Corpse Princess Preface After watching the first episode over a year ago I decided one late night to begin bingeing the series. Im always on the search for a good animated horror unfortunately the genre is oversaturation with lackluster quality series. Often over encumbered by additions with no real horror aspect such as Chainsaw man or Death Note. Id rather have an affixed gore tag than labeling these titles as horror. Corpse Princess in the finest sense is a supernatural drama. However with the Shikabanes designs ranging from humanoid to monstrosity I can understand the horror tag. I feel atmosphere is also a big player since death seems to flicker in and out and be a continual part of our characters overarching existences. Background/Synopsis Corpse Princess follows the story of Makina Hoshimura and Ouri Kagami with many other prominent characters playing supporting roles. We follow an interesting plot surrounding Makina and her familys grisly murder set 2 years prior to the main storys events. Shikabane are driven by regret nature and being each progression in the scale being more deadly than the last. Similar to Demon Slayers Blood Arts few Shikabane are given life defined by their nature but will develop a curse representative of said nature. On a personal note Im a big fan of villain groups such as the Akatsuki Phantom Troupe or 12 Kizuki. So when this series introduced a group of neerdowells knows as The Seven Stars I was hooked. In gist the 7 Stars colluded to murder the Hoshimura family due to her black bloodline thus setting in motion a means to give the head hancho purpose. The head is of the Hoshimura bloodline and is the strongest shikabane often compared to death itself because she was raised to be a sacrifice and knows nothing of the world only seeking to understand through destruction. Despite being drawn and quartered Makina revives as a Shikabane driven by the sheer dire to destroy the stars. Its then that she enters a contract and becomes a ShikabaneHime hell bent on destroying all those that return from death with regrets. 300https://media1.tenor.com/m/J8dhFZWOZRwAAAAC/corpseprincess.gif Things I Enjoyed Pros + The basic premise of the story was enjoyable since it centered around Makinas revenge tour. + Villains were interesting along with the concept of revival due to nature. Gave additional weight/value to death since decisions made in life carry meaning in death. ie. How terrible of a person one is + Every character relationship outside our two main characters. Bonds between people were well dialogued and done so inaway to enhance the emotional resonance when an event occurs. + Animation quality was better than I expected for a horror genre made from 20082009 Things I Disliked Cons + Hinted relationship between Ouri and Makina felt forced. Outside characters would make jabs about their status within the story but to me conversation always felt rigid and cold. + Inconclusive ending. Not all 7 Stars are defeated by the end and Makina for some reason developed a need to Save her enemy and give her a new lease on life/purpose to live on. Actually a brilliant concept considering Makinas whole reason for being murdered was to eventually give Hokuto purpose by becoming her enemy. By committing to save Hokuto she essentially seeks to break the wheel our villains set into motion. Ending the series after this proclamation however earned zero points with me. + 2nd in command of the Seven Stars has crazy plot armor and no reason to be alive. + Outside of Hokuto Touya and Ouris Brother So minor hes not even listed as a character on Anilist we know nothing of the backgrounds behind our villains. Makes it hard to sympathize or hate them beyond the actions we see during the main storys progression. + I fucking hate The Power of Love plotline stories take. Authors trying to dig themselves out of a narrative hole is hilarious though. 300https://media1.tenor.com/m/otdI7PNPWwAAAAC/shikabanehimecorpseprincess.gif Final Thoughts Thought provoking and enjoyable to watch but falls short of a captivating experience. The topics presented dont boast necessity to produce a flawless animation but rather present a broader subject matter to their audience. Whether the series fully delivered on this subject matter is neither here nor there. What I can say is that many titles tend to lack a semblance of connection whether it be to its characters plot points or worldbuilding. Often overcomplicating the storyline trying to give vague unreinforced meaning to the casts existences attachments to one another and historical connection. Corpse Princess as a whole is a fun watch with interesting concepts but lands flat on execution.