Shamanic Princess
Sex/Nudity: Mildly suggestive outfits
Music:
Runtime Episodes: 30min/6
Overall Rating: D
Artwork: C
Story: D -
Comments: None yet
Voice Acting English: C
Voice Acting Japanese: C
Genre: Magic, action
Extras: previews for Knights of Rammune, The Slayers Try, Virgin Fleet, Agent Aika, Night Walker, 4 frames: the first is about the artist, the other three are about 3 of the main characters, 2 Japanese trailers, DVD ROM features which are a little harder to get to than they should be, but well worth it. It has a list of the cast, Many great screenshots from the movie, is easy to navigate, a script of all of the episodes!, production credits, character profiles that has 6 main characters and is a little more thorough, 3 reviews, 5 links.
Date Reviewed: 4/12/09 Last Updated: 10/26/09
Basic Premise: Tiara and her partner Japalo head to the earth realm to retrieve the throne of Yord which has been stolen by Kagetsu for unknown reasons.
Review: This DVD starts out with a fight between Tiara's partner Japalo and a strange creature that looks like No Face from Spirited Away and quickly moves to a fight between Tiara and Lena who is partnered up with Kagetsu, a magic neutralizer, in what looks to be suburban London at night. Tiara and Lena fight each other using shamanic spells, which involve many incantations and summoning of demons.
Kagetsu stole the throne of Yord, which is a painting of immense power, where his sister is trapped, unable to ever return from. Finding him is a little difficult, but with the help of his partner Japalo who can track magic they eventually find the thieves. This takes place during the first 4 episodes. The last 2 is more of a prequel where we finally get to know the characters and how they all know each other. It is the story of Tiara's summoning of her previous partner who was destroyed by Kagetsu.
Overall there is a great deal of fighting that does not make a lot of sense. The story is hard to follow and rather minimal and just clogged with fighting that feels boring. I feel like the writers are trying to appeal to males and females and fails at both. Males with the fight scenes and girls with the romance. How am I supposed to connect with the characters who are all secretly in love with each other when we know nothing about them and they have no qualities that endear me to them?
The fighting with incantations and spells is mildly interesting, but I was a bit confused when Tiara transforms into a half demon who, in the middle of a fight with Lena, performs a solo ballet dance. No idea where that came from or how it fits into the fight. In another fight Japalo is killed and then in the next scene is alive. His response is that he was somehow resurrected while Tiara was asleep and is ready to fight once more. Is there no continuity? Why is every character secretly in love with every other character both male and female? Lena is in love with Kagetsu and Tiara and Sarah and vice versa and vice versa? No idea, don't care either. I may be getting some of this confused, but ultimately and even in the short term it doesn't matter.
It is interesting that the English version Japalo is voiced by what sounds like an older female with a heavy accent and the Japanese version is voiced by a young boy.
I imagine that there are worse anime out there, but I am hard pressed at the moment to think what they are. I don't even know who this anime would appeal to. I wouldn't waste my time with this anime.
Conclusion: Some of the character designs are pretty beautiful, and there is one melody that is interesting, but it doesn't stop making this anime ponderous to sit through.
Publisher: Central Park Media
Related Website: None yet.
Where Found: out of print, but not hard to find.
Copyright: 1996/2000
Author: Mami Watanabe
If you enjoyed this anime try: Maria Watches Over Us
Screenshots
