This is the tagline for Prima Doll, one of the more recent mixed-media projects to come out of the legendary VN studio that is Key/Visual Arts that has little to no Jun Maeda involvement with it, most certainly after the disastrous Kamisama ni Natta Hi that just broke the good streak like wildfire. But, even with or without Jun Maeda, Key itself as a name has already been driven to the ground and never been the same since the somewhat tumultuous premise of an outer-world space with Rewrite, and that's where Prima Doll comes in with one particular common novelty that I'll get into later in the review.
But first, let's not get too deep yet, and understand what Prima Doll is all about. It's basically mechanical dolls (known as Automata) that was created to be in aid to fight against a war, and that war has long since passed and gone for good (with remnants awaiting their time of resurgence). Beneath those cracks, however, is an army of Automata restored and repurposed for this somewhat out-of-place cafe called the Kurotantei a.k.a The Black Cat Café and relegated to wearing kimonos and serving duties just like your typical cafe, supposedly helping these Automata to let go of their past and embrace the new life they're called to do. Have some fun, sing, and serve people, that's the goal of the Black Cat Cafe with its owner Nagi Touma, who's an engineer whom knows his (or rather her) ways of restoring broken Automata and giving them a new sense of purpose, one reset and reprogram at a time.
And the Black Cat Cafe display no short of its CGDCT moments, which I'd argue that it while it doesn't proclaim itself as one, it helps to bring people into a post-war congruity back into the new normal. It's a see-saw case of "seeing is believing" that the overall impression can sweeten or sour the show's antics in the long run. And this aspect is where it makes AND breaks the experience of Prima Doll, as shown by the various Automata that got restored through Nagi's delicate engineering craftsmanship: the pink-haired Haizakura with an overwhelmingly positive spirit to sing her heart out; the black-haired Karasuba which has the potentials of a combat doll and a loyalty-based one at that; the white-haired Retzel who's more of a casual smug than anything; the blonde-haired Gekka whom is akin to a kid being transferred to foster families to only know of their real existence as not they are whom she thinks; and finally the blue-haired Houkiboshi, the "mother" caretaker status of the mechanical dolls. Together with Nagi and its helper the orange-haired kid Chiyo, their new livelihood days at The Black Cat Cafe shaping their new memories, certainly everything has it going for them in the new peacekeeping regime.
But as is Prima Doll's existence to justify its tagline, the "metal statues which resemble living human girls" and "understand the mind and have an inner voice", this is where its plot that's written by the serial novel authors Kai and Toya Akano really comes into play. The metal statues obviously signify the mechanical dolls a.k.a Automata which have a semblance to ordinary living human beings, girls for that matter which are raised under the environment that is unfamiliar to them that takes Nagi's toll to reset them, nothing is ever perfect, and some like Haizakura has memories of the war lingering in the back of their minds, though she tries her very best to put the past behind her, which is a good thing. This is where the understanding and inner voice rhetoric comes from and is basically their character development in the entire anime. And for better or worse, it looks and sounds like fuzzy balls trying to create the impression of a post-war situation where peace has finally come to drag its paces, until someone has to instigate the war again in their disbelief. Nevertheless, its justification of the CGDCT moments create both a good distraction and a newfound sense of purpose for these mechanical dolls, barring their manufacture within a class/generation of Automata that are designed like a rank-and-file system to take command and control of when things go south.
For that to match, I think that the character cast did their roles very well, and that's the performance of veteran Seiyuus to invoke both moments of sheer happiness to downright despair. The common novelty that I presurfaced in the beginning of the review is thanks to director Tensho, who last directed the 2016-2017 anime adaptation of one of Key's now-dated VN Rewrite, that at the time, was produced with 8bit. Now that he has his own studio in the form of Bibury Animation Studios, Tensho is able to truly make this show his very own, adding his stereotypical flare into the show. But as just it is with last season's Black Rock Shooter: Down Fall that garnered more negativity than positivity, and if you look close enough at the decisions made between both shows, I'd argue that both are one and done the exact same, where feelings and emotions completely overshadow the plot, and most certainly one of Key's mainstay tropes of "hitting hard and crying onion tears" where it matters the most. Otherwise, the production is fairly consistent for the most part, and while the OP is a nice melodrama of a song, the various EDs however, I get that notion that while they are nice character songs for the most part (composed by Jun Maeda himself), it felt lacking.
And I think that where the Achilles' Heel lies for Prima Doll is that it's trying way too hard to be a Key/Visual Arts title that sticks to its tried-and-true guns of methodological storytelling that has worked for years. That, with Tensho's directing (that honestly has gone from bad to worse), it makes you feel that the show desperately NEEDS to garner attention, and then forgetting to lay the rest of the foundation with that one permeating ability to buy into the hearts of the audience through the overflowing of emotions. It certainly worked before, but times have changed, and that formula does not work now. Getting sideswiped as a mixed-media project and with a director that seemingly know what's he's doing, it's a shame that it could've been better, but trying hard is never enough in this day and age. Simply put, Prima Doll has a hook, but it constantly misses the target and its objective so much that the evoking meaning of happiness turns into straight-up stupefying boredom.
Love it or hate it, make your choice. Prima Doll has Key's stereotypical emotions no doubt, but everything else was lackluster.
