Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
ktulu007
Princess Principal is a mid to late 2017 original anime from Actas (the studio behind Girls und Panzer & Tales of Phantasia) and 3Hz (a studio I've never watched anything from. Still, the stuff I've reviewed from Actas has a strong track record. So, let's be hopeful.
Story:
The narrative is set in an alternate history where the great nation of Albion has been split in two, the Kingdom and the Commonwealth. The two parts are separated by a wall and spies from both sides conduct covert missions encroaching into each others' territory. Yeah, I know what that's like. We follow a group of young girls sided with the Commonwealth and allied with the Kingdom's Princess, Charlotte, as they conduct a variety of missions.
The one issue I have with this anime is that the episodes are in a really…
Read at the sourcennnnonato
Thoughts:
This anime was decent and I think deserves more attention.
I found that it couldn't own up to how silly the plot was every time a "serious" scene came up. They release episodes at random points in the timeline but I don't think it helped and just made things confusing at the start. They keep repeating the same lines of dialogue about how being a spy means you have to lie and it got annoying.
^These were nitpicks and when I looked past them I got a fair amount of enjoyment.
Story 6.5/10
The anime takes an episodic approach to storytelling meaning some episodes were not as good as others but overall I think majority of them were good when they focused on our main cast. I wish that there were more tense drama but everyone got along too well for it to happen even with villains.
C…
Read at the sourceAgent_Redacted
Packed with actions and thrills and the finest of turmoils. This is the story about a spy organization consisting of hot girls. Carrying out tasks in order to revolutionize a country. Princess Principal. An anime that may appear to be bland at first, but will swiftly show its true nature and unveil all of its many unique concepts which'll put every watchers dumbfounded.
The mindset and piece of advice you need if you are planning to start this show and really to enjoy it :
- There is no Yuri. Just signs of Yuri.
- As you advance through the show you may notice that the episodes do not feel like it's in the right order. However, rest assured. It’s supposed to be that way at the beginning!
- You may not comprehend a few things while watching this show due to the fact that the mysteri…
Read at the sourceTakaCode
I remember looking at the summer 17 seasonal charts searching for anime to add on my watch list and the summer 17 seasons itself had a lot of worthwhile anime such as Made in Abyss, Welcome To the Ballroom, Magical Circle Guruguru, Tsurezure Children and Princess Principal.
Being a fan of spy genre thanks to the lacks of James Bond, Jason Bourne and other spy anime like Read or Die and of me decided to check out Princess Principal and while I did like the series on my first watch I thought the series wasn't all that special outside of the fight scenes. However, when Sentai Filmworks decided to dub this show a year later I decided to re-watch Princess Principal twice dubbed. One of the re-watches being the chronological order and after re-watching, the show I went from liking the series to…
Read at the sourceBanjoTheBear
(This review has been adapted from my blog/reddit thread. Spoilers ahead!)
When I first started learning about cybersecurity, we talked about notable cases and the importance of hashes. We also discussed one of the earliest forms of encryption: Caesar’s Cipher.
Named after Julius Caesar, he would take his writing, apply his secret code, and jumble up his words. Simple yet effective (for that age at least). To crack it? Just shift the alphabet over three times to the right.
Within Princess Principal, the leading ladies likely encrypt their own correspondences. So, I will do the same here to describe this project: mofkzbpp mofkzfmxi fp x sbov dlla xkfjb.
STORY
Taking on a semi-episodic format, Princess Principal delivers to its audience singular segments that peer into the lives of a gr…
Read at the sourceFrozenRoy
Princess Principal is a show I would have been unlikely to put high priority on watching, but the fact that a bunch of people I knew were planning to watch and review it instantly got it on the table for me. While I was far too slow to join them, I nonetheless made sure to push through later, and here we are. And Princess Principal's concept IS interesting enough. You don't really get a lot of anime spy shows, for example. The recent Joker Game anime, which I still need to watch, was one of the first examples to come to my head. Joker Game, from what I saw, looked a bit underwhelming, so I went into Princess Principal hopeful it would be better.
Princess Principal's chief issue lies in the characters, as there is absolutely no character development throughout its twelve episode run time.…
Read at the sourceGundroog
Princess Principal is a good example of why you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, at least for me. While the spy war sounds interesting the visuals and main cast kinda made me feel that it’s not aiming to deliver on the premise. I didn’t really care for this show until my trustworthy friend with good taste pitched it as “Hitman but with cute anime girls” and was he ever on point.
