Princess Resurrection

Summary: >

Hiro received a letter from his sister who is now employed as a maid in a new town. The plan was to move there so they could stay together but this gets put on hold when a steel support beam at a construction site falls and kills him. Lucky for Hiro, he's saved by a princess of the underworld, who resurrects him to become her immortal servant.

Left to the whims of Hime, being a princesses servant is tougher than it sounds. Not to mention Hiro is repeatedly killed by the many monsters which attack her. Hime's family is currently fighting over succession of the underworld king. As a candidate, Hime is a popular target of her siblings. Not the best time to become underworld princesses' minion, but what can you do?

Thoughts: >

Another example of an anime which mostly misses the point of what a series was supposed to be about: Princess Resurrection is not a story intended to be scary (for anyone over 5), nor is it even very well written. Instead it takes the western monster mythos and builds a gory violent fun adventure out of it. Honestly it's not even that gory, but it does involve a decent amount of blood, which oddly enough is completely absent in the anime. The anime is heavily sanitized and thus loses much of what Princess Resurrection is about. Wait, what is it about again? It's basically a wacky romp using monsters to provide a situation where Hime can strike a conspicuously cool pose, along with an odd macabre sense of humor. Gimping the violence when that was the main feature creates a big void to fill for this one, and likely why it didn't fair well.

The characters are okay even if not deep. However Princess Resurrection introduces them, then doesn't flesh them out for a very long time. This gives the impression they're shallow, but if you hang in there, they become something better. Most of the cast is female, but this isn't a harem anime as they aren't interested in Hiro. Two of these girls provide a good contrast: the tomboy werewolf girl Liza who is expectantly loud and rambunctious, and her opposite - the feminine elegant Reiri who is a vampire (seriously love her voice actress). Vampires and Werewolves are mortal enemies and while these two never get along, their story of cooperation eventually turns into one of the better points of the show.

Hiro appears to be the main character, but I'm not sure he is. He provides perspective, but his presence is rarely required to progress the story. Even worse, he's worthless for the entire anime, and often really stupid. Who tries to fight werewolves with a broom? Despite Hime being attacked EVERY EPISODE, this kid never devises a plan nor carries anti-monster munitions. Hime always finds her chainsaw just fine, but Hiro always seems surprised (perhaps it's genetic considering how dumb his sister is).

I wasn't sure what to make of Hime at first, but eventually found her the strongest character. It's not clear at first, but her defining is remaining composed at all times, no matter how dire the situation. She seems distant, and doesn't directly acknowledge things below her stature. Yet her actions reveal her good will even if she only shows indifference. I think Hime's is consistent with being royalty. Which is pretty cool.

The story is the biggest failing here. Much of it is simply boring and monotonous, with only an occasional decent episode. After episode 20 things begin to look up, with the highlight being episode 24 as Hime FINALLY confronts one of her siblings.

While I blasted Princess Resurrection for much of this review, I was surprised I didn't hate it in the least, although it possibly deserves it. There's a LOT of room for improvement, and I so wish it had done a lot of things better but it wasn't totally hopeless. It's a very inconsistent title on all levels. Most of the animation was poorly done, but it had it's moments. Likewise the soundtrack was drab at times, but some of the music was quite inspired. The way this added up, I decided I couldn't rate this as average as so much of it was boring, and felt like it was simply going through the motions. If you're intent on watching Princess Resurrection, I guess it's your call to either wait for it to get better, or just skip a bunch of the beginning stuff. I have the feeling if this series had been made into an OVA during the 80s, it would have been incredible, but with the censorship / paranoia climate battering the anime/manga market right now, that probably wouldn't be possible, and may have been a contributing factor to this anime being gimped. It's a fair title at best, but might be a fun watch to get you into the mood for Halloween.

Screen Caps: >