The year of 2003 was huge for the newcomer
Bones studio. After releasing
RahXephon,
Angelic Layer and working in a few mainstream movies from franchises such as
Cowboy Bebop and
Escaflowne, the studio released three monstrous shows that year: Scrapped Princess,
Wolf's Rain, and
Fullmetal Alchemist (FMA).
These other two shows, especially FMA, pushed the simple, yet charming, Scrapped Princess to the sidelines. If that wasn't enough, the year of 2003 followed its predecessor and is probably the most glorious year of the japanese animation industry. These factors all contributed to make Scrapped Princess only "one more" in the mind of most people, a terrible mistake, as there are very few medieval fantasy shows with the allure and execution you can find in it.
Scrapped Princess is a decent mixture of classical and modern (by standard of its season). The character design is inspired by late 90's shows and videogames such as
Neon Genesis Evangelion and
Lunar, while some of the monsters and machinery presented through the tale are surprisingly innovative. Everything is sharp and consitent, with a quality standard delivered throughout the show.
Emotions, however...
One can point out the somewhat bland coloring as a negative point of the production, but the most critical of it is certainly the lack of expressive power of the cast. Pacifica, Shannon, Raquel, Winia, and most of the cast simply cannot put emotions to their faces. They all look apathic most of the time, even when they are trying to smile or to convey doubt or fear. This wouldn't be an issue if the show followed lines such as melancholy or pit-black political/mafia fare, but Scrapped Princess proudly approaches comical, dramatic, action, and many other elements that are sadly slightly disrupted by this limitation of the animation team.
Sound direction was becoming less of an optional flavor and more of an intrinsic element to a show's quality when Scrapped Princess released. Perhaps because of that it lacks a solid direction that would make it stand alongside shows such as
Fullmetal Alchemist and
Gundam Seed. The opening is nice, although not decent enough to be kept through all episodes. The background music is sadly forgotten until the last third of the tale, where it finally kicks in important moments. Fortunately, the voice-acting is top quality, managing to deliver far more emotions than the dull character's expressions and mixing bits of comical and serious elements to the show's charming tale.
Pacifica Casull, princess of Leinwain, was prophesied to bring doom to the world if she reaches her 16th birthday. When she was born, twin to a boy, the king ordered her to be cast off the highest cliff to meet her death. She survived, adopted by the Casull family and raised as their own. Now, however, the king and the faith of Mauser are once again in her pursuit. Is the prophecy true? Pacifica will destroy the world? Is it right to protect her?
Cat and Rat
Basically, Scrapped Princess is a huge tale of cat-and-rat play, where Pacifica and her siblings, Shannon and Raquel, must flee the royal army, hide from the commonfolk, and find some way to survive at least until she turns sixteen. This is mostly true for the first half of the show, which focus on developing the main trio, presenting some of support cast that will play more important roles in the end, and ultimately bringing to discussion an old question: "is the life of a single individual worth more than that of many?".
It is, however, a complex post-apocalyptic tale
The world where the tale takes place, however, is an odd one. Although people conduct their lives as if in a medieval world, there is magic and there are weird ruins all over the place. As it turns out, the setting is some sort of post-apolyptic world, were humanity faced an alien threat of epic proportions and was forced to recede technologically and socially. Revelations occur throughout the show and it ends up as a quite interesting approach for a setting that initially seemed just your basic medieval fantasy fare.
It wraps up quite nicely
If we know a thing from Bones now in 2015 is that they surely make stupidly complex scripts that have holes and incomplete explanations all around. Scrapped Princess, however, never goes too far with its tale, keeping itself grounded as must as possible so it can explain the most important things, work without using many stupid coincidences (let's forget the genetic stuff about people being destined to protect Pacifica...), and ultimately leaving the audience satisfied with the conclusion.
A nice political/religious approach
If there is an element that can surprise in Scrapped Princess, it is the lack of focus on action and combats. You have many warriors, mages, kings, mercenaries, and so much of your typical Dungeon & Dragons elements that you would expect fights and exploration to be the key elements. What happens, however, is a far more political and diplomatic approach to solve most of the shows' issues, even when colossal beings that shoots laser appear. The ties with religion also aid in engrossing the depth of the drama, making the adventure tale at the start end up as a fight against opressive beings of very unexpected origins.
Although the characters lack the expressive power, they are certainly one of Scrapped Princess' most important assets. The vivid and clumsy Pacifica, the silent but caring Shannon, naive and energetic Leopold, etc. The cast gets quite large as the show moves on, with every other episode presenting a new person that will stick for a while and perhaps even play an important role by the end. In fact, it's amazing to see a show that presents a character as important as Fulle so late in the tale.
The cast is surprisingly preserved, yet remain smartly used
Although there is an important death by the late part of the show, the cast basically only gets larger and larger. Scrapped Princess, however, is careful to not forget them after they are presented. Most of the people Pacifica meets are smartly recalled later, so you know what is happening with them, even if that means only saying "he's doing ok living in his house". Most of the support, however, will follow Pacifica for a while and move on with their own lives. When you are dealing with a girl that can bring doom to the world though, their lives certainly bring them back to Pacifica's side or put them mixed in the political/religious warfare.
Scrapped Princess was a refresher in its season. It offered a mixture of nearly everything that was attempted in medieval fantasy shows by then. The difference to everything else, however, was a smart execution combined with a show that offered more of a serious adventure than just a carefree tale of D&D templates with comical value as it happened in shows like Slayers, Orphen, Rune Soldier Louie, Maze, etc. The serious take on the setting makes Scrapped Princess some sort of a medieval fantasy Trigun, which is certainly an awesome thing.
There is, however, a lack of impact to the show. It's hard to point where exactly this comes from, but we could certainly suppose it is about the average sound direction or maybe that a bit more of action was missing. Anyway, this issue caused Scrapped Princess to be forgotten amongst the behemoths of its time and its impact in the industry was very timid.
Scrapped Princess is a decent mixture of genres. Its heart is that of a long epic adventure, but it constantly plays a light and natural comedy when it comes to the relationship of Pacifica, Shannon, and Leo. It also grows scy-fyish when it tackles the ancient civilization, dragoons, and forgotten technology. Finally, it brings action and tension in a decent pace, making it a warming experience to basically every kind of viewer.
Scrapped Princess takes me back to my high-school days. It was perhaps the first show I've watched as it was released in Japan due to the magic thing we know as internet. Talking about it always brought a nostalgic feeling and also frustration because I was perhaps part of a selected few of my friends who ever watched it by that time.
I've rewatched it a few more times since 2003, always becoming entranced by the fluid progression of the show. At the same time, however, the show has aged quite a lot in comparison to others, perhaps because of the classical style it has or maybe because the sound direction was still quite undeveloped. Nonetheless, Scrapped Princess is one of rare shows of the medieval fantasy genre that achieves such a high degree of quality and execution and a must see for fans of this sadly unexplored genre.
Note: Hitsugi no Chaika is animated by the same Bones studio and led by basically the same people who made Scrapped Princess. Although the loli-thing took over the art direction, the ideas and style of both are very similar.
