Princess Principal Episode 2 Review

Game of Dresses

(This review contains spoilers!)

          The first episode of Princess Principal was masterful in its use of subtle wordplay to lead the viewer on a surprising and unexpected adventure, complete with beautiful scenery. As good as the first episode was, I was admittedly wondering if it was a fluke and we’d be seeing a severe quality drop starting this week.

          I’m happy to say that I was proven wrong. This flashback episode is just as good as its predecessor, making me feel that this is truly going to become the sleeper hit anime of the season.

          This week flashbacks to when the team first met, and we get a proper introduction to the titular Princess. This episode uses the same sleight-of-hand tricks and wordplay to its advantage as the first episode did, and it’s just as entertaining here.

          Here the spy crew is seen infiltrating a fancy ball, with the intent of discovering what’s going on with the mysterious Princess while at the same time stopping the Duke of Normandy from getting the key to a vault. They use every single classic spy trick in the book to make their way around this case, and the solutions they come up with can be pretty brilliant at times.

          One of the cooler parts is when Ange, our favourite liar, dresses up as Princess to attempt to woo the key out of the current holder’s pocket. At first glance it looks like a fun scene that brilliantly uses both the animation styles used on Ange and Princess at once to create the illusion of her in disguise, but it becomes even more brilliant towards the end of the episode when the big twist comes into play. It turns out Princess and Ange are related in some way, possibly as twins separated at birth. It’s an incredibly smart conclusion to an episode all about how the two contrast, and, once again, makes this a show that just begs for repeat viewings.

          Seriously, why aren’t more people watching this show? It has everything you could possibly want in an anime: entertaining and varied characters, gorgeous animation and background art, brilliant writing, and fun action. If you’re looking for something good to watch this season and you haven’t checked out Princess Principal yet, frankly you’re missing out big time.

FINAL SCORE

9/10

Amazing