In anticipation of the coming Review Forums (They ARE coming, right...Mike?) I felt like doing this review of Scrapped Princess, a series that seems to have not seen much limelight.
Scrapped Princess
24 Episodes
BONES
Action, Comedy, Fantasy(ish)
DVDs are out in the US
The Concept:
Saint Grendel's 5111th Prophecy makes a startling revelation: That a princess to be born soon is the Poison that will destroy the world upon the eve of her sixteenth birthday. Soon a princess is born and immediately, the baby is dropped off a cliff and presumed dead. Of course it wouldn't be much of a story if she DID die, so it came to pass that she was named Pacifica and raised along with her older twin sister and brother, Raquel and Shannon. With Shannon's sword and Raquel's Magic, they intend to protect their sister, despite the oracle.
The Execution:
First let me say that the pace is well kept. Every episode does something to advance the plot or develop the characters and at the same time, give you bit, pieces, or chunks of the world itself; there's really no lead-in as the story has already started when you get to the first episode, a concept I think would help quite a few other anime. The setting, I find to be truly interesting because it becomes apparent early on that it wasn't always swords and horses and that some kind of Bad Thing happend to set the whole world back a couple thousand years and laeving a mysterious legacy for the citizens. That the writers could take old cliches, polish them a bit, and put together an enjoyable (if not earth-shatteringly original) story is what really helps this series. If you look for them, you can pick out the cliches, but they shouldn't be that noticeable if you're just trying to enjoy the show.
Visually, I wouldn't call Scrapped Princess stunning, but the characters are well defined and the style, while somewhat simple, lends itself well to both action and comedy. I liked how most of the minor characters weren't exactly the same. There were unique characters that only had one line in the entire series. They may not have been as well drawn as the other characters, but the fact that effort was spent on them at all is nice. There are only a few places where I can honestly say I didn't like what and how effects were used (actually I think most of them were in the last episode). The acting was well done and each character has distinct personality, even the minor roles are well voiced. I didn't like the Opening, Little Wing (JAM Project), at first, but it grew on me: a jaunty kind of...well, it starts with bagpipes but then breaks into a nice little rock number. Make of that what you will. The Ending theme (Daichi no la-li-la) I liked from the start. It reminded me of an odd mix, part Raspberry Heaven, part Blue Flow, the endings for Azumanga Daioh and Haibane Renmei. Turns out there's a good reason for that: All three songs were done by Oranges & Lemons. If you've heard those songs, and liked them, you'll like this. I'll admit that I normally don't pay much attention to the score that plays in the background, but I know that it fit well and, with the story, gave me a kind of Chrono Trigger feeling, though maybe not quite so epic.
Overall, I really liked it, and in all reality it's probably one of the best things I've watched in a while; I'd really like to play a P&P RPG in that world.
********* 9/10
EDIT: Comment! Critique! Dissent!
Have you read the manga? I saw the first book and I really enjoyed it.
I just picked up the first book of the manga and read it. It's actually very different. The manag will probably end up elaborating on the world more, so I'll probably end up liking it betterm, but time will tell.
I want to see the anime but I haven't managed to get ahold of any yet
8/10 for me. The series starts out a bit boring until the middle - end when it actually gets interseting.
Update on this, turns out the manga is just a three volume side-story. It was pretty good though. I'm anticipating the novels when the come out States-side