Story:

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5.0

15 years ago, the Grendel prophecy stated that a girl would be born to a queen who would destroy the world on her 16th birthday. To prevent this, the infant was to be killed as soon as she was born. However, the baby was spared and continued to live a protected existence until her father, the king, died.

Fast-forward to the present. Pacifica is the legendary 'Scrapped Princess' who has survived to this day through the protective care of her foster family. Unfortunately, both foster parents have now passed away, and Pacifica must flee her hometown under the protection of her foster siblings, D-Knight, Shannon, and skilled magician, Raquelle. With an apocalyptic curse hanging over her head, Pacifica is feared by the locals, and in particular, the Church of Mauzel, who are offering a bounty for her head.

Pacifica's character is twofold. At times she can be a spoiled brat, believing herself to be too good for household work, wishing for better food and accommodations, etc. Other times, the severity of her situation weighs in on her, such as when she dwells on how much of a burden she has become to her beloved siblings, who have sworn to protect her at all cost. If not for them, she would live a life of solitude, and she fears, lose the will to continue living. Yet, Pacifica still maintains a certain innocence about her - believing the world and its inhabitants to be generally good - while failing to grasp the true motivations of why people would believe she could be fated to destroy the world.

Because of this dual aspect to Pacifica, the anime has a peculiar irony to it - which becomes dramatically intensified when the anime introduces the real motivations at play. The followers of two gods - Mauzel and Brownin - each want to destroy the other and let their god reign supreme. Pacifica, as Scrapped Princess, holds the key to the destruction of this world under Mauzel's rule, or so the legend says.

Pacifica, a innocent girl with seemingly good intentions - who also happens to be our main character - is labeled a witch (and other such titles) and immediately thought of as evil. As viewers, we must question whether the world and its belief that Mauzel is the one true god is merely an illusion and perhaps Brownin, labeled the "devil" by most in this world, and his minions may indeed be the true god.

By taking this stance, the anime appears to a commentary of Catholicism - what if the Church imposed an "evil" god upon us, and the entity we call the "devil" may actually be the true god? What if the roles of god and the devil were reversed? And how is evil truly defined (a question that has plagued theologians and philosophers for millennia.) Yet, this is fiction, in an alternative universe, so we can play out this scenario and find out what might happen, absent of the baggage of 2000 years of Christianity (and if this makes it into the US without religious backlash, I'll be amazed!) Has this fictional church of Mauzel mixed up the "correct" message and its believers are simply pursuing an innocent girl out of fear? Or will Pacifica really destroy the world on her 16th birthday and bring about the age of darkness (or light, depending which side you're on)? Or perhaps this is simply a political endeavor that has nothing to do with the gods, but is merely brought on by arrogant men who hold fast to their beliefs as comfort for the harsh cruelties that life brings.

For an anime that plays with such heavy theological concepts, Scrapped Princess eloquently mixes the deeply philosophical with much appreciated light comedic breaks. The pacing works well - the siblings have set out on a journey through the land to escape their pursuers - all the while, never quite knowing where they'll end up or who they'll encounter along the way, and dealing with what life brings when the time comes. I highly recommend this anime!

Animation:

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5.0

The animation is very good, although with Bones behind it, could it be bad? The colors are crisp and vibrant and the movement is fluid.

Music:

My Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0

The music is ok. It starts out with a celtic feel to it to get you in the heroic knights mood and mixes with pop.

Character Design:

My Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0

The characters in SP are seemingly balanced. Pacifica is more direct and in your face. She can come off as amazingly empathetic or highly spoiled. Her siblings seems to have learned to deal with it and are generally laid back, although she and her brother tend to quarrel frequently. There is a decent amount of character development early on, unlike a lot of anime, so you tend to get a feel for who they are and why they do what they do.

Overview:

Srapped Princess takes place in what appears to be medieval times where magic works and sword fighting prevails.  The story revolves around a young fifteen year old girl named Pacifica and her step-brother Shannon and step-sister Raquel.  She's on the run because she is the Scrapped Princess.  Just before she was born, a prophecy was given that she would destroy the world on her sixteenth birthday.  Her father tasked his soldiers with killing the girl so that the prophecy would not come true.  She was saved from her fate, however, and given to a foster family to raise, care for and protect.  Now that she is approaching her sixteenth birthday, she is being hunted down by the royal forces as well as the church of Mauser.

Shannon is an excellent swordsman and Raquel is a powerful wizard.  Together, after their parents have died, they protect Pacifica from the various attempts on her life.  Pacifica appears on the surface to be a spoiled brat, whining about being cold, hungry and tired all the time.  However, this masks her deeper feelings about her existence and all of the problems it has caused those around her and her inability to protect herself from harm.

I am a fan of both fantasy and science fiction.  I have found in the past that most stories that try to mix the two together do a poor job of it.  The only good story I'd found was a Doctor Who novel called "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" which meshed the two well.  This story does the same and in a similar manner.  As I said above, it appears that we are in a medieval world but, as we find out gradually, they have more advanced weapons.  We also discover that the magic being used is more than just that.  It takes Arthur C Clarke's third law or prediction that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" and runs with it.

One thing that this story does, and which draws me to anime in general, is show the personality behind the characters.  We initially see the characters as the good guys and the bad guys but then we see that the bad guys are just people doing what they too think is good.  This is shown early on in Leo when, after he's smitten by the Scrapped Princess, he discovers who she is and, as a knight, is duty bound to kill her.  This causes all sorts of conflicts with his ideas of chivalry and justice.  This is further exlored in other character developments as well, such as Chris, the Baroness, Prince Forsythe and even the Peacemakers.

The story has very few filler episodes with each one building upon the final climax.  When the characters perform an action or deed, although not always expected, you pretty much see where that character was coming from and why.  This is something that I like in Stephen Kings books as well, the character development.  With this said though, there are several lull points within the series.  These are places where there is too much exposition and not enough action.  Granted, there is a need for this to set up the story - just don't watch if you're too tired...  A couple of times I had to agree with Pacifica when she said, "I don't understand any of this."

All in all this is a great anime with a good blending of genres to make an entertaining story.  The conclusion of the series was satisfactory with very few unresolved crises (besides the inter-personal elements).

Music:

The theme songs have a Scottish theme which lends to the middle ages theme.  I found the opening theme song "Little Wing" to be light hearted and fun.  I was less impressed with the ending theme song "Daichi no la-li-la" though it isn't bad either.

Animation:

The animation in this show is superb, in my opinion.  The colors are bright and the background details lend to a believable scenery.

Suggestions:

I would suggect that younger children stay away from this only due to the violence.  There is little of this but there are some bloody scenes.  Also, there are some heartwrenching death scenes as well.  I would recommend this for 13 and up, which I think is the ratings on the DVD's.

Favorite Scenes:

After Seness has finished explaining to Shannon, Raquel and Pacifica about the dragoon, their battle fortress and the world they live in, Pacifica has what I call a Mihoshi (from Tenchi) moment.  She basically says, "I don't understand this at all," to which Seness must dumb down her explanation a little for her.

During one battle Socom tries to understand why Shannon is fighting for Pacifica's life instead of trying to save the world.  Shannon replies that he didn't know that they two were mutually exclusive.  Why couldn't he fight for both at once.

The scene where Pacifica finds the bath house token that was Furet's.  Her amnesia causes her to not remember him but she still feels an overwhelming saddness.  This was a touching moment.