Reviews

Jul 2, 2017
I watched Murder Princess when I was first getting into anime. So you would think that I would been ignorant to its shortcomings and enjoyed it. Wrong. Even as a rookie anime viewer, this anime left me beyond pissed and haunted me for a good month. Why was I pissed? Short story: Murder Princess gives you false hope and then crushes it.

Story: 3

With only 6 episodes, it is a rather short story. Therefore, I can cut it a little slack. But since it is still a story, Murder Princess needed to have been a comprehensive and complete unit - much like a movie or a fairy tail. I'll elaborate on that later. Concept wise, there is nothing original. This is not necessarily a bad thing as long as those concepts are either dealt with differently or executed in an effective storytelling manner. What got me interested in Murder Princess to begin with was the body-switching and a royal trying to defend his/her homeland tropes. These two tropes complemented each other, especially with the contrasting personalities of the two main characters, and were the best part of the show. You wanted to see the characters overcome these obstacles. Now here lies Murder Princess's greatest sin - most of the obstacles are not resolved by the "ending." The "ending" feels more like the end of a story arc than an ending to an independent story. Sadly, even the manga ends there so this cheating the audience was intentional. Other than the gaping ending, other problems with the story include: sloppily introduced and uninteresting sci-fi elements, painfully predictable plot points, weak ideas, and plot holes.

Art: 5

It was nice enough, but average. It didn't hamper or boost the anime.

Sound: 7

The OP is excellent. The rock style, heavier guitars, and fluid rapping supporting vocals created a great effect. The ED is also pleasant. As for the OST and voice acting, neither stands out to me as excellent of bad.

Character: 6

Overall the characters are stereotypical and bland. Most of the supporting characters could have been cut from the story all together and it wouldn't have impacted the story at all. You have your evil with scant motives villain, the brainwashed sidekick, the gruff warriors, etc. I did like the relationship between the bounty hunter and princess though. Although the princess was rather plain and devoid of a strong personality, she contrasted with the bounty hunter's stronger personality to make their interactions at least interesting to watch. The bounty hunter was the best character in the story because of her stubborn, driven, and yet secretly sympathetic demeanor. Watching her have to live a princess life and then proceed to trample all over its customs was rather entertaining.

Enjoyment: 2

Despite my fondness for the main characters and certain tropes, the clumsy and unnecessary story elements and bland supporting characters inhibited my enjoyment of Murder Princess. However, these things would have just made me rank it as average. The nail in the coffin for Murder Princess is its lazy and empty ending. I've watched 170+ anime since this one, but Murder Princess's ending is still in my top 10 worst anime endings.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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