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Gunslinger Girl will always be one of my favorites but this takes the "little girls disguised as spies/weapons" to a new level
Episode 1 was really strong---a good thing considering the amount of episodes the whole thing will be
Good ep. The world building is quite cool with some fancy tech. The middle part was starting to down the usual pity and save him route, but contrary, it pulled a realist 'fuck you' double-crosser, while still saving Amy.
Loli spies, will bait all you lolicons and @#$%^&* you!!!!
The world of Princess Principal is definitely an intriguing one. The amalgamation of steampunk and noir is a fine mix. The setting of a divided superpower makes matters even more volatile. In that regard, London is indeed a fine arena for spies to face off.
The production quality is up to bar, the animation is superb and the art department fares well. Yuki Kajiura's involvement is also good sign. It seems I will definitely stick around for more, particularly after such a heart-wrenching mission.
I expected something more realistic, something along the lines of Joker Game, I guess? But it's still pretty good, even if this fictional London is an obvious reference to post-WWII Berlin and we have Japanese ninjas and superpowers that let people fly and make huge objects like cars fly.
Early 20th Century Steampunk in a divided, world dominating British Empire that looks like it has James Bond aspects (Or perhaps more accurately The Avengers- the old espionage TV show, not the Marvel Comics superheroes). The music, animation and writing all seem very good.
Joker game feel & period steampunk fashion with Actas quality loli ninjas. Just hope they dont pull another Actas branded delay+recap. Spy action done well for now, Ange very smooth in the hospital infiltration, tho it seemed like some Eromanga scene.
Kajiura ost very fitting.
End was kinda depressing for guy but at least insurance helps his sis.
So antigravity Cavorite & poisoning an important theme, and lies everywhere.
I hated this on the first watch because it seemed way too rushed and trying very hard to be dark. I couldn't really follow or care about what was happening, and the twist reminded me of the style of mystery solving that BBC's Sherlock has.
On a second watch, I'm still not exactly impressed by the writing, but things made more sense, and I kind of liked Ange and her cohorts. Even the twist was something that wasn't technically impossible to guess from the smaller hints (although I doubt anyone was able to recognize the acceptance letter on a first watch, with the barely legible stamp, so that's kind of a stretch).
I finally understood the Cavorite and the insurance angle, too.
Cavorite is the substance that can be used to levitate things (Albion has a monopoly on it and probably uses it to fuel the Air Fleet, and it enables Ange to fly when she uses it in her device). But it's also dangerous, and Eric's sister, Amy was affected by it, got sick and needed an expensive operation to be cured. It's unclear whether the accident was truly an accident, or if Normandy or the Commonwealth was responsible, in a plot to acquire Eric as an asset.
Eric sought the help of the Duke of Normandy, and his organization agreed to pay for his sister's operation, in exchange for cooperating with them to eliminate a spy cell working for the Commonwealth (Ange & co.). After that, a man associated with the Commonwealth seeks him out and promises to pay for his sister's operation if he deflects with his research, and so he agrees, but it's a lie, because he's already working with the Duke's people.
But Ange realizes that he's lying. She noticed the letter of acceptance to the Royal Ballet academy that fell out of Eric's bag, and the clues on Amy's feet suggested that she was serious about ballet, and she would never leave the Kingdom. So she figured that Eric was never going to take Amy to the Commonwealth, and payed closer attention to his activities. This pays off when she intercepts Eric's pigeon that he sent to his true collaborators.
Ange makes Eric sign a life insurance policy with Amy as the beneficiary, before shooting him multiple times, to make sure it's not confused for a suicide. In order to ensure that Amy would get paid, Ange arranges so that Eric's body will only be found a week later, in the Thames. We don't know if Amy's operation is a success, but we can see her recovering from it at the end of the episode, with her eyes covered in bandage.
The episode looked great, of course. The gritty steampunk aesthetic reminds me of Dishonored, and the concept of the spy girls takes me back to Gunslinger Girl, which stars smol cyborg operatives (although that show is much darker than this). Kajiura brings the heat with some fine jazz, which is not something I've heard from her before, so that's cool.
New potato theory: Ange and the Princess are related, possibly even sisters.
The concept of teenage girls as military spies is pretty contrived, so I understand why so many people are turned off by that aspect. Gunslinger Girl justified its own concept as a secret program where the government takes little girls who are extremely damaged physically or emotionally, turns them into cyborgs, brainwashes them and uses them as assassins. If we're lucky, maybe PriPri will attempt to justify its concept somehow as well.
Ah, the head writer of Code Geass, Kabaneri (and the anime adaptation of Planetes). That explains a lot of things, including why I didn't like this episode on the first watch. Apparently, school clubs and super edgy protagonists are a trademark of his. Well, just because I didn't like everything he's penned so far doesn't mean I won't be able to enjoy this.
My main problem with him is that he always uses way too many characters at the same time, and doesn't really know what to do with them. And both Code Geass and Kabaneri initially tricked me into expecting amazing things down the line, but those amazing things never came, only disappointing nonsense. He's also more concerned with being "cool" rather than being internally consistent and making sense in general, and his works seem to take themselves dead seriously, without a hint of self awareness. I guess that style might appeal to some people, but it's not my cup of tea.
So I remain skeptical for now, but the visuals and the music are just too good to miss. I want to see more of this world, and I guess I like Ange, too - for now.
AnimeFanboy1234 said: Because without the lolis, the anime might as well be a live action. I'm sick of anime like 91 Days that go for a, "realistic mature look" or sports anime, when they could all be live action, and nothing would change.
