Well, the more keened eye amongst you may notice that Okouchi is head of the writing staff. The guy infamous for his trainwrecks both lovely and grand such as Code Geass or Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress. I thought that even if the overall story wasn't any good, I'd still be in for a smashing good time. Sadly (or thankfully) the team seemed to have sedated him or placed him under heavy medication, as Princess Principal ended up having a competent story throughout.
Notice that I used the word "Competent", not "Interesting". I admit, perhaps it was a bit naive of me to enter this with high hopes of it replacing Flip Flappers as my favorite anime, but Princess Principal felted mostly like wasted potential. To elaborate further, while the first two episodes may hint at a series focusing on espionage and drama, Princess Principal is a largely Slice-Of-Life series where cute spy girls do cute spy things. Sure, some episodes may feature slightly more dire stakes than the previous episodes, but this is negated by the fact that Princess Principal, uniquely I may add, jumbles up its episode order for a majority of episodes (with the last two episodes being the major exceptions).
It's as if the team wanted to make a 24-episode anime but due to whatever reasons, budgetary or creative, they settled with 12 but the individual case episode encompass the range of 1 to 24, exemplified by how the first episode is Case 13 while the second episode is the true starting point chronologically. In spite of (or maybe even due to) this unique way of working around restrictions in episode count, the pacing of the series is greatly crippled. An action-packed episode may follow a slow slice-of-life episode for instance. Adding to the episodic nature of the series, the loose thread connecting the episodes with each other just simply isn't prevalent enough, and you'd be forgiven if you lost the direction the plot is heading into. Worse is how interesting elements unique to the Princess Principal universe (such as cavorite poisoning, The British Empire being split in half, Normandy belonging to Britain instead of France) don't play any significant role in the plot. The series ends hinting at a continuation in the future, which would sting if the series never gets an extension. If you thought the Cavorite jungle shown in the opening was ever going to make an appearance, you'd be sorely mistaken. And remember the Duke of Normandy? He’s going to appear in a pop quiz at the end of the review. So be prepared!
Speaking of characters, the main cast is quite likable, although Ange’s “Black Lizard” schtick and Chise’s “Fresh off the Boat” gag do get old. One complaint I have is with regards to the antagonists throughout the series. The Duke of Normandy for instance, despite being labelled as a major antagonist on the show’s website, he’s mostly a no-show for most episodes, and it’s not like his devious schemes are of any relevance to the show. He’s just some old guy with glasses. A rival character with abilities rivalling Ange is introduced extremely late into the story, with her appearance essentially being sequel-bait material. She’s by far the most interesting character outside the main cast due to her appearing for over 10 minutes, but her presence is too little too late to elevate the cast of characters to anything special.
The director once mentioned the focus of the series was on the relationship/romance between Ange and Princess. Ange and Princess are embroiled in a Prince-and-the-Pauper scenario, further intensified after the London Revolution. While I do applaud the writing team at moments for a select choice of scenes starring the two (most notably episode 8), their relationship doesn't come to the forefront that often, and their relationship isn't any more meaningful beyond Princess being a slightly more competent damsel-in-distress.
And there's that word again. Competent. Competent is also how I'd describe the writing throughout the series as well. It's generally good and will leave you interested (most of the time), but nothing special. There are also some glaring moments where they want you to feel a certain emotion but regrettably don't have the talents to make such a scene pop. The example I'm using is that dreadful Chise scene in episode 5. Her "Pain Pain Go Away" line to that lone orphan feels tacked on just for this episode, so you just know it’s going to be cruelly twisted at the end . When the plot twist comes and Chise is tearing up, I felt nothing but my head tilting down in shame. And this incident is completely forgotten in subsequent episodes. Classy. A slightly better way to remedy this is to have the line be part of her characterisation and introduce it in an earlier episode. It's not an elegant solution, but it's better than what we have. That is not to say there aren't moments that elicited a reaction from me, the ending to episode 6, while predictable, left me in goosebumps thanks to its brilliant direction and execution.
I've been complaining a lot about this series, so you might be wondering : Why even bother? Well, Princess Principal is still fairly entertaining as a whole. The animation vividly captures the action and the audio mixing is superb. And as I said earlier, the direction in general is a cut above average and the execution of the scenes ultimately leaves one enthralled. In addition, I do appreciate how the series portrays the Victorian Era as not entirely cog sunshines and metal rainbows, depicting aspects such as poverty and the prevalence of child labor in London, something most media set in this period generally gloss over. It’s not even window dressing either, the themes of wealth disparity even comes into play for a few of the episodes and I do appreciate them for at least trying to depict this otherwise commonplace setting a little differently.
In the end however, Princess Principal is simply a competent anime. It’s good but not spectacular. If this ever gets a second season, I’d highly recommend you check it out. However, since the survival of this series is still uncertain, it’s difficult to recommend this show on a whim. The series simply doesn’t do anything substantial or unique to warrant a viewing.
6/10
Above Average, not worth going out of your way to watch.
Now then, remember the Duke of Normandy? You don’t? Me neither. I don’t even remember the question I was about to ask! But I don’t blame you, I didn’t think he was that important anyway.
