Review #107: Scrapped Princess

• Published: 03 (JP), 08 (US)
• Episodes: 24

There are a few anime tropes that seem to be fairly constant with dramatic plots. A geeky guy getting into a situation with a harem of women is a constant enough situation that it has its own genre name. Many longer anime have strength starting off small and growing over a long time into fantastic cosmic power, most famously with Dragonball (or Gurren Lagann). One of the largest of all however is humanity being punished for its “sins”, be they against each other, nature, or the gods. This can come in the form of aliens finding humanity barbaric or primitive and punishing us for our aggression or arrogance, the planet evolving to try to drive us away (as seen recently with my Blue Gender review), or sometimes a powerful villain or demigod come to punish us his or herself. Scrapped Princess doesn’t really fit into any of those well, even as it fits the mold.

That’s getting well ahead of things however.

At its heart, Scrapped Princess is a medieval fantasy about a world where humanity lives in a world of swords and sorcery in a relatively peaceful world. All that changes when the Church of Mauser, the official religion of the world, releases a prophecy saying that a girl will be born that will be the poison of the world and see its end when she reaches the age of 16. When a pair of twins is born to a royal couple and the girl is declared to be the realization of the prophecy, the girl child is taken to be thrown off a cliff to her death.

The queen won’t let her daughter be killed however, and the girl is caught by an agent and smuggled off to be raised by a family called the Casulls. The girl is given the name Pacifica with the hope that she’ll grow up happy and will bring happiness to others. She’s raised alongside the two Casull children, the sword wielding older brother Shannon, and the magic wielding older sister Racquel. When their parents are killed by agents of the Church of Mauser, Shannon and Racquel take Pacifica and start to travel constantly to stay ahead of those seeking to kill their foster sister. This is where the series itself picks up, with the three siblings traveling the countryside in their wagon trying to make a living as they can and try to stay inconspicuous and safe.

As much troubles as the three siblings have, they end up meeting those sympathetic to the plight of Pacifica, who’d been dubbed the “Scrapped Princess” since she was thrown away. They meet a questing knight named Leopold that falls for Pacifica even though it takes him some time to catch on to her real identity. They meet a girl named Winia working at an inn that finds in Pacifica a friend, just as Pacifica finds one in her; Though they’re nearly separated by a boy that’s a member of the kingdom’s special forces named Christopher. They meet the man that threw Pacifica off the cliff when she was a baby, a man who has lived haunted by what he’d done. Everyone they meet has their own stories, but for the most part, after misunderstandings and trepidation, most seem to see the joy and good in Pacifica and become her friend. It’s during this time that Shannon also meets a being named Zeferis, who makes him a Dragoon.

When the series gets halfway through is when things start to tip on their head. When the trio are taken in (though more captured) by the princess of a neighboring kingdom named Seness the “Beast Princess”, they discover an ancient piece of technology called the Skiff, a leftover from an ancient war called “the Genesis War”. The Skiff has to be activated as a Peacemaker, a servant of Mauser, attacks with a fleet on ships being manned by people under mind control. Thanks to Pacifica’s ability to nullify the powers of the Peacemakers, as well as Shannon and Zeferis merging, the group drives the attack away, only to be told that they must bring the Scrapped Princess to the capitol or they will kill thousands.

I won’t spoil the ending, but needless to say there’s much more to what the Scrapped Princess is, what the Genesis War was, what Peacemakers are, what a Dragoon is, and even who Mauser is. As I already said, humanity is certainly judged and the Scrapped Princess ends up just as much a savior as a curse for the world. Though the anime ends peacefully and wraps up well, it gives a lot of new information leading up TO that end. Who survives, who ends up on which side, and what the world really is all comes down to the last few episodes. It really is a wild ride but a fun one.

The anime is just as fun and enjoyable, though it isn’t without its faults. While the plot makes for a lot of twists, I’d have preferred if things had stuck with the fantasy theme that the anime had started with, even if the anime wouldn’t have worked that way. I guess the ending  was a bit too over the top for me with how simple and character based the start was. Still, I should point out that’s one of the best positives of Scrapped Princess, the characters. Because it focuses on three characters through the whole anime and their trials and tribulations, it allows for interesting character development and gives the audience a good chance to connect with them (and they’re enjoyable enough to connect with in my opinion).

Though there are things I’m not super excited about with Scrapped Princess’ twists, I overall recommend it. It’s a decent length, with an interesting cast of characters and a world that’s a lot more than what it seems. I never found it too slow, never found it inane or offensive, and grew to really care about what happened. Give it a watch, enjoy, and be ready for that sweet 16th.

