Anime: Shamanic Princess 52s6f

I went into Shamanic Princess knowing very little about it other than it had a short non-canonical crossover episode with Magic ’s Club, so I had no real expectations going into this. I’m not going to say that I’m disappointed, but more just underwhelmed with it. That’s not saying that it’s bad by any stretch, but the series overall could have been much better with a few minor changes.

This 6 episode OVA follows Tiara, a special agent from the Guardian World, the home of mages, who has been sent to earth disguised as an ordinary high school student to recover the stolen Throne of Yord, a powerful mystical object which is the source of magic energy in the Guardian World. During her hunt for the Throne of Yord, she discovers that it has a terrible secret when some of her friends and colleagues from the Guardian World fight to keep her from retrieving it.

This series has a lot going for it. It has good animation and art, a decent premise, a great soundtrack by Yoshikazu Suo that is appropriately moody and fits the series well, and has an darker atmosphere and themes that could drag you in if it’s something that especially appeals to you. But as I mentioned earlier, it does have a few problems that just prevent it from being a great series instead of just being an OK one.

For some reason, the first four episodes of this series seem to really rush through it’s plot. As if either the series didn’t have the budget or time to properly flesh it out. One scene goes to another without any real transition and doesn’t really give any breathing room, making the pacing of the show just feel off. By the time you’ve realized what’s going on, you’re already half way through the scene. There is even a plot point early on where out main character goes to a human high school to fit in as to not arouse suspicion that goes nowhere. It’s probably why those first four episodes are so confusing and hard to keep track of at first, it’s too busy rushing through it’s own story. Maybe the series could have done with at least one other episode just to give the series a better pace.

My biggest problem with this series are the last two episodes. Those last two episodes contain all of the character development and establishing plot points that lead up to the first four episodes of the series. Which begs the question, why are these last two episodes not the first two episodes? These two episodes feel like they were moved around just so the series could have some sort of twist at the end. If the people behind this series wanted to tell something out of order, they could have had these two episodes be flashbacks placed at certain points throughout the series. At least that way, it would have given the rest of the series a better pace, and it still could have lead up to some sort of “twist” if that’s what the creators wanted.

Shamanic Princess isn’t a bad series by any stretch, but the idea to have the last two episodes be where they are really drags down the series as a whole, making it more confusing than it needs to be, and the series as a whole would have been much better if they were located somewhere else. I’d recommend Shamanic Princess to anyone who like their series with some darker themes and more atmospheric presentation.

I have seen 4/6 episodes, I couldn't motivate myself enough to watch the rest, it was just too boring.

What's the story about
Tiara is a shaman, who comes from another world it seems. She has a magical companion who is a talking ferret. She's been ordered to find a painting called the Throne of Yorudo. And for some reason she fights, on different occasions, against her ex-boyfriend and girl friend to get to it. The fighting is done with magic and creature summonning. It almost looks like friendly fighting, but they're apparently trying to kill each other.

Fortunately it isn't any childish, Shamanic Princess is actually a serious anime, which failed to catch my attention at all.

Animation: 9/10
For a 1996 anime the drawing is actually very nice, the characters and backgrounds are well detailed, with an OVA quality, better than TV series. The animation is fluid, there seems to be very little shortcuts also. Overall, the graphics aren't too obviously outdated. I'd almost say that there is too much details to some scenes. Sometimes it looks very realistic, other times it's distracting.

The colors are actually the only reason this anime looks old, I boosted the saturation and contrast alot to get prettier colors.

Sound: 3/10
Voice acting is below average, the characters lack personality because of it. Sound design is above average, the sound effects are good and detailed.
The music is really bad, if this ova had better music to agrement the fighting scenes, it would be much more entertaining. The ambiance would be very promising if the music was better. Probably one of the worst anime soundtrack I have ever heard.

Story: 4/10
If I could focus my attention to the story it might actually have been good, but it was totally lost on me, so i'll rate it just below average.

Characters: 2/10
Static characters. Flat. Voice acting once again doesn't help here.

Enjoyment: 2/10
*yawns*

The only decent thing in this series are the fighting scenes. It could make a decent music-video for some japanese rock band, it would perform better there than as an OVA.