Review Shamanic Princess

Every so often your local anime store runs out of the title you so desperately wanted to get. Instead of not buying anime that week ( god forbid) you decide to get an one shot Oav or a movie and hope your favorite is restocked next week. Shamanic Princess is one such title. Now the question is whether you made a good choice for your anime choice of the week.

Shamanic Princess is the story of Tiara, a sorceress from the guardian world. She is aided by a talking ferret by the name of Japolo. Tiara is sent to the real world to recover the throne of Yord. Specifically she is sent to a quaint European town and enrolls in the local school. It isn’t long before she finds Lena, and old friend of Tiara who was also sent to recover the throne. However it seems that Lena has become negligent in her duties, and is actually trying to help Kagetsu, the person who originally stole the throne of Yord. However Tiara will have none of this and confronts Lena in magical combat. Just as Tiara starts gaining the upper hand, her powers are neutralized, something only Kagetsu could do.

Shamanic Princess at first glance is a magical girl show. There is a girl with magic, a traditional talking animal sidekick, she even has a transformation sequence. Don’t let this fool you, though. The plot and battles in this show are very different from the standard magical girl fare. The battles in Shamanic Princess are far more engaging than other magical girl battles. Instead of whipping out the old magic wand and smashing foes with a pink heart projectile, Tiara uses a variety of magical spells. And her magic spells aren’t exactly cute either, they have an organic feel to them. Sort of the Akira of magical girls. Tiara’s foes also have magic in the same vein but markedly different from Tiara.

Shamanic Princess is more than just battles though. There is also a wonderful story there. The story is very short (the entire story is on this disc) and there is many revelations placed throughout the story so I can not say too much without giving it all away. One thing I can give away is that the story ends at the end of episode 4. Episodes 5 and 6 are a prequel to the first four episodes. Even though there are frequent battles the plot is very tight and fast. As developed are the characters. The show has a small cast but spend a lot of time developing personalities.

The artwork is very good as can expected of an Oav. The artwork is done by Atsuko Ishida, the character designer for Magic knight Rayearth (the person who adapted ClAMP’s manga designs to anime form). The influence is noticeable especially when Tiara has her hair down she looks like Fuu from Rayearth.

The music for Shamanic Princess is also good. It has a couple of rather good songs. My favorite is the festival of the wind (ending theme to episodes 5 and 6.)

So to answer the question I posed at the beginning of the article, yes Shamanic Princess is a good buy. It has a good story and good artwork. If for nothing else getting 6 episodes in one DVD makes this a good buy. I give Shamanic Princess a 4 out of 5.

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