Murder Princess

Information of Anime

In the country of Forland, its kingdom is under attack.  With the death of its king, the princess, Alita Forland, escapes.  In the dark forest, she runs into a bounty hunter named Falis.  Accidentally pushing her off a cliff, the two of them somehow switches their souls.  Asking for Falis' (who is in Alita's body) help to save her kingdom, Falis agrees & takes out the invaders.  Because of her performance, Falis, now Alita, is called Murder Princess & gives birth to the most violent princess in history

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  This section does contain some spoilers.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

Alita (who's now in Falis' body) is renamed as her late maid & friend, Mirano Entolasia, serves Falis (now Alita) as her personal maid.  They agree to continue this act, not only until they can switch back, but not to give the scary to the public since this switch is unbelievable.  Plus, the invader (who was Dr. Dominikov, a professor to the kingdom) is still out there trying to kill the princess (who should be in Falis' body).  However, it turns out that Dr. Dominikov is working for a witch who manages to get "Alita"'s brother, Kaito who is also the mysterious dark knight, to return.  The witch's goal is to cover the lost technology of Teoria which is sealed under the kingdom's castle.  To remove the seal, Alita's body is needed.  With Dr. Dominikov defeated & announcing that "Falis" is a traitor to the kingdom regardless of her protecting it, "Falis" & the gang escape the castle to regroup.  Here, the viewers learn about the lost technology & the world of Teoria.  Afterwards, the group attack the castle.

The door to Teoria manages to be open when "Falis" is knocked unconscious.  Kaito activates Teoria & wishes for world destruction in order for the world to be reborn from filth of wars.  Kaito knows that Alita & Falis traded bodies.  Falis tells Kaito how his sister Alita is trying her best to protect the kingdom she loves which moves him.  However to stop Teoria completely, "Falis" needs to pull the emergency switch which will cause Pete & the others running on lost technology to stop functioning.  "Falis" makes the choice of stopping Teoria & loses her friends.

The show ends with Falis still in Alita's body & being known as the feared Murder Princess in the kingdom as she continues to protect it.

My Personal Review

Murder Princess is quite an interesting anime OVA.  I started to pick it up when I heard & read some of information about it.  It's a bit on the gore side, but not heavily.  So, it can enjoyed by a large number of people.  It's best not to show it to children.

Animation

The character designs are a bit different from Bee Train's works.  I didn't know it was made by that studio until I saw the credits.  Usually, I can picked it up with the same face structures & eyes.  This time, the faces are a bit smaller & the eyes are very small or round & large.  Still, they look pretty good.  New Alita's buddies are drawn pretty well too even though that look more suitable for a comedy genre.

The colours are pretty dull & colourful.  Your typical Bee Train style.  The balance in colours blend in well between the characters & backgrounds.

The backgrounds are okay & detailed.  Most of the areas are dull & gives off that old English medieval feel to it.  Not the best, but fair enough.

The animation flow is pretty smooth.  It's got a mixture of realistic & silly stuff for comedy.  Not much choppy or missing frames from what I seen.  Good quality animation for an OVA.

Sound       

The sound effects are pretty good & clean.  Lots of silly sounds for those funny moments.  Played on cue too.  Some of the sounds can be a little fake at times such as Alita ripping her dress for battle.

The seiyuus aren't too bad in my opinion.  They role play their characters well.  Mirano was a bit hard for me.  Not sure if it's the character being overboard or the voice itself.  The amount of crying was really annoying at times.

The music contains mostly fork & rock.  They are okay, but I don't remember any of it.

Story

Basically, Alita & her group helping Mirano save her kingdom.  The Murder Princess has to act out as the real princess until they manage to get back to their original bodies & defeating Dr. Dominikov who was actually being controlled by a witch.  However, the story isn't too simple as the technology Dr. Dominikov uses is from the past (which looks more like our present time technology) & the change in Alita's behaviour when she's fighting to the death.  Viewers are exposed about the technology more as well as the story when Kaito appears.  The story builds up nicely to this point, but the pace quickens with a fair amount of questions unanswered such as how Alita goes berserk & the reason behind it.  Plus, answers to questions are pretty simple such as Kaito accepting Milano's goal which leads to a somewhat incomplete ending.

The ending is okay as it leads to a continuation to the series which should be picked up from the manga.  For an OVA, this is fine as you can squeeze an entire series in a six episodes.  Again, it leaves some questions answered in the end.

Overall Conclusion

Murder Princess is an exciting OVA that I'm glad that I picked up on.  It's got a nice balance of humour & action & the story seems to have some potential.  Personally, this anime is a good choice to watch if you like some action.

Murder Princess gets a seven out of ten. The story is ok as it has suspense & a decent plot.  However, the OVA leaves some unanswered question which should be continued from the manga.  The action & comedy is really holding this OVA up in a good way in gaining interest.

Last updated on January 14, 2008