Anime: Murder Princess

Synopsis:

The story begins with Dr. Akamashi, introduced as a scientist formerly in the employ of the government, launching a coup d’etat in the Forland kingdom. With his dying breath, the mortally wounded king sends his daughter Alita to find Prince Kaito, who is leading a diplomatic mission and its military escort abroad. She flees from the castle and reaches a forest on the country's border.

While running the Princess falls off of a cliff and onto Falis, an infamous bounty hunter. Due to the nature of the near-death experience (referred to as a spiritual commutation) the souls of Alita and Falis are switched. After Falis dispatches the forest's guardian beast, Alita pleads with the bounty hunter to protect the Forland kingdom, offering herself, body and soul, as collateral. Falis agrees.

Review:

It has been awhile since I watched a short one shot OVA series most of the anime titles getting released these days are 13 episodes and up and some reach epic status and pass the hundred episode mark. It seems that OVA series are becoming less and less prominent in the Anime world maybe its due to the fact that they don’t make that much profit than there longer counter parts.

Story:

This is where the Anime falters a bit. Maybe it’s due to the fact that they changed some of the plot elements that was in the Manga, so that it suits the Anime better. The basic plot is a fantasy type world that is inhabited by biomechanical monsters from a past era in the history of the world. Now that on it self isn’t a bad idea but the way it was executed was properly done.

Only midway thru the third OVA do we get a glimpse why the world is in the current state it is in, but after that not a lot more get explained to the viewer and what does get revealed doesn’t make a lot of sense in the bigger context of things.But having said that the story is pretty fasted paced and the different “colorful” character and the interaction with each other makes up for the holes in the story.

Animation:

One of the better points of the show the animation is drawn crisp and clear and the quality of the animation stays the same through out the show. The fantasy world that surrounds the characters is animated pretty nicely and gives the viewer the feeling that the story does indeed take place in a fantasy world.

Some people complained about the “speed lines” used during the battle sequences but that’s just being nit picky. The other reason for the watching the show would be the fighting scenes it’s been awhile since I saw a good sword fight in an Anime show, which by the way is perfectly animated.

Sound/Music:

This is where the Anime really shines the whole Anime soundtrack consists of Metal/Punk/Alternative tracks and was written especially for the Anime by “Bee-Train”, they also did shows like Noir & Hack Sign and both of those shows had soundtracks of note.

The soundtrack really comes to the party during the fighting/action sequences, the opening scene is really rocking and sets the pace for the Anime the ending theme is the only song that doesn’t seem to fit the show but that’s just me being nit picky.

Character:

The characters really make this series what it is, it makes up for the holes in the story and redeems the show for any other faults it might have. This is the one of the main reasons why u should watch the show apart from the music. From “Faris” the bounty hunter and her cyborg sidekicks: “Dominikov” and the soft hearted “Pete”.

There are so many colorful characters too mention in this show that I could go on forever u will quickly find a character u can attach yourself to. And let us not forget about the killer robotic loli's.

Enjoyment:

Ultimately the story of Murder Princess isn’t innovative and it doesn’t try to be particularly different in any manner but like I said before what the story lacks the characters and the soundtrack make up for it. If u are looking for light entertainment with a nice metal/punk/rock soundtrack then Murder Princess is for u.

Murder Princess is a good example of an anime that's better than the sum of it's parts. The individual elements, with the exception of the music, aren't overly impressive, but it still manages to create something quite entertaining. This doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere else, so I should probably state that there's a fair amount of yuri subtext throughout the series.

Animation:
As far as animation quality goes, the characters look pretty good as they stay on model, and are clean and detailed. There's as unfortunate tendency to use speed lines, though.

Design wise, it's kind of mixed. The main characters turned out fairly well (it's interesting to see how different they look after the body switch just by the way they carry themselves), as did the main antagonists. On the other hand some of the side characters and creatures look kind of lame. Dominikov's design did not translate well to animation.

Sound:
As expected of Bee Train, the music is generally excellent. It fits well, and sounds quite good.

Story:
The best that can really be said about the story is that the series seems to realize that it sucks. It's pretty standard, and you can see most of the twists coming. Fortunately, the amount of time you have to pay attention to it is pretty low.