For the most part Princess Principal focuses on episodic plots that have something to do with all sorts of spy related activities you could think of. Assassination, stealing blueprints or technology, infiltration, sabotage, cracking double agents, it’s all here and it’s fun as hell.
Princess Principal heavily leans on the romanticized view of spies. They’re athletic, observant, smart and are always two or thr…
Read at the source_hazy_
First off, I think this show is one of the hidden gems I have encountered this season. And secondly, I binged watched this in one go, so my experience may differ from the few scathing reviews of this show.
This is a spoiler-free review. (i hope)
This anime knows what switch to flip for a binge watcher like me. While the episodes are not in chronological order (episode 1's title is called case 13, 'nuff said), this helps the audience piece together the story behind the girls. That is why the scathing reviews make no sense to me whatsoever. Each episode provides a little nugget of the girls' day-to-day activities, and each mission the team does, paints an image and offers a deeper understanding on the many aspects of the conflict between the Kingdom and the Commonwealth.
The episodes are…
Read at the sourceCodeBlazeFate
“When you create a web of lies, you'll inevitably trap yourself and become everyone's meal instead”- someone, somewhere, sometime
Princess Principal is an unorthodox title to be sure. Steampunk, non-linear storytelling, and rule of cool. Sounds like it should've been a winner, but it was a case doomed to fail as soon as it set out, exposing itself rather quickly as a fraud and a disaster. It's stupid, it's uncool, and most of all, it's insulting. It tried desperately to confuse you and come off as smart and then it tries to patronize you.
Princess Principal is the condescending and obnoxious dreck from the same team that gave us one of last year’s most crushing disappointments, Izetta the Last Witch. As blasphemous as this sounds, that show was still better than this one in every single…
Read at the sourceSunlitSonata
Spy and Espionage media has always been a very popular topic in the West. Besides the ongoing popularity of the James Bond franchse, and the allure of heist movies like the Oceans' series, they've been around enough to be parodied for decades, represented by films like Austin Powers and more recently Kingsmen The Secret Service. Even cartoons like Archer have taken a crack at Spy shows. In the world of anime, consumed by magic high schools, video game worlds, and Moe appeal, spy shows haven't been very common. The most notable example as of late would be last year's Joker Game, which ultimately became a critical flop with its episodic structure and blandly undistinguishable leads.
Which leads us to today's topic. Studio 3Hz, responsible for last year's cute girl filled yet ambitious Flip…
Read at the sourceLIQfilms
As a child, I’ve always held a fascination with spies. This is most likely due to the fact that I grew up in a family that exposed me to James Bond at a young age. Cool, suave, and sophisticated, capable of carrying off any mission or any feat, James Bond was the type of guy I always wanted to be as a kid, and, as I grew older and into adolescence, Bond’s luck with women only enhanced this idea. Of course, much to the dismay of my eight-year-old self, I grew up to be anything but sophisticated and cool and instead decides to write reviews on anime. So, when I had learned of the content surrounding the recently aired Princess Principal, visions of my childhood flashed in my mind, and I was genuinely excited for the show, as it seemed to be essentially James Bond, but with all the characters…
Read at the sourceBlaufisch
Princess Principal was a good show, but beeing a cute-girls-do-cute-things show stopped it from beeing a great show.
Story (6/10)
While the world is well built and defined, the actual story, a political intrigue surrounding a spy team, was all over the place. It starts out straightforward, stating our characters main goal (one of them wants to throw over the governement and become queen), with the others left to decide where their loyaltys will be. Interesting enough, a good setup, and a well developed world that made me hope for a decend thriller. Sadly, most episodes only focus on the girls backstorys, wheter this is relevant to the plot or not. Especially the japanese girls backstory was annoyng; while the culture crossing was fun to watch, cshe could have been taken out of the show e…
Read at the sourceNoizyFrog
Princess Principal is a serviceable show; not a msterpiece, but not a total failure either. Disappointing would be the most accurate description, because the show introduces tempting setting, interesting characters and unconventional story telling while doing nothing with those ideas. Another aspect not working at all (for me), is conjunction of moe elements and mature themes.
STORY:What story?
Plot of Princess Principal is told out of order, not chronologically. There are shows, which utilized this structure to craft compelling and intriguing stories. PriPri is not one of them. Almost all episodes are stand alone events and are hardly connected by overarching plotlines. A simple case of the week show. Furthermore, the show has no mystery elements, the biggest plot twist is spoilered in…
Read at the sourceEnZanity
Slight spoilers for Episode 6
Moe and Spies are not exactly two tropes you would put together. Moe can often be found in a relaxing Slice of Life that usually contains lots of Comedy, while Spies takes a more Action/Adventure filled route packed with Drama. No one would ever look at these two very different ideas and consider putting them together would make a great anime, yet here we are. Princess Principal is our latest Cute Girls Doing Cool Things, (CGDCT) and its ability to integrate these contrasting themes as if they were made for each other is praiseworthy in itself.