 

Review #106: Black Lagoon

• Published: 06 (JP)/08 (US) (TV), 10 (JP)/13 (US) (OVA)
• Episodes: 29 (2 seasons + OVA)

Rokuro Okajuma is a Japanese office worker living in Tokyo doing menial work for Asahi Industries. Day in and day out all he tries to do was get by, not offending his superiors and not making too big a splash. That quiet reliability to just do his job lead his section boss to pass off a job of transporting a delicate delivery overseas. Unfortunately, as Rokuro travels on a ship with the package, it’s attacked by a group of mercenaries, who end up taking him off the ship as a hostage. It turns out that the documents that Rokuro were given were plans for a nuclear weapon that Asahi Industries were trying to illegally sell to a foreign government. Believing Rokuro’s life was worth covering up their secret, the heads of the company hire other mercenaries to destroy both Rokuro and the documents. The mercenaries that had captured him, calling themselves Lagoon Company, end up under attack, but with Rokuro’s help and the shooting skills of the only woman on the team, Revy, they manage to survive.

After the company decids Rokuro wasn’t worth the trouble and the documents were destroyed, Rokuro decids that he has no reason to return to Japan and instead stays on with the Lagoon Company, their leader Dutch deciding he’s got something special to him the group could use. Traveling on the Black Lagoon, the company’s ship, the four make their way back to the Lagoon Company’s base of operations, a city of crime and vice called Ruanapur. It turns out Lagoon Company are a group of freelance mercenaries that hire themselves out mostly to criminal organizations based in the city. Ruanapur has many such groups however, including the Hong Kong Triad, ex-Soviet army mercenaries called Hotel Moscow, the Colombian Cartel, and the Church of Violence, a Catholic Church cover for a group of smugglers. With many other smaller organizations around, from the Italian mafia to many independent mercenaries, Ruanapur is a mess of drugs, violence, corrupt police, smuggling, arms sales, kidnapping, and more.

Rock, which is the name Rokuro is given when he joins Lagoon Company, quickly finds himself caught up in the world of Ruanapur without really knowing how to deal with it. Though he proves himself useful with his ability to translate, and having a good head for strategy, his lack of will to do violence and wish to do right quickly leaves him with a lot of disappointment, as well as leading to riling up the temper of Revy, who sees Rock’s moralist and sympathetic views repugnant. She’s aggravated even further by the fact that she ends up acting as his body guard of sorts on more than one mission, wanting nothing to do with him if she can help it, and even coming close to shooting him a few times.

None the less, after a mission with a nazi submarine, a displaced Columbian heir to nobility, and a run in with Islamic terrorists, Rock’s still alive despite being put in constant danger, mostly thanks to Revy’s gun shooting skills. As more and more situations come at Rock that test his moral fortitude, he eventually finds himself becoming more and more jaded and cold hearted. Even as he tries to remain between the worlds of morality and sin, those around him see his innocence slip away. It gets to the point that even after he ends up visiting Tokyo on business, he can’t recognize how he used to live there, even avoiding visiting his family. By the end of the OVA, Rock seems to have become almost fully a member of the criminal world, even as he justifies himself with having the best outcome he can manipulating the lives and fates of others.

Black Lagoon is an anime of vice, violence, and immorality. It could be said that there are no innocents, and that by the end even those with the best of intentions have stained their hands with blood. At the same time, there are very few that are outright evil, most having some trauma that led them to revenge, or some shred of good intentions in them. Even for an anime it’s clearly not for children, having many bloody scenes, sexual moments, and references to nearly all the sins of this world. It’s so dark that many adults as well might cringe at the story as it progresses, or even be turned off by the level of depravity the citizens or Ruanapur can reach.

That said, there are things that are very likable about Black Lagoon regardless of other factors. The music in the series is well done, matched by the wonderful visual style the series pulls off. It reminded me in a lot of ways of Hellsing Ultimate crossed with Cowboy Bebop crossed with Highschool of the Dead, with Hellsing’s irreverence and music, Bebop’s plot structure and organization, and Highschool’s dark but clean graphical style and action. These are made all the more apparent with the well put together Blu-Ray discs, with a clean interface and good amount of extras over all. The series also can be praised for it’s perfect length and good ending, leaving very few characters unexplored or loose ends left dangling.

Being well made doesn’t necessarily make a series worth watching however, bringing back the maturity level the series has. While overall I found there was enough to the series to like to recommend it, it still felt like it wasn’t a series with me designed to be the target audience. As a man that appreciates happy endings and good triumphing over evil and all that, Black Lagoon felt too heavy and gritty to really appeal to me. I’m still impartial enough to know that others can watch Black Lagoon however and find more from it. It’s a well made series, and it you’re a fan of quick action, ultra-violence, and seeing the dark underbelly of life, then you’ll find a lot to love in Black Lagoon.