The story might be sub-par, but the way it was handled is not. The pacing is excellent, keeping things moving at full speed, while still allowing for some character development. Somewhat surprising that this came from Bee Train, who's known for dragging things out longer than they should be.

Character:
On the whole, the characters are likeable and entertaining. The two leads even have a decent amount of depth. On the other hand, the primary antagonists need more depth than what they have, as there's a serious lack of motivation there.

A coup d'etat broke out in Forland. Princess Alita escapes from the castle. As she runs through the forest, the forest's guardian appears and attacks her. She manages to escape out of the forest, but it's a dead end. She bumps into Faris, a bounty hunter. Both women fall off a cliff. And they fall, the swap souls.
Now, Faris is in the body of princess and princess is in the body od Faris. Faris promises to protect the country. Both come back to the castle and the "new" princess fights the throne back. So, the strongest princess in history is born. Due to her combat style, she is nickname "Murder Princess".
Who are the assasins who took over the castle? Who's plotting behind them? Will the girls manage to swap their bodies back?

Murder Princess is mostly a fantasy, but it has more genres hidden inside it. There are so many different types of characters coexisting in that world. It's a medieval style world with some magic. A setting that may fail if used wronlgy, but it works well in this case.

Animation

The graphics neat. There were many different kinds of characters ranging from little girls to big knights and goblins and all of them were done nicely. The battle scenes looked pretty good too.

Sound

The music was very good. It just fits the atmosphere. I also liked the opening a lot.

Story

Enough twists for the short time given to the series. From the beginning to the end, I really enjoyed it. A slightly bitter ending fitted in good.

Character

The characters in Murder Princess were nice. Faris, originally a bounty hunter with rough style of speech sure had trouble with mastering the role of a princess. She's developed nicely throughout the series. Alita on the other hand was good in the place of a maid. My most favourite character was Dominikov. First impression is a funny little creature made from Asterix and a shinigami. Wearing an axe and looking like a skeleton. Yet he's very knowledgable. Pete looks like a giant (also funny with the headphones), yet he's nice and gentle. From the others, Kaito is a nice double agent. Cecilia looks like a good criminal with bot hpersonality and looks. Doctor Akamashi was a good character. Too bad all he did was getting manipulated and killed in the end. He created those two little girls, too. All summed up, each character has something good on it and I will remember them.

Value

Murder Princess is something I could watch again. It's short, yet it keeps you attached to the screen all the time. It's not that much of a masterpiece, but I still can imagine myself recommending it to others.

Enjoyment

I watched this series quickly and absorbed it quickly. Yet it went all fluently. Each episode was drawing it nicely towards the end. I enjoyed Murder Princess and I hope I'm not the only one.

For Spring 2007, Bee-Train came with two new productions: El Cazador and Murder Princess. It was clear that El Cazador would be their main anime, with Murder Princess staying mostly in the backgrounds in the format of a 6-episode-OVA. Still, how did it go?

Well, for starters, the plot isn’t that impressive. The creators went with a fantasy-kingdom, under the attack of supernatural monsters. In the end, some of the superpowers were explained, but the story remains incredibly basic. The bad guys with connections to the main characters have to be beaten, and that’s about it. There are a few plot-holes here and there, the bad guys have rather bad reasons for their actions, and overall it’s not really that good.

The reasons why you’d want to watch this: the good guys and the music. Where the plot falters, the main characters are the ones who manage to save it. They almost never feel annoying, they’ve all got interesting and varying personalities, and the relationship that develops throughout the six episodes between the two main characters is quite charming to watch. I’ve got no real criticism for them, and while they aren’t the best, they were really fun to watch and never even once bored me.

But the real highlight of Murder Princess is the soundtrack that came accompanied with it. Bee-Train always had a knack for soundtracks, and they et again prove this here when the entire soundtrack consists of fast-paced rock and punk-tunes. The music especially shines during the major action-scenes, which would have become horribly dull without the music and addictive characters mentioned above.

While it doesn’t hit any heights, it’s not particularly innovative, nor is it an OVA that will be remembered by many, it’s perfect as light entertainment. If you’re a rock/metal-fan and like fantasy, you should definitely check this one out, because this OVA manages to become both tense, fun to watch and charming.