Thinking about character design like that, and anime in general, is restrictive, in my opinion. Even shows with characters who look more "realistic" (like in Rakugo Shinjuu) are still animated with the 12 principles of animation (like solid drawing, exaggeration etc.) in mind. Backgrounds still have to be painted. Characters and props still have to be composited over the backgrounds. Effects still have to be applied. It's definitely not the same as live-action, nor can the difference between it and live-action be ignored. You may have a specific taste, but there isn't just one correct way to make anime.
Wow, color me surprised! The episode was much more than I ever expected!! I thought I'd be more dissatisfied with lolis playing spies, but this was so good but I couldn't give one fuck about their age xD
Im fine with this but the what the heck they had in their minds to do such awful engrish ED that doesn't fit the anime at all...(Location is the only thing) with all the violence etc. just like in Spice & Wolf
may appeal to some kind of people but jeez
Antanaru said: Edgy moeblobs in a steampunk London... Too bad it's moeblobs, it's impossible to take it seriously with a bunch of lolis. Could be what that last spy title was supposed to be if it wasn't boring as hell. Not then, not now, maybe next spy series will be fine.
Convinned by good ratings and trailer, I decided to start these souls, despite the summer season being over. So, as a start is not bad, the narration is full of action and the choreography is well done. Perhaps the characters are not suitable for the kind of story, but the narrative, in spite of that, has become quite bad in certain situations. The quality of drawings and backgrounds is very good. The character of Ange stands out over all the others or almost.
Aside from how easily they revealed themselves as spies, this seems pretty promising thus far. Not a fan of the obvious feels grab attempt though.. "hear me out i have this really tragic backstory.. teehee im just joking"
They also played the "im not truthful" card a little bit too much.. zero subtlety.
Steampunk spy action in setting that reminds Berlin in cold war? Well, this was intresting episode. If this ends up keeping quality in this level this is some epic stuff. Only problem are moes and the high school bs.
This sure was quite the lovely start! Really love the very eerie atmosphere as well with the steampunk touch to it! The overall characters seem quite nice and also has some interesting development from this first episode! Looking forwards what this anime will have to offer!
This is an interesting series from a first glance. At first it seemed like loli's in steampunk. Then it got dark.......and then the last scene sort of sealed it. The "no" repeated while shooting the fellow was such a nice touch. In for the ride and time to get some popcorn. 7/10 to start and we will see where it ends up.
For a moment, I thought that the guy was to be saved. Their world is a bit confusing anyway. Pls don't be another Release the Spyce. That show was shit.
Spies are all liars.
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It seems pretty interesting. I am very mixed on the English dub because the accents don't sound genuine and they all sound the same, I'd imagine the characters would have different accents for their different upbringings and history. I will re-watch this episode in Japanese and see how my thoughts evolve.
Rewatching Princess Principal 3 and a half years later, one of the first seasonal anime I saw and one of the first I enjoyed too. Had good memories with it and its time I refresh myself with this show, while experimenting with the dub since I heard some interesting opinions about it from a friend of mine.
The first episode was all guns blazing with action and deception. I loved the showcase of the 20th century British steampunk setting, looked incredibly fascinating and exciting to watch how the setting was presented and there was some nice detail put into the little details like the clothing, the vehicles, etc. The dub takes it a whole other level by having the dub voice actors/actresses speak with hokey British accents to fit with the setting, which is definitely unusual compared to the tons of other anime dubs I've seen, especially with a British setting too involved. The outcome of that move is a mixed bag initially, as while it fits the setting a lot more and feels refreshing and dialogue is much better than how it was subbed, some of the voices sound much older than how old the characters are or how they look, creating a bit of an odd clash there. Definitely will take some time getting used to this, but I rate the risk a lot and it seems more fun to experiment this way with the show rather than go with the Japanese option, which doesn't feel right with the atmosphere of the show for me.
The OP as a whole was awesome, so much personality and excitement in that one with an absolute banger of a song that fits the steampunk nature of the show too. For an anime opening, you couldn't ask for much better that would fit a show like this, hell of a job overall. ED is nice too, and the music in general by Yuki Kajiura was really nice to listen to, and refreshing for her field since she gets to experiment more with the jazz style while having highlights of her traditional trademarks that she uses in her OSTs. Defintiely sounds intense and just fun to listen to without feeling similar to her previous OSTs, although I definitely prefer some of her other works like the Kara no Kyoukai one for how magical the atmosphere is created by that one to complement the tones of the show beautifully.
Finally, the characters seem nice so far, especially Ange being the highlight of the show easily but Dorothy is great too from initial impressions. Can't wait to see the cast kick some ass more in the upcoming episodes where we get to know them better since this episode just introduced them mainly.
gonna be honest i didnt pay attention at all to that first part before the op. but op played and got me excited for the show, loved it. great first episode, im interested in the story, world, plot, whatever im interested in everything here. the way we dont know if they lie or not is pretty nice too, revealed so little and so much in this first ep, im hooked
@animejas I side with you for everything, somehow the re-watch makes the experience a lot better to digest.
I wished my seasonal discussion game was early alongside my reviews, because this show, re-watching 4 years later now, is still great with the non-linear story plot of a 20th Century steampunk Britain, the Princess Principal spy team of Ange, Beatrice, Chise, Dorothy and Princess Charlotte still being as versatile as I remember wholeheartedly, and specially with the outstanding music.
Even with Yuki Kajiura on the OST (of which this is the first seasonal show that I've watched that has her name under it), the banger of Void_Chords' OP and the sweet ED, only brings back so much awesome memories of one of the most underrated anime of 2017.
This opening ep feels like it should have been somewhere midway through the season. Done on purpose, I assume. Unsure if it's a good way to introduce characters. At least the premise of the show is easily identifiable.
In terms of action, this ep was pretty good. The setting is by far the shows best quality, atm. I just dig the look and feel of it. The girls seem likeable, too.