 

Review #106: Utawarerumono

• Episodes: 26
• Published: 06 (JP) 09 (US)

A man wakes up in a hut, being tended to by two women with animal ears. The younger woman, Eluluu, tells the man that she found him in the woods badly hurt and brought him back to her home so that her grandmother, Tuskuru, could heal him. Along with her sister Aruruu, the two had lost their parents and were now living with their grandmother and apprenticed to her. The man reveals that he has no memories, not even of his name. After treating the worst of his wounds, Tuskuru decides to give the man a name, Hakuoro, named after her son and the girl’s father.

Hakuoro soon gets well enough to help out around the village, a simple farming community. Though some people initially don’t know what to make of the stranger, Eluluu’s support of him soon warms others to Hakuoro. Unwilling to do nothing, he helps teach the farmers how better to grow their crops. Trouble comes soon enough however as a group of soldiers from the local lord’s castle soon come out to extort supplies from the village. When Hakuoro embarrasses the group’s leader, an arrogant local boy named Nuwangi, Nuwangi destroys a shrine to a local god in his rage, unleashing the tiger god Mutikapa against the village. After the tiger god kills a family in the village, Hakuoro discovers Mutikapa’s weakness and, after setting up a trap, has the tiger killed.

After saving the village, Hakuoro is asked to find where Tuskuru has been taken to by Eluluu, who suspects she’s been kidnapped. Instead, Hakuoro finds out that Tuskuru has been secretly traveling to a hidden fortress in the area to treat a young girl named Yuzuha. Though Yuzuha’s older brother Oboro doesn’t trust Hakuoro at first, Yuzuha warms up to him quickly. When Tuskuru tells them that Yuzuha will die eventually without a medicine she can’t afford, Oboro tries to break into the local lord’s castle to steal the medicine. Suspecting that the village is harboring the theif, the local lord sends out Nuwangi and his troops again. In a fit of anger, one of the soldiers tries to attack Aruruu, only to have Tuskuru dive in front of the soldier’s blade and take a fatal wound. In anger, the village, along with the men from Oboro’s fort, attack the local lord’s castle, lead by Hakuoro. The people manage to take down the lord and declare their independence from tyranny.

Unfortunately, Nuwangi gets away and runs away to his uncle’s castle, who is the lord of all the surrounding lands and brother of the dead lord that Hakuoro and villagers had killed. With a much bigger force and the service of a wise general, Benawi, the lord orders everyone to be killed and their villages burned. Hakuoro builds up his forces with those that resent the tyranny of their lord, and soon Hakuoro has enough troops to attack the castle. Though it is a hard fought battle, Hakuoro’s rebellion takes the castle, finding that Benawi has killed his lord. Trying to take his own life in shame, Hakuoro refuses him the chance, instead having Benawi and his lieutenant Kurou join his new government, becoming the Emperor of the new nation of Tuskuru.

Things don’t end there for Hakuoro however. Soon neighboring nations start to eye the new small nation, sending much larger armies to attack Tuskuru. Hakuoro meets many new companions, from the priestess and mediator Urutori, the mercenary woman Karura, the swordswoman Touka, the young ruler Kuya, and others. As times goes on, people recognize Hakuoro, but no one can tell him of his true past. He clings onto the comfort of Eluluu and the support of his followers. Only much later does the truth finally come out about who the mysterious masked man that Hakuoro used to be come out, and it’s beyond anyone’s suspicions.

Utawarerumono is a tale of two anime. The first two thirds of the series is a fairly basic story of an ancient society where armies fight with cavalry, spear, and bow, people live simple lives, and there’s few signs of anything more like magic. The last third of the series however goes off the rails, introducing mechs, ancient gods, and a plot twist that would make Planet of the Apes proud. The first part is well told and engaging, with a lot of interesting characters, a progressing plot that shows more and more of the world, and many highs and lows between. If you’re a fan of a fantasy setting with elements of war and relationships tied together, it’s missing little. Taking in the second part of the anime however takes a shift of tone that can leave many behind. The characters really seem to be left behind in favor of the twist that takes over for the last episodes, making for a stunning ending that you don’t see coming, but for me, it left behind a lot of the charm I felt the series had.

So can I recommend it over all? Sure, I think Utawarerumono’s worth a watch. In lieu of the new sequel just coming out as I write this, watching the original series would be a wonderful jump off point. Even on its own, there’s a lot to like about Utawarerumono. Just be prepared for the ending and take it with a grain of salt.