(L) Princess Principal

[Kazu-kun]

It was okay, but episode 4 was better.

[chaosprophet]

Originally Posted by Top Sergeant

I'm wondering if Ange is the real princess and they switched places years ago, a-la The Prince and the Pauper. In any case this anime is the one I am most enjoying this season.

Isn't that pretty much a given since the end of episode 2? "Ange" is actually the princess Charlotte, and the Princess is actually a girl named Ange, they switched places around 10 years ago.

The question now seems to be whether Ange was just a girl who happened to look like the princess like in The Prince and the Pauper story, or if the similarity is because they're relatives. If the latter, I think it's more likely that Ange was a bastard or something on those lines.

[LoweGear]

Spoiler for Episode 5:

While I do prefer Princess Principal when it's an intriguing spy thriller and not an action show, Episode 5's action was SUPERB in all aspects, from animation to choreography. Chise's sword duel was especially awesome, as they didn't feel the need to pepper dialogue into it, and instead just let the action speak for itself.

And speaking of Chise, they really nailed her intro here, from being one of the first people to truly unbalance Ange by unironically going with her lies, to showing off how truly badass she is, while still showing her caring side. They really balanced her character this episode, and made me genuinely like her as a character and not just as an asskicker.

It's alright Chise, the pain will go away

Special mention of Beatrice defending the Princess without hesitation, and that moment where she almost gets beheaded was quite a powerful scene to me, mainly because of the callous brutally it was portrayed with, and it was a good way to show off another benefit of her mechanization.

Also, it's actually funny to have an anime acknowledge that Japanese customs are peculiar from a Western perspective.

[felix]

Originally Posted by chaosprophet

Isn't that pretty much a given since the end of episode 2? "Ange" is actually the princess Charlotte, and the Princess is actually a girl named Ange, they switched places around 10 years ago.

The question now seems to be whether Ange was just a girl who happened to look like the princess like in The Prince and the Pauper story, or if the similarity is because they're relatives. If the latter, I think it's more likely that Ange was a bastard or something on those lines.

Uhm.... their hair colors are a bit different aren't they? Doesn't that ruin the whole switch places deal a bit.

Unless Ange and "Princess" have been sneakily dye'ing their hair all this time.

[James Rye]

That was a cool sword fight! And Beato was so brave when she jumped in to confront Juubei and quite lucky he aimed at her neck where she had the whole robot implants. Horikawa got seduced by Dorothy that lucky bastard!!! Chise's owie owie, go away part at the gravestone of her father, though I doubt his body was buried there due him being an assassin who just got killed and still has to be investigated, was very nice in a sad way. Glad to see Ange making more buddies besides her princess.^^

[bakato]

Anyone noticed the way characters walked and ran? Pretty strange if not realistic.

[Stark700]

Chise is awesome, good to have her join with the princess and others. I felt bad for her past though.

The animated swordfight scene on the train during the second half imo was very well animated. I hope the studio will pour such budget into future fights. Chise and Ange also make a good team, hope they work together like that in the future.

Doesn't she also have such an adorable smile?

[Haak]

Originally Posted by bakato

Anyone noticed the way characters walked and ran? Pretty strange if not realistic.

I think they were rotoscoped.

[Flower]

Originally Posted by bakato

Anyone noticed the way characters walked and ran? Pretty strange if not realistic.

That bouncing side to side manner of walking is very similar to the way Mira walked in the ED of Dimension W - another series Studio 3hz worked on, if you remember.

Ep 05

Chise was my favorite amongst the cast from the get go, and I have been eagerly awaiting her introduction ep and ... it was quite the visual spectacle! Her fight with Jubei was really, really well done, I thought.

And we got to hear a little more of the OST variations that I do not remember hearing before now too.

Ayup - definitely continuing to enjoy this series ... a lot. Maybe one of the ones I most look forward to every week.

[Konishi]

Originally Posted by bakato

Anyone noticed the way characters walked and ran? Pretty strange if not realistic.

Aparently is the trademark of Ebata Ryouma, in charge of this episode's animation. https://sakugabooru.com/post?tags=ebata_walk

I think this was a good chapter, yet somehow feels like the series is not keeping up with my expectations.. maybe I got too hyped with the first 2 episodes..

[felix]

Originally Posted by Konishi

Aparently is the trademark of Ebata Ryouma, in charge of this episode's animation. https://sakugabooru.com/post?tags=ebata_walk

I think this was a good chapter, yet somehow feels like the series is not keeping up with my expectations.. maybe I got too hyped with the first 2 episodes..

I'm pretty happy with my expectations of it so far.

Though maybe it would have been better in movie format.

[Random Wanderer]

So, we discover in this episode that the Duke of Normandy is paranoid, and that, without any evidence at present, he has decided that the simple possibility that someone might use Princess as a tool to try to sieze the throne is enough to justify arranging to have her assassinated during a hit on a foreign ambassador. Now, of course we know that the truth is that Princess is doing exactly that by her own volition, but Normandy shows no sign of knowing that. He just wants her killed because someone might be able to use her. That's the sort of mindset that eventually ends up killing every single person in the world, as that's the only way to be "sure" that the throne is "safe."

PS: The music in this episode was frikkin amazing. That's some really beautiful Kajiura-style soundtrack there.

[bakato]

Originally Posted by Flower

That bouncing side to side manner of walking is very similar to the way Mira walked in the ED of Dimension W - another series Studio 3hz worked on, if you remember.