Princess Principal follows an episodic formula, where only the beginning and end arcs span over more than a single episode. The rest is just a selection of missions and daily antics used to explore our characters. Now…
Read at the sourcedadnaya
HEAR ME, I SAY, CROSS THE WALL!
Catchy OP? Check
Amazing ED? Check
Likeable cast? Check
Interesting story? Check Random filler episode? Check
Princess Principal is my Anime of the Season. When I first heard about it, I didn't come with high expectations. I thought it'll be some generic action/magic anime or a "Cute Girls Doing Cute Things" anime.
Oh, I was wrong. Princess Principal DOES have only female characters as main characters, and yes, they are pretty cute, but the last thing you'll say about them is that they're doing cute things. (Well, that is of course if you do not consider killing people "cute things")
Princess Principal is an episodic anime, each episode isn't related to the one before, and aren't released chronologically. Some of them show history and background of th…
Read at the source3xTripple
From James Bond to the Bourne Identity and John Wick, there is always a point in one's life when we've been intrigued by the mysterious, meticulous, and romantic nature of the cinematic spy. However, anime writers always have a way of answering the questions that nobody ever asks---
“What if spies, like James Bond, were replaced with… lolis?”
"Thrilling."
In an unusual twist, they created this interesting anime, where a wide array of political spying and assassinating ends up being left in the hands of a group of young schoolgirls (most of whom, actually have legitimate spy training.) If you were expecting a kiddy girl slice of life drama, you will not find that here. This is a rather well-thought-out spy series that happens to have young girls as the protagonists.
Story: 7/10
One of…
Read at the sourceSanaeK10
On the surface, Princess Principal ticks all the boxes for elements I like in anime, Victorian Steampunk, dark gritty environments, intrigue and mystery with a dash of light-heartedness on the side. With Studio 3Hz on board as one of the main studios, how could I pass this up? 3Hz also made my favorite anime of all time, Flip Flappers. So how does it compare? Some minor spoilers follow.
Well, the more keened eye amongst you may notice that Okouchi is head of the writing staff. The guy infamous for his trainwrecks both lovely and grand such as Code Geass or Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress. I thought that even if the overall story wasn't any good, I'd still be in for a smashing good time. Sadly (or thankfully) the team seemed to have sedated him or placed him under heavy medication, as Prince…
Read at the sourcePipe
Princess Principal a title that could mislead any viewer. First, you could think that the show is about a school and girls. Then you could start considering any slice of life plot and girls related storytelling and few moments about spying. I must say, it is wrong.
Story: 8/10
Princess Principal has a very creative plot with an impressive storytelling that could surprise a lot of spectators. The story deals with espionage in a divided nation, nothing to do with a slice of life plot. The spies are young girls that use their student status as a cover. During the day, they are typical students and when the duty calls they transform into dangerous and very skilled spies with particular abilities.
One of the possible issues found in the forums and some reviews is the lack of a plot sequence…
Read at the sourcethemegamancave
“This just isn’t a cover anymore, we’re real friends now...”
The spy. An archetype explored an incalculable amount of times, spanning across all forms of media. Whether it’s the dark and methodical approach of a John la Carre’ novel, or the more mainstream and charismatic James Bond film, each entity produces something that ensnares the senses and transports you into the action. I’ve always been a fan of secret agents and spies in cinema, so it’s no question that this affinity would translate into other mediums such as anime. The 2016 release of Joker Game helped affirm this assumption by offering a unique mix of action, stealth and wit. Now, almost exactly one year later I was introduced to Princess Principal by a dear friend, an original anime directed by Masaki Tachibana (Barakamon, To…
Read at the sourceStark700
There’s something just really dangerously exciting about Princess Principal. Mixing genres of mystery thriller with some bits of science fiction and steampunk, this is a show that proves original anime can still work well with the right talent and creativity.
Original anime these days tend to be risky to make despite not falling under adaptation pitfalls. Princess Principal has its risks when it assembles a cast of cute high school girls together in a spy thriller. I have to admit, this show got my adrenaline pumping a bit from the first few episodes. My first impression of this anime started with the setting. It’s innovative and takes place in a time era of the 19th century in England. A major conflict in the story is about the civil war that separates the Kingdom of Albion into two nat…
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