I went into Shamanic Princess knowing very little about it other than it had a short noncanonical crossover episode with Magic Users Club so I had no real expectations going into this. Im not going to say that Im disappointed but more just underwhelmed with it. Thats not saying that its bad by any stretch but the series overall could have been much better with a few minor changes. This 6 episode OVA follows Tiara a special agent from the Guardian World the home of mages who has been sent to earth disguised as an ordinary high school student to recover the stolen Throne of Yord a powerful mystical object which is the source of magic energy in the Guardian World. During her hunt for the Throne of Yord she discovers that it has a terrible secret when some of her friends and colleagues from the Guardian World fight to keep her from retrieving it. This series has a lot going for it. It has good animation and art a decent premise a great soundtrack by Yoshikazu Suo that is appropriately moody and fits the series well and has an darker atmosphere and themes that could drag you in if its something that especially appeals to you. But as I mentioned earlier it does have a few problems that just prevent it from being a great series instead of just being an OK one. For some reason the first four episodes of this series seem to really rush through its plot. As if either the series didnt have the budget or time to properly flesh it out. One scene goes to another without any real transition and doesnt really give any breathing room making the pacing of the show just feel off. By the time youve realized whats going on youre already half way through the scene. There is even a plot point early on where out main character goes to a human high school to fit in as to not arouse suspicion that goes nowhere. Its probably why those first four episodes are so confusing and hard to keep track of at first its too busy rushing through its own story. Maybe the series could have done with at least one other episode just to give the series a better pace. My biggest problem with this series are the last two episodes. Those last two episodes contain all of the character development and establishing plot points that lead up to the first four episodes of the series. Which begs the question why are these last two episodes not the first two episodes? These two episodes feel like they were moved around just so the series could have some sort of twist at the end. If the people behind this series wanted to tell something out of order they could have had these two episodes be flashbacks placed at certain points throughout the series. At least that way it would have given the rest of the series a better pace and it still could have lead up to some sort of twist if thats what the creators wanted. Shamanic Princess isnt a bad series by any stretch but the idea to have the last two episodes be where they are really drags down the series as a whole making it more confusing than it needs to be and the series as a whole would have been much better if they were located somewhere else. Id recommend Shamanic Princess to anyone who like their series with some darker themes and more atmospheric presentation.
58 /100
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