(L) Princess Principal

[Applehell]

Originally Posted by Random Wanderer

She's had to learn enough to keep her own cybernetics in working order, after all...

Yeah, even if she didn't like machines (who could blame her right?) I would think she would have acquired mechanical knowledge at least for her own personal maintenance out of necessity.

Originally Posted by Ravagerblade

I was actually thinking how all the girls would be like when they got older and Beatrice would be the fiery red head who has a mechanical arm whose trigger happy too lolz. I could add more but lolz it's more of a headcanon/fiction.

Unless she went through some changes before then that sounds pretty OOC with how Beatrice is now. How far in future are talking about anyway?

[Ravagerblade]

Originally Posted by Applehell

Yeah, even if she didn't like machines (who could blame her right?) I would think she would have acquired mechanical knowledge at least for her own personal maintenance out of necessity.



Unless she went through some changes before then that sounds pretty OOC with how Beatrice is now. How far in future are talking about anyway?

mid twenties -ish.

[ScrewySquirrel]

I think the 'slice of life' of the last two episodes are more to show up just how much of a dystopia this world is.
Homeless in the streets case 13.
Large numbers of people dying with no family to claim them. (case 18)
Children of poor families have to work instead of go to school. (case 16)
The sun never really shines in London...its always gray and smoggy. At night its an unhealthy orange glow.

[Kurapica]

Just watched ep 6. Damn, that was good. Probably the best ep yet.

Dorothy's father was hilarious but a sad human being at the same time. I felt kinda bad for her.

[Kuroageha]

I guess next episode will have no connection with the last one?

[felix]

Originally Posted by Kuroageha

I guess next episode will have no connection with the last one?

They have done episodes where one continued to the other. It's not a rule that they wont follow each other.

[4th Dimension]

Eh, they have been out of order form the start, hence the Case # at the start of each.
Sooo flip a coin on weather the next one will be in sequence.

[chaosprophet]

Originally Posted by 4th Dimension

Eh, they have been out of order form the start, hence the Case # at the start of each.
Sooo flip a coin on weather the next one will be in sequence.

felix is right that at least once, ep 2 and 3, they did episodes where one started right where the other ended. In any case, like most shows that don't show a PV at the end of the ep, a few days before the next episode they have a text PV and a few screenshots. So anyone interested check the show twitter and you would know next ep title and case, and have an idea what it will be about from the few SSs.

Spoiler for ep 8 preview:

Case 20. Lord O'Reilly wants to defect to the commonwealth, and the ones that he will enter in contact with will be Ange's team. While waiting in a park Ange sees a young girl being beaten after failing to pickpocket someone. Ange starts becoming close with that girl (Juri/July) after staying there waiting for the contact for many days. She them tells the girl the story from the Black Lizard Planet of "The Princess and the Pickpocket".

From the screenshots, the story Ange is telling is likely her and Princess backstory.

[Kismet-chan]

Spoiler for Episode 8 Preview Screens (from Twitter):

Bonus Magazine Scan:

Images

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

[Stark700]

Episode 8:

That was quite an emotional episode in terms of background storytelling.

The Princess and Charlotte's past revealed including how they became friends. It's such a tough society for characters as young as them but I like how tough Charlotte is. Ange is also such a badass when she punished that cruel guy.

[James Rye]

DAMN!
I got huge respect for Ange now, the real Ange who had to play the role of Princess Charlotte all those years. What an hard-working girl! Mastering nine languages and at the start she couldn't even read or write! Jesus, that must have taken so much extra effort and many sleepless nights. And now she even wants to continue the Princess old dream of becoming Queen and tearing down the walls, all kind of walls, those of poverty and noneducational and corruption as well. No wonder, Ange, the spy one, calls her princess all the time; she deserves that respect.

[SeijiSensei]

I wondered what Charlotte's life must have been like after the swap. She was totally unprepared for what Ange had endured. While Ange did have to learn nine languages and all the rest, she was well-fed and well taken care of. Did Charlotte end up back in the clutches of Ange's "manager" living off his charges' talents? Charlotte deserves a lot of admiration for surviving her life as Ange and becoming the impressive character she is now.

[Kazu-kun]

Ange was picked up by Control right away, so she never had so suffer living on the street and such. In fact she told that to Eric, and the staff confirms this is true.

Also, don't forget she was a well educated person, being royalty and all. Training to become a spy must have been really tough, but she was well prepared. On the other hand Princess was illiterate and had to learn everything from zero.

Well, I don't mean to make this into a competition. My point is just that both girls had it really tough and both became amazing people. That's all there is to it.

