arc across the season, but I just remember him because he's a shota with a male VA who sounds 15, looks 12, and says things a 6 year old would say. There’re a couple others, like Adel the Darkness bro and Sima the fembro, but their abnormality comes from the status quo of the show rather than any qualities or personality traits special to them. One thing I should mention is that the dialogue in this show is so bizarre, or stilted, or otherwise unnatural, that, even though every single character is some sort of trope or archetype, the things they say are so weird that it elevates them to a level of uniqueness you won't find even in some high profile shows, right down to the random sassy street merchants.

And I'd be remiss if I didn't go into detail about the production quality either. As expected, it's not good. Shironeko has a heavy reliance on fights, but none of the animation capability to follow through on that. There is one sakuga sequence in the whole show. It lasts less than two seconds, and the extremely overdone character designs had to be reduced to a composition of simple shapes to enable it. Other noteworthy moments include a sword duel wherein two characters stood still for several seconds in the likeness of Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots to bang their swords together like when you played Star Wars with meter sticks in 4th grade, and a scene that obviously took inspiration from the visual genius of Studio Trigger by having a static image of a character dragged across the frame to convey the act of grappling up a cliff. By the end of the season, even continuity was too much to ask for, as characters changed appearance on a cut-by-cut basis.

The only things consistent about Shironeko were my feelings toward as I followed it weekly. I remember watching the first episode as soon as it was released and getting excited because I'd witnessed what I thought would be the worst anime of the season. Listeners snatched that achievement away after a few weeks, but my genuine admiration for Shironeko's entertaining awfulness never faded as I watched more and more of it. When I finished the final episode and witnessed the expectedly terrible ending, I felt a pang of melancholy, more so than I did with Yesterday wo Utatte, Kakushigoto, or any of the other seasonal highlights. I don't know how many of my feelings will be shared by the average viewer, but if you have any interest at all in bad anime, Shironeko Project: Zero Chronicle is a must watch.

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Jun 22, 2020

12 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 1

rangerkoji (All reviews)

10 people found this review helpful

If you have the free time to watch this anime, it is most likely a better use of your time to learn another language for those time than watching this anime. TLDR: for me, this was one of the worst series I have ever watched. (I have never given any series a rating of 1 until this anime).

Story:
Somewhat overused setting. Princess and prince of dark and light trying to coexist, but they are constantly at war. You will understand the premise if you watch the first 5 minutes of this series.
The pacing is bad, and the ending is super rushed. If this series cut read more

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Jun 23, 2020

12 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 2

cmoa (All reviews)

7 people found this review helpful

This anime made me come back to this website after 5 years of inactivity.

I'm only writing this review because the first Half of the Anime was OK although completely blasted with Cliche's. After EP 6-8 everything just turns to complete bull.
I don't know what the creators thought they where doing, but I'm sure it was based on a story where they had to cut out like 75% of the content. And you can clearly feel that while watching.
This Anime goes from Adventure to Politics to Slice of Life to Apocalyptic Scenarios and Tragedy in the span of 1 Episode and not in a good way...

Animation read more

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	Poll: Shironeko Project: Zero Chronicle Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Jun 22, 2020	79 replies	by BiggKab »» Oct 31, 2020 1:11 AM
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