I had decent expectations of this anime at first. Especially since the manga is one of my favourites of all time -- (I mean, who can resist Taishi Zaou's humour? It's just FABULOUS) -- and let's face it, Studio Deen is a great studio in itself too. There are so many elements to this that could have made it great.
The story starts out OK, presenting the same premise that the manga had shown, with some minor tweaks. The corner room in the dorms is now the P-room, the head of the dorm is apparently a senpai and... I don't recall Mikoto showing up in a dress at the very beginning? Since it's something only done for events and the like, but whatever.
Everything would have been fine if Studio Deen didn't decide on mixing up story lines and arcs just to fit every good moment they wanted into the anime. It's understandable, but surprising and didn't do the anime well. Characters get minimized or exaggerated as the story goes on and certain events lose their meaning in the progress.
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Examples of this are:
Sayaka's episodes are over the top and that says a lot, since she was an extreme character already. Why does she threaten to throw herself off a hill? How did she get to accepting Tooru and Yuujirou together if only days/moments before she was tormenting Yuujirou endlessly for being Tooru's "boyfriend"?
Why did Yuujirou's family unexpectedly show up at the school festival? Why not make Tooru come along with Yuujirou to visit them at his home? The fact he traveled so far at Yuujirou's request in the manga made it extra significant. Heck, even Yuujirou's mom wondered in an extra comic if Tooru was his boyfriend because of that. "Do you think they are dating...? No one would travel that far for just a friend, right? And lately Yuujirou has been sparkling --" [a reference to the princess smile] "... It's what love does to someone, I suppose..."
And I can't believe how flat Tooru's decision at the end of the anime was (episode 12). Why was the whole school there to cheer? Why did all the other characters even know and meddle with this? And how come Studio Deen missed out on a chance to incorporate the Very Gay Scene™ between Tooru and Yuujirou if they skipped various story lines to get there? They could have animated Tooru telling Yuujirou "I wanted to hear it from you the most... that you would miss me."
Anyway, enough about how Studio Deen tried to gay it up and hecked up in the progress. I could talk about it forever.
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Continuing, I thought the art of the anime wasn't great. It might have been decent for a 2006 anime, but it still had a lot of still scenes, chibis and lack of action. Maybe it's not fair to compare it to BONES anime, but I thought FullMetal Alchemist (2003) and Ouran High School Host Club (2006) were a lot better in terms of animation in that time. Not that I expect a lot of budget for an anime like this.
Which brings me to the genre: shoujo. I was okay with the mangaka calling the Princess Princess manga a shoujo because it was acceptable. Okay, it felt a bit fake, but it wasn't like she was particularly aiming for it to be shounen-ai. Gay moments aside, of course.
But Studio Deen? MAN, THEY UPPED THEIR GAME. "This is a shoujo anime" they whisper, as they show the ending with only Tooru and Yuujirou, while dressing them up... can I just say "gay". I screamed "WHAT THE F*** IS THIS" when the ending first came up because it was so random and ... gay. I have no other words to describe it. And let's face it: Mikoto would be relieved to be left out of that ending. If Tooru and Yuujirou are just going to be sexy photoshoot models pretending to be a couple, then Mikoto wouldn't want to be a part of it.
Poor Mikoto is always left out. Do I even pity him or feel relief for him in this anime? I don't know anymore.
Either way, the music of this anime was okay. I don't even know what to say about the opening and ending songs anymore. I just experience second hand embarrassment with those. The songs are pretty good though, really. I just can't believe they were put with this anime.
Characters are... decent? They had strong source material to back them up, if that makes sense. As much as was possible with the jumbled story lines, the characters were as OK as they could be in that situation. Aside from Sayaka, I don't feel like they deviated too much from the manga. Though Yuujirou acted out of character in a few occasions too, but whatever.
Let's just end this review and say I didn't enjoy this anime. I'm not even funny. I just wanted to whine and complain about a failed adaption of a manga I liked to bits.
Please do read the manga though. I promise it's great and more consistent and logical. If you like the idea of BL, then it will be GREAT as well. Because who doesn't think Yuujirou is into Tooru? And if you don't like BL... then that's probably fine too. I've seen a lot of comments around of people who said "I don't want them to be gay... but I think they would fit great together? xD"
Honestly, do whatever you like. Sorry for comparing this to the manga so much and I'm sorry if you actually liked this anime a lot. If you liked it, then that's great! I'm glad you did.
I'm just relieved that I'm released from Puri Puri Hell now.
Au revoir Puri Puri. Thanks for letting me write a review at 1 AM.