[felix]

I really want something to force out their identities like a blood test or something similar, so I can see everyone's jaws drop and eyes roll on the floor.

[Wandering Soul]

My respect for both girls has grown immensely. One had to go from knowing practically nothing including how to read and write to learning how to do things like be fluent in nine languages, play the piano masterfully, and other things.

The other had to deal essentially losing her home, family, and only friend for several years without knowing for sure if they would ever reunite. Spy training was also no doubt tough.

[4th Dimension]

Fortunately for the "Princess" the Princess didn't have anyone close to her in her life who could figure out that her demeanor has changed.

On the other hand IMO once they accepted her as a Princess, I don't buy the idea that they could have figured out she wasn't one after couple of years.
I mean what would you sooner believe
That a "stinky commoner" was able to successfully impersonate a noble person for so long and therefore have them all fooled
Or that the Princess is lazy and wasn't educated properly and such.

[FlareKnight]

In the end both of them went through hell and had to give their all for survival. It's hard to rate suffering. Both of them felt the weight of their situations and the weight of knowing what kind of life the other person must have been leading.

Fear and stress isn't rational. For the present Princess, she didn't have the luxury of presuming things would turn out alright. The worst case scenario was being found out and dying. If she screwed up, she was dead. There's no possible way she could just switch off that fear after living in that kind of nightmarish existence for years. Not when the consequence of being wrong would be dying. She had to keep the act up. The reality didn't matter at that point. She knew she wasn't the real thing and that fear of someone else figuring that out must have been eating her alive for years.

All the more so if she decided to inherit the ideals of changing the country for the better. If she wanted to accomplish something like that she couldn't afford to not act the part. She had to fulfill the ideal image of a Princess if she wanted to get to that point.

In the end though I feel bad for everyone involved. But I still lean towards feeling worse for Ange. She lost her idealism and has been fundamentally damaged from the life she's had to live. The Princess has gained those ideals and goals. That's a sad thing in and of itself.

[chaosprophet]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

Ange was picked up by Control right away, so she never had so suffer living on the street and such. In fact she told that to Eric, and the staff confirms this is true.

Also, don't forget she was a well educated person, being royalty and all. Training to become a spy must have been really tough, but she was well prepared. On the other hand Princess was illiterate and had to learn everything from zero.

Well, I don't mean to make this into a competition. My point is just that both girls had it really tough and both became amazing people. That's all there is to it.

I agree with your whole post. Also need to point that in Charlotte's case, she likely could have other choices in how to take her life, but decide to be a spy because she wanted to cross the wall and meet Age again (as she says on episode 3). On the other hand Ange had no choice, she had to be the Princess or end up dead or forever in prison.

And like you said, while both were amazing at what they did, Ange seems to have to work hard to accomplish what many wouldn't be able to even if their lives were at stake, even thought she was a lot behind at the start and doesn't seems to be especially good at it. While Charlotte seems to be really talented at spy work, as she is described on her character profile as a genius spy, and also showcased by how she wasn't able to teach Beatrice well how to open locks as it came mostly naturally to her.

But in the end, exactly as you said, both girls did have it very tough in different ways. Spy work is in no way easy, especially for a kind girl like Charlotte.

Originally Posted by 4th Dimension

On the other hand IMO once they accepted her as a Princess, I don't buy the idea that they could have figured out she wasn't one after couple of years.
I mean what would you sooner believe
That a "stinky commoner" was able to successfully impersonate a noble person for so long and therefore have them all fooled
Or that the Princess is lazy and wasn't educated properly and such.

She was likely many times on the brink of being revealed, which is one reason why she was so despearted and worked hard for that not to happen. I do think that they may have, at least for a few years, consider her acting different as trauma from the whole revolution, losing her parents and all. Kinda like how the soldiers didn't take her seriously.

[4th Dimension]

I'd like to point out that while there are MANY things that are there to like about the Princess Principal, one part that doesn't make much sense is the (geo)political background of their missions. This is bad because then it kinda makes parts where their solutions are supposed to be smart less so if the enemy doesn't seem to work on any logic.

Like in this episode where for some reason they seem to be monitoring who the Kingdom Lord who for some reason it turns out to be hiding his connections to the Kingdom's Spymaster. Which wouldn't make much sense. It makes more sense at the end when the Princess pulls out of her ass that basically it's a Kingdom's sting operation, which the Commonwealth somehow noticed.
Or the background of the side mission in the 2nd episode.

[Harbinger]

This anime is certainly one of the gems for this season. I'm glad I found it