User reviews

Excellent characters and backstories. You soon forget the girls are cute anime in a school. This is really well done stuff. Love the episode where Ange tells her story (8). I watched the subtitled version but I think the dubbed would be good. Could do with more like this. Ange uses a Webley Fosbery semiautomatic revolver (made around 1914). The Fosbery is called "The answer to a question that nobody asked"

This is a wonderful series. I don't normally watch Anime but I took a at look at it based on the recommendation of someone I know. It's very, very sophisticated and very nuanced and I've actually found myself re-watching episodes multiple times and picking up either new or different things each time and not getting bored The story takes place in an alternate universe in a fictional steam punk England of the late 19th century, called Albion. Albion has gone through a civil war and the country is split in half. One called the Commonwealth of Albion and the second called the Kingdom of Albion. The Commonwealth is a break away country taken over by the poor and working class, and The Kingdom still retains the monarchy. Both portions of the country are involved in a secret shadow war involving the spies. At the moment there is a détente between the two sides. But there is a secret shadow war being waged between the two sides involving spies and scientists. With each side trying to get an advantage over the over. The story involves two Commonwealth spies Ange and Dorothy whose cover are school girls at a prestigious boarding school located in the Kingdom. They are tasked with stealing secrets from the Kingdom. While at the school they take on three additional members to their crew. Chise a Japanese transplant. And Princess Charlotte ,the 4th in line to the throne and her young friend Beatrice. The story is not told in a linear fashion and jumps back and forth between the past and present. And it is up to the viewers to piece together what is going on. There is a massive reveal in the show. The animation is wonderful and so are the action scenes. As an Anglophile I preferred to watch the dubbed version as well as the action. Not only does it make for easier viewing. But the cool mellifluous British accents (voiced by American actors) lend more confidence to the characters. And gives them an air that they can handle whatever difficulties are thrown their way.

Not only is the story rich in terms of plot. But it also has wonderful themes. Such as friendship, loyalty, learning to trust, duty, service to one's country, being the bigger person and of course the courage and character you develop and in becoming someone completely new...better, stronger after encountering a tragedy. All of these themes are picked up without coming across as heavy handed and preachy. The characters are wonderful and fully fleshed out, In fact they came across more real and authentic and like flesh and blood human beings ,than much of what comes most of Hollywood. I especially the main protagonist Ange, and what drives her. The show determines that she really is a hero in the truest sense of the word.

It's been ages since I've been able to fall so deeply in love with a story and characters that I spend days thinking about it. Robert Ford in Westworld says that good storytelling is supposed to help us ennoble ourselves, to fix what was broken in us and to help us become the people we dreamed of being. Lies that told a deeper truth. And the truths that I've learned from watching Princess Principal have really added to my life in ways that I can not describe.

When you watch the trailers and then the first episode, Princess Principal looks a lot like "Lupin with girls". There's Ange, the leader of the action and a master of disguise like Lupin; Dorothy, the driver and best friend like Jigen, and also an irresistible femme fatale like Fujiko; and Chise, who is clearly Goemon's daughter. There are car chases, building infiltrations and clever plans to complete the mission. In one early episode there's even a jump through a giant clockwork (hello, Miyazaki! hello, Cagliostro!), and of course there is always a princess to be saved (hello, Cagliostro again!).

But then, quickly the plot develops and you start to discover that there is much, much more. Things start to get dark, and often heartbreaking. Bad people die, good people die, often right in your face when you were rooting for their survival. At the same time, the plot is exceptionally well written, and will continuously surprise you with twists that almost never look forced or unbelievable. In fact, every detail will always go in its right place in the end. The story will also bring in more and more themes: what is a lie and what forms your identity are the most obvious, but there will be implicit, surprisingly fresh commentaries on loyalty, war, poverty, social inequities (the social depiction of late 19th century London, full of poor people and orphan children, is quite precise), working class slavery, fatherhood, broken families, and even racism and early relationships between Japan and the West. Except for a couple of filler episodes (more relaxed, but never funny; don't expect any real comedy) each episode will leave you emotionally exhausted, but also waiting for the next one.

The series is also technically brilliant. There are a few directorial choices that you won't forget, like the ending of episode 6. The musical score is superb, as any Yuki Kajiura score is; Lupin-style jazz plus classic arrangements plus the right bit of tension at the right point in time. The animation is also often notable, especially in action scenes.

The many prizes that this series won are well deserved, and it is incredible that it was not a big hit; I suppose that the main reason is its darkness and emotional toll, or perhaps people were fooled by the appearance of "pretty girls in a high school" (by the way, this is one of the few cases where the prettiness of the girls is credible, and never gets in the way of the story; fanservice is almost non-existent). Let's hope we get more of this in the future (can't wait for the movie). Unless you are only interested in anime because of comedy and big boobs, you should absolutely watch this series.