Ep 05

Chise was my favorite amongst the cast from the get go, and I have been eagerly awaiting her introduction ep and ... it was quite the visual spectacle! Her fight with Jubei was really, really well done, I thought.

And we got to hear a little more of the OST variations that I do not remember hearing before now too.

Ayup - definitely continuing to enjoy this series ... a lot. Maybe one of the ones I most look forward to every week.

Originally Posted by Konishi

Aparently is the trademark of Ebata Ryouma, in charge of this episode's animation. https://sakugabooru.com/post?tags=ebata_walk

I think this was a good chapter, yet somehow feels like the series is not keeping up with my expectations.. maybe I got too hyped with the first 2 episodes..

Thanks for the info. I like it.

Originally Posted by Random Wanderer

So, we discover in this episode that the Duke of Normandy is paranoid, and that, without any evidence at present, he has decided that the simple possibility that someone might use Princess as a tool to try to sieze the throne is enough to justify arranging to have her assassinated during a hit on a foreign ambassador. Now, of course we know that the truth is that Princess is doing exactly that by her own volition, but Normandy shows no sign of knowing that. He just wants her killed because someone might be able to use her. That's the sort of mindset that eventually ends up killing every single person in the world, as that's the only way to be "sure" that the throne is "safe."

PS: The music in this episode was frikkin amazing. That's some really beautiful Kajiura-style soundtrack there.

In the cutthroat world of politics and monarchy, I don't think that paranoia is unjustified.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Konishi

Aparently is the trademark of Ebata Ryouma, in charge of this episode's animation. https://sakugabooru.com/post?tags=ebata_walk

It may be his trademark, but it sure is unnatural.

[bakato]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

It may be his trademark, but it sure is unnatural.

I feel the opposite. Animated walking that we're used to seeing is pretty tame and unremarkable in general. Here, it actually feels like there's weight to it. Though sometimes it can looks a little out of place. When that soldier who blew himself up was walking, his arm movements looked a little wide. But when that ambassador ran to check out the explosion it really looked good.

[Random Wanderer]

Originally Posted by bakato

In the cutthroat world of politics and monarchy, I don't think that paranoia is unjustified.

The difference is between preparing for the possibility that she's up to something or that someone might use her to do something, and deciding to pre-emptively kill her just because she could, possibly, someday, try something. The former is a justifiable precaution. The latter is unjustifiable treason.

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

It may be his trademark, but it sure is unnatural.

I don't know, I thought the movement in this episode looked great, on a whole. The only thing that seemed odd was the way the suicide-bomber soldier walked when he was heading out to blow up the liinkage between the trains, and I rather suspect that his stiff movements were done that way intentionally (not by him, but by the people animating him) to show his fear/nervousness at what he was about to do, his attempts to hide it, his unfamiliarity with spy procedure, etc.

[felix]

Originally Posted by bakato

I feel the opposite. Animated walking that we're used to seeingis pretty tame and unremarkable in general. Here, it actually feels like there's weight to it. Though sometimes it can looks a little out of place. When that soldier who blew himself up was walking, his arm movements looked a little wide. But when that ambassador ran to check out the explosion it really looked good.

Ya that soldier-guys walk was the only problematic one, he looked like he was drunk.

In general that style is actually nice to look at IMO.

[chaosprophet]

Originally Posted by felix

Uhm.... their hair colors are a bit different aren't they? Doesn't that ruin the whole switch places deal a bit.

Unless Ange and "Princess" have been sneakily dye'ing their hair all this time.

There is also some children who hair gets a bit darker or lighter when they get a bit older. In any case we do still need to get more info about their childhood, so far we only got flashback black and white images of when they were children, to see if they portrayal the switch in a believable way or not.

But that aside, the scene on ep 2 showed us the Princess name is actually Ange (with the note that spy "Ange" gives the princess is addressed to Ange) and "Ange" name is actually Charlotte (by the note plus how the Princess address her when they are alone in ep 2 and 5), which also is the name that is supposed to be the name of the Princess. I guess one could argue its just a coincidence that the spy real name is also charlotte and that Ange is a nickname spy gave the Princess or something on those lines, but so far it's strongly suggested they changed places back then.

[TheForsaken]

Originally Posted by Random Wanderer

So, we discover in this episode that the Duke of Normandy is paranoid, and that, without any evidence at present, he has decided that the simple possibility that someone might use Princess as a tool to try to sieze the throne is enough to justify arranging to have her assassinated during a hit on a foreign ambassador. Now, of course we know that the truth is that Princess is doing exactly that by her own volition, but Normandy shows no sign of knowing that. He just wants her killed because someone might be able to use her. That's the sort of mindset that eventually ends up killing every single person in the world, as that's the only way to be "sure" that the throne is "safe."

Nah, you can't just decide to kill someone simply because she is the fourth in the line of succession. No matter how many you kill, there is always a "fourth in the line of succession". People down the line move up, duh.

I interpret what he was saying is: Even though the possibility that she becomes queen is low, let's kill her anyway to be safe. There must be other reason that makes her not his favorite candidate to the throne.

[Kismet-chan]

I loved this episode a lot! I found it almost as engaging as the first, honestly. Though everyone else pretty much already covered all of the specifics I enjoyed about it. This series continues to be a lot of fun.

I'm also in the camp that really likes Ebata Ryouma's work. I think it's fairly realistic compared to what we usually see in a majority of anime -- or, at the very least, distinctive and different. Whenever he has a hand in a project, there's always that little extra something in the animation that gives it some life, imo.