Scrapped Princess
Y’know, for a girl that’s going to destroy the world, she seems unusually happy…

Abstract:  Meet Pacifica Casull, a 15-almost-16 gal who’s straight out of storybook. Kinda.  Yes, she is a princess and yes, she was abandoned at birth.  However, ain’t no Prince Charming in her future, nope nope nope!  Y’see, when she turns 16 it’s been prophesized that she’s going to bring the world to a screeching, crashing halt.  Needless to say the rest of the world’s against this, so it’s just Pacifica, her blade-swinging adopted brother Shannon and her spellcasting adopted sister Raquel versus everyone else.  No sweat.

With a serious, grim backstory like this you’d think the series would be all dark and angsty.  Well, think again. The storyline was written (And not very well at that) as a comedy and not a drama, which for me really doesn’t fly.  The art’s passable and the music’s pretty much nonexistent.  The best I can say about this series is that it’s there, so Scrapped Princess has to settle for a Bronze.

Background:  When one thinks of princesses, you imagine great castles, white horses, knights in shining armor and an epic, larger than life romance.  Well, Pacifica has none of these things…

Almost 16 years ago, although she was born a princess of the kingdom of Leinwan (Rhienmetall), the poor lass was thrown over a cliff as a baby.  And I know what you’re going to ask: Why would someone do something like that to a helpless, innocent infant?!?  Um, no reason really.  It’s just that, well, the prophecies coming out of the Mauser (The series’ god) church suggest that Pacifica may just have a teeny-tiny teensy-weensy part in causing the destruction of the world.

And what part is that you say?  Of, just causing it is all…

Moving right along, poor Pacifica was rescued before she died and raised in the backwater burg of Manurhin as a commoner, along with 2 adopted older siblings.  You’ve got Shannon, the strong, silent type of guy that the ladies go wild over and Raquel, a good-natured, oblivious seeming gal who certainly would attract any guy’s eye.  Oh, did I forget to mention that Shannon is a swordsmaster while Raquel wields more magical power than Gandalf?

So sorry about that.

Anywhoo, seems like people have been hunting Pacifica since the day she was born, because no one was really sure whether or not she died like she was supposed to.  And after getting flushed out of her home village Pacifica, Shannon and Raquel decide to get the heck out of Dodge.  Thus begins a hide-and-seek, cat-and-mouse series where the trio of siblings tries to stay 1 step ahead of the mob in a game where the stakes are the lives of every human being on the planet.

No worries.

Materials and Methods:  Based upon the original novel by Ichiro Sakaki and Yukinobu Asami, Studio Bones decided to try to animate the thing.  Frankly, I think that they should’ve left well enough alone.  The character designs by Takahiro Komori are attractive, in a very carbon-copy kind of way.  Other than the hair color of Pacifica and Winia (Another female character), there’s really nothing that stands out in any of the players.

Regarding the seiyuu, Fumiko Orikasa (Azusa Fuyutski from Great Teacher Onizuka, Yayoi Kuzuhara from Uchuu no Stellvia) plays the spoiled, childish, dense-as-lead Pacifica.  Truth be told, I found Pacifica more annoying that anything else.  The only time I liked her were those few instances when she voiced her introspection regarding the ramifications of her existence and possible death.  When she talks about her self-doubt and loathing, the anxiety that her life causes to her and everyone around her, I thought those portions of her personality were at least semi-believable.  It’s a shame that the script didn’t develop that part of the character further. 

Sayaka Ohara (Ezra Vieil from Vandread) chips in as Raquel and comes across as the perfect one-san: Kind, warmhearted and existing in a perpetually good mood.  Big name Ayako Kawasumi (Aoi from Ai Yori Aoshi) actually takes a smaller role here as a supporting character, a shy, quiet girl named Winia that Pacifica ET. Al meet during their travels.  And don’t worry all you fangirls out there, because Shinichiro Miki (Takumi Fujiwara from Initial D) will certainly capture your hearts with his portrayal of Shannon as reticent, confident and utterly devoted to his family.

“But what about the music?” you ask.  Well, don’t.  The opening theme “Little Wing” is pleasantly upbeat enough, but you’re not gonna be humming it down the street or anything.  And that’s a shame, considering the song starts off with a bagpipe solo (Always a nice touch).  As for the closing “Daichi no la-li-la”, it sounds…odd.  Heck, just look at the name.

Results:  I was really disappointed with this series because with a setup like they had, Scrapped Princess could’ve been written as a grand, larger-than-life tale that could’ve bowled us all over.  Instead, the writing has gaps that are big enough to drive an 18-wheeler through and rushes through points in the story that they truly needed to take the time to develop.  The very fact that they decided to approach such a serious topic as the destruction of the world with whimsy and humor crippled them coming out of the chute (Or off the storyboard, if you will).  I will admit I could be wrong about this, but I don’t believe there’s not a belief system that, IF they believe in the end of the world, approaches it in a jolly, devil-may-care way.  To conceive of such an awesome event so lightly runs counter to the human mind.

All of the characters throughout the series (And there were a great many of them) remained fairly 1-dimensional.  None of them grew or developed in a plausible way, and that’s a shame.  I mean, you don’t turn from a cold-hearted military man into a warm, loving boyfriend through a fadeout do you?  C’mon…I simply couldn’t bring myself to care about the characters.  Don’t let my description of the seiyuu’s performance fool you.  Just because they did their jobs doesn’t mean that they could push their characters very far if the characters were planned poorly in the first place.

I will say though, that as a fan of all things martial I found it amusing that practically everything, and I mean EVERYTHING in this series has names related to firearms.  And if you knew what to look for, you could actually predict that fact based on one of the first scenes in episode 1.  Look carefully and you’ll see a giant rock shaped like a pistol that’s stuck into the ground.  And for those of you who aren’t military otaku here’s list of the seemingly bizarre names and where they got them from.  And I managed to catch practically all of them myself without help.  So there *Sticks out tongue*.

Handguns: Peacemakers, Winia Chester (Winchester), CZ, Makarov

Bullet measurements: Parabellum, Casull

Assault rifles: Steyr Civilian

Sniper rifles: Dragunov, Barret

Weapons manufacturers: Armalite, Browning, Mauser, Sauer, Taurus, Sturm, Peters-Stahl, Galil, Rhienmetall, Giat

Miscellaneous: Bergens (Military backpacks), Socom (Short for Special Operations Command, the organization that gives orders to the U.S. military’s special forces), Borchard/Borchardt (Weapons designer)

Conclusions:  Don’t expect too much from this series and you won’t be let down.  Yours truly, on the other hand, was hoping for so much more and didn’t get it.  The whole thing screams mediocre and while mildly interesting certainly has it flaws.  I’ll give them some points for trying to take the Apocalypse in a new direction, but you just can’t make something like that humorous and funny.  Therefore, Scrapped Princess gets a Bronze.