スクラップド・プリンセス/ Scrapped Princess

‘I am so glad I watched “Scrapped Princess”, a privilege it seems to me few Westerners have enjoyed. It’s a wonderful, clever, inventive and moving story, particularly episodes 21-23. The ending was typical anime – a bit unconvincing, reminding me of Eva – but the characters were just sublime. An awesome anime, universally appealing. I wish there were more.’ - October 12, 2003

It’s been a long time, now, since I watched Sutepri, but it remains a favourite of mine, from a period of anime I consider to have been a fleeting golden age – just as anime was getting really pretty, more cerebral and had firmly established its stock characters without them yet growing too stale, but before the mid-decade gimmicks of moéblobs, psychotic yandere characters and, more recently, overwrought irony tarnished it all again.

The first episode of Scrapped Princess is a stunner: in a medieval-style world, a stubborn blonde noble is under the protection of two bodyguards. She is the princess of the unfortunately Engrishy title: discarded by the royal family at birth because she is prophecied to bring great ruin to the world. I usually don’t like plots driven by prophecies, but they are after all classic, and this one at least centres on the idea that the prophecy could just be nonsense, and whether it is worth killing a child over something mystical. The first episode ends with the Cassul siblings, the two bodyguards, taking care of a threat, and the way Shannon remains so motherly and pleasant even as she displays her impressive abilities forever cemented her as one of my favourite characters. Indeed, it all goes a bit lazily sci-fi at the end, but that doesn’t stop it being an anime with a great world, outstanding characters and a very pretty aesthetic.

It’s proven quite an enduring title, so my ‘few Westerners’ comment seems a bit off now: while still certainly not an anime that could pass as mainstream, it often crops up in discussions of good anime of the past ten years, and its theme song proved popular, often cropping up in mixes for the likes of Stepmania or anime-based mixtapes.

One of the slew of anime that made me into a lifelong fan rather than someone who casually dips into a show or two a year, I will always have fond memories of Pacifica and co. I really ought to rewatch the whole lot.