The Black Lizard Planet
(This review contains
spoilers!)
The big question since the first few
episodes of Princess Principal was
about Ange and Princess’s shared history. Were they twins separated at birth?
Childhood friends? What was going on there?
This episode finally answered those
burning questions, and while most of the answers were the expected ones, they
were delivered in a supremely satisfying way that created easily the best
episode in a series filled to the brim with excellent episodes.
The spy plot this week was only given
a few minutes of screentime and only really existed to give the overarching
plot a gentle push forward, as the girls got more of an idea as to what the Duke
of Normandy is up to. The real meat of the episode was given up to the much
more deserving plot: Ange and Princess’s backstory.
While the backstory is fairly simple
and something we’ve seen many times before, it does employ a very clever trick
to make it all the more investing. At its core it’s just “The Prince and the
Pauper”, but considering the fact we already know these characters creates a
new and fascinating angle on it: since they both look identical as kids, there’s
no way of telling which one is Ange and which one is Princess.
The whole story is spent guessing
whether Ange is the pauper character like we’ve been led to believe or if she
was originally the true princess. Things are further complicated when the
princess and pauper switch lives for a day and the people in the poverty
district call the disguised princess Ange.
The ultimate explanation is that the
day the two switched places is also the day the riots broke out leading to the
creation of the wall that separates the two districts in the world, trapping
the former princess (our Ange/Charlotte) in the pauper life and the former
pauper (our Princess/Ange) in the princess life. Trust me, they explain it way
better in the actual episode.
The switch and resulting chaos is
everything I’d hoped the backstory of the two would be, even if the actual
background was a little bit predictable. The fact they left it unclear at first
which character was in which role is brilliant directing and left me hooked
from the first moment. And like every great mystery, this answer leaves behind
a question of its own: what happened to the original princess in between being
blocked off from her home and adopting the Ange name for the spy work?
Princess
Principal continues to defy the odds and make better and better episodes
every week. While this episode had a lot riding on it considering the build-up
to Ange’s past, the way it was delivered was a directing and writing spectacle as
is to be expected from this anime.
FINAL SCORE
10/10
Legendary
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