Its such a shame that I have to write two not so stellar anime reviews in a row especially since theyre both shoujo anime. I feel like I write more negative anime reviews than positive but that will likely be changing since I am enjoying most of what Im watching currently and its not like I have reviewed many anime in the first place. Unlike the other series I just reviewed Vampire Knight I went in with expectations. Im super easy to please so I expected to enjoy this series. After all its a fantasy shoujo anime Some of my favorite things. I was expecting something like Snow White with the Red Hair which I love. Unfortunately Bibliophile Princess never clicked with me completely. I desperately wanted to love but I was never able to. Bibliophile Princess is the nickname given to Lady Elianna Bernstein a young noblewoman who loves to read above all else. She agrees to be the contract fiancee of Prince Christopher when he offers her the chance to avoid all the social obligations that came from the high society life they lead giving her more time with her precious books. Eli leads a happy life reading to her hearts content with access to the palace library. What she didnt expect was for her feelings for the prince to grow and the desire for a real relationship to blossom. I wish we did get to watch the relationship naturally develop because Bibliophile Princess begins with a massive timeskip of multiple years between Christopher asking Eli to be his fiancee and the true start of the story. And that brings us to the shows biggest issue: the major violation of show dont tell. Were told that Eli fell in love with Chris we just dont know why or what she sees in him. We do know what Chris sees in Eli which is great. Were told that Elianna has done and developed all kinds of great things to benefit the kingdom. However the only thing we see her design is a dress in one of the later episodes. All we see Eli do is read books but I never saw her talk about or take interest in these fields that she works in. I also never felt like she had many obstacles or that she had to struggle. The people who opposed her and caused her problems didnt even do much or pose a threat to her. She relied a lot on others to help her solve her problems which isnt a bad thing and she did acknowledge that she didnt want to constantly be protected. When I started Bibliophile Princess I had a feeling that I would like Elianna. When I was younger I was also extremely bookish shy and a bit socially awkward since as Ive mentioned I dealt with a lot of social anxiety and I was a bit sheltered as a child. I never disliked Eli but I came to notice that she seemed a bit blank and apathetic. She usually had an empty stare and didnt remember much. I liked her best when she got worked up or she got to express herself as someone just super weird who gets all her information from strange books. This was when she became more like the Eli we saw in her childhood flashbacks. The Eli who had life and energy instead of our current empty character. I do appreciate her finding her forte as a peacekeeper even if we dont see why she hates war so much. She is an idealistic character and if the writers had let her have more personality and let her show interests in specific fields of books instead of just books in general she would be so interesting to watch. I also felt like her relationship with Chris was a bit awkward since she had extremely little faith in his loyalty to the point where she would be swayed by a tiny child spreading rumors. I felt like with every obstacle they overcame in their relationship Eli would take multiple steps back. The main love interest Christopher was a nice enough character. I appreciated him since he was very kind and patient and he was the only character who we got to see the way he was made. However I also felt like he was missing some kind of spark. I will admit that I hated him in the beginning since he didnt have any personality traits but he actually ended up becoming one of my favorite characters in Bibliophile Princess. He gets bonus points because I could actually recognize what he looked like at all times. Speaking of which the male side characters in this anime are so bland and boring that I could not differentiate any of them despite them having different hair colors. I had an easier time with the Raven in the Inner Palace male side characters than here and these guys have more differentiating features. I genuinely gave up trying to remember who was who since I couldnt even remember their names. There was a scene where Eliannas brother was confessing his love to a female side character who we met she actually had a lot of wasted potential. First off these characters never interacted and second of all I forgot Elianna had a brother and I mistook him for Chris for a hot second. I got so confused every time a male character appeared because I wasnt sure whether or not they were a new character or one who I forgot about. With time I was able to figure out who Theodore and Alan were at the very least. I actually really love the animation and aesthetics. I love pastel colors and I found the color pallet to be very nice to look at. The characters had very beautiful outfits especially Elianna. I loved her dresses and hairstyles throughout the series. Elen was the only character who I thought was dressed extremely weirdly. As for the music I loved the opening theme though the ending theme was a bit weird since whoever was singing it hit some very high notes towards the end that sounded a bit strange to me. I didnt really like it much. I wanted to love this show so much but it ended up being extremely average. I only really felt motivated to finish it for completions sake. Bibliophile Princess isnt a bad series by any means but it wasnt a series that Id rewatch and promote. Id rather revisit Snow White with the Red Hair another slice of life romance in a fantasy setting which has much better writing and characters.