Hello everybody, it’s Manga4life and today I've decided to write a review, in fact, I've decided I would review a series that kind of flew underneath the radar with a lot of anime fans, not because it wasn’t a good series or anything but more or less because it wasn’t heavily promoted and wasn’t overly popular over in it’s native country of Japan. The series I plan to review today is called Corpse Princess and it’s interesting story and fun characters make this one worth watching if you’re a fan of chicks with guns and enjoy a little bit of mystic flow in your plot line.
The story of Corpse Princess is simple, it revolves around a couple of dead girls called Shikabane, who have to kill 108 other corpses in order to get into heaven, to do this they are given semi-automatic weapons as well as mentored referred to as contracted monks. Most of the series is spent following Ouri as he builds relationships with the good Shikabane while trying to be a normal high school boy in the process, he’s basically forced to come along on adventures with his brother Keisei and his bonded Shikabane Makina as they try to reach the 108 corps limit that they need to obtain. When Keisei meets his doom toward the middle of the series Ouri finds himself in the position of having to become a contracted Monk in his place, the story basically shifts toward the relationship Ouri builds with Makina as they battle off enemies that they’ve created throughout the series. Again, nothing too special but fun nonetheless, there is a sense of mysticism as well as macabre in Corpse Princess and it’s actually a very enjoyable series to watch if you’re into that sort of thing, I wouldn’t watch this series more than the couple of times that I did but I’m glad I gave it a shot and I think those who are reading this should do so as well. Even though this show wouldn’t make my top 20 favorite anime’s of all time or anything like that I would still label the show as something that should be watched by the casual and hardcore anime fan alike, it’s very entertaining and offers a little something for everyone and has a voice over cast that you‘ve heard (and loved) in the past. The flowing plot lines mixed with the way the characters build their relationships is what really made this series worth watching in my opinion, the scene where Makina bids her final goodbye to Keisei is probably one of the most powerful moments in an anime that I’ve seen (although overdone a bit) and it goes to show you how important everyone has become to each other both pre-story and throughout the show.
One thing that has kind of bothered me for some reason is that leading up to the release of this show on DVD, FUNimation didn’t really put any major promotion behind it and there was basically no buzz for this show’s release whatsoever, I came across the first 4 episodes on FUNi’s video player by accident and decided to watch them and that’s how I learned of this series. I really feel as if FUNi has missed the boat on Corpse Princess, the show has a small and loyal fan following and I really think that FUNi could have garnered a larger audience for Corpse Princess had they put a little mustard behind the program months before it’s release, heck, I never saw any kind of ad’s in Otaku magazines or on anime related websites or anything related to the medium. It was basically a breech birth.
Now it’s time for one of my favorite things to do and that’s to analyze the production values of this series and to go over where I felt the show hit or missed in it’s animation and sound department, first things first, I think I’ll start with the animation side of things. First of all, the animation in Corpse Princess is good but I felt the attention to detail was kind of weak and some of the character animations came off as a little strange at times but overall I would say that the series had solid artwork to it and the character designs were well done, other than that there was nothing really special to boast about and I would say it’s animated fine for what it is. Don’t go into this series expecting a landmark in the animation industry because you will come out disappointed, but it worked for the kind of story they wanted to tell and the dark overtones to the art helped to set up certain scenes wonderfully, it most certainly wasn’t a dud but I would say that Corpse Princess was a stud when it comes to how the series looks as a whole.
One plus side to this series is that it was voiced wonderfully for the English cast, sure there was a scene or two that was overdone and I wouldn’t say that it ranks as one of the best voices anime’s of all time, but the voice over cast did a great job lending their voices to the characters and many of the voices you hear are people who’ve you certainly have heard in other show in the past. On top of the voice overs being done nicely, the sound effects were superb as well with everything sounding pretty nice and background sounds coming off fairly realistically, it wasn’t perfect but it did the series justice and I would say that the audio was one of the stronger points of the show. The music was done pretty good too but nothing really remember able came out of it so it’s hard to say that it will leave a lasting impression on you because it probably wont. Still, the music that was used was actually pretty good and alongside the sound effects it definitely helped out with the general feeling and mood of the program, but again, you probably won’t be humming any of the tunes like you would with music from other anime series in the past.
And now it’s time for me to rank the shows based on the same grading system I’ve used since my first review, this is one of my favorite things to do when reviewing a certain series and I feel like I’m fair in my judgement and I hope that my friends and readers agree. As for Corpse Princess, it’s certainly worth a viewing if you haven’t seen it before but I wouldn’t say that it’s a series you will watch over and over again, maybe twice at best like I did, but it’s deserving of your eyes and the eyes of others and it would have achieved that had FUNi promoted it a little better than they did
Art & Animation - 7.0/10
Music & Sound Effects - 8.0/10
Story & Writing - 7.5/10
Fun - 7.5/10
Overall - 7.5/10
As always I want to thank those who took the time to read my blog, it's much appreciated and you can always check me out at www.twitter.com/manga4life as well as TZ and FUNI.
Take care,
***Manga4life***
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