Murder Princess: DVD 1 (Episode 1) April 14
Murder Princess | DVD 1/Episode 1 - Birth | Release Date: March 28, 2007
And so kicks off a monthly OVA series based on a manga of the same name. How could an OVA named “Murder Princess” kick off without a fast, hard rock song from BACK-ON? Simple answer; it couldn’t.
BACK-ON - Hikari Sasuhou (FK Metal ver.)
Summary: Murder Princess starts off in an unexpected way, with a monster killing. Turns out there’s a bounty hunter in a forest voiced by Paku Romi who you would know as Edward Elric and…Nobody else. Come on, don’t kid yourself. A monstrous wolf attacks the bounty hunter who strikes a pose and then begins to deflect attacking wolves with her katana and kicks. After throwing a knife into a wolf’s eye, the hunter’s monstrous partners start to behead and break the bones of the attackers. Normal so far, right? Just hold on, because you’ll never guess–
A castle is being assaulted by the wolf creatures! The unnamed soldiers of the fortress don’t stand a chance and the king sits on his throne behind a barricaded door guarded by more soldiers. He seems to be concerned. At this point, I wonder why? Could this be foreshadowing? Suddenly his daughter Alita runs down the stairs (she’s the princess, by the way) and they reveal that the king is bleeding from his side, even though there’s no blood or wolf corpses on their side of the door. Mysterious. Of course, the king wants his daughter to escape and carry the family name, so the king dies and a maid replaces her as she runs out of the back of the throne room via hidden tunnel. Note that she has yet to murder anyone yet: this is important. Also, this is where the series changes from average fantasy to something you shouldn’t miss.
Two children break down the door. They’re little girls; uh-oh. Wait, no, they’re teenagers. Maybe not…They just killed a man with rocket fists. As it turns out, a researcher who recieved grants from the kingdom decided to start a coup d’état with little robot girls, because he couldn’t come up with a more menacing idea.
The soldiers that came with Alita are suddenly turned into a torsolicious feast for a strange snake-like monster. Alita runs away in an instant instead of cowering in fear and crying for the soldiers, because Deus Ex Machina’s a bit boring. After some foreshadowing of two mysterious figures, we see Alita reaching a cliff. The bounty hunter Faris suddenly slashes at Alita and stops just before another beheading occurs. Alita cries and asks for help when the monster appears, and with a bit of dumb luck, she screams and drags both of them off a cliff as the monster decimates it in one punch. Suddenly the pair form a golden glowing sphere, and land in the arms and on the head of Faris’ partners. Here’s where Paku Romi switches characters, so you start paying more attention to Alita. Wait a second! That’s not Alita! Faris is in Alita’s body! How could this happen? Oh right, folk lore. If you face death at the same time as another person, your souls could swap. Then suddenly the monster reappears for a fight and is diced in half by the princess, proving that she’s not as useless as she should be. By princess, I mean Faris. Alita’s still useless, but you’re willing to forgive that, right?
Now if you haven’t forgiven her yet, here’s where Alita does something cool for once. She offers her own body as a collateral payment as long as Faris and her partners save the kingdom. Of course, since everything in this anime is normal, Falis’ partner Dominikov turns his magically-appearing scythe into a flaming motorbike and they speed towards the castle. I bet you thought that saving the kingdom was going to be the OVA’s entire plot now, didn’t you? Crashing through the windows of the castle and speeding to the throne room, and then making a grand entrance in front of the researcher and his questionable robots; this is how the big fight scene of the episode begins. The fights in Murder Princess don’t have attack names, and so far no siginificant enemies have been introduced, but Faris fights quite well so the combat was really entertaining. There are no screens of this provided, as they can’t do the animation justice. After throwing the researcher off the throne, Faris announces that she is now Alita, ruler of that kingdom, because Code Geass is delayed until the summer and we need a domination-hungry badass.
The ending theme isn’t quite as energetic and totally rockin’ like the opening, but it does show some aspects of the series that need not be developed upon later.
Paku Romi - Naked Flower
I have to say…
Although Murder Princess is obviously ripe for parody, it’s a definite quality series. It takes a tried and true, but horribly boring plotline and turns it into something surreal. Faris and her partners Dominikov and Pete are pretty interesting, and Alita may be a bit unique herself down the road, if the collateral scene proves to be more than just a single event. Pete’s combat style is a bit too resembling of Alphonse Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist, but the focus is more on Dominikov and Faris anyway, due to Dominikov’s strange knowledge of folklore and Faris for being the “princess.”
The music in the background is definitely kickass. Hard rock and it’s well placed, too. Naturally the opening theme fits well with the background music, and is a sign of good things to come. Being an OVA, the animation and picture quality of the series is amazing, but the monthly release dates are a drag. Oh well, it’s a small sacrifice for quality viewing.
I say this is definitely worth watching as long as you don’t mind waiting for the next episode and can ignore the “subplot” of the castle seige for this episode. Just be glad the entire plot of the series isn’t taking back the castle and enjoy the rest of the series.
Next Time: Crowning (April 25, 2007)
