©餅月望・TOブックス/ティアムーン帝国物語製作委員会2023
The opening half of “Princess Karen is Kidnapped!” reminds me of the asides you see in shows like Kaguya-sama: Love is War!, where a pair of side characters take their little sketches to get up to shenanigans while we build whatever major storylines of the week will play out. It’s a very typical comedic conceit, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with a show taking a break from its A-Story to give us a broader look at the goings-on of its world. However, the most important thing is that it still needs to be funny or at least some other form of entertainment. Here’s where I wonder about the relationship between the Remno and Sunkland spies: That’s not funny at all. Or interesting. Or memorable. That’s not strange at all, because there’s a lot of storytelling potential with all the espionage and counterintelligence going on. I don’t particularly need all of this world-building to be presented as fun as possible, but if we’re going to go down a more serious route, there has to be some hook in the presentation.
The only important thing we have is a quick contact with Prince Abel himself, who is conflicted about his complicity in the kingdom’s shenanigans against its people. However, as I explained last week, the problem here is that Abel isn’t an entirely interesting character in his own right either, so this doesn’t exactly make the episode any better any. As we’re almost halfway through the episode, it seems like the only thing the Tearmoon Empire has accomplished is reminding us that the revolution going on in Remno is still going on and that there are espionage issues that the Different princes and princesses will perform. Definitely have to be resolved soon, which…okay, sure, I guess. I just wish the show could have conveyed all this information in a more interesting way than giving us a bunch of talking heads and a few moments where Graham is a dummy who takes letters too seriously by Karen.
The second half of the episode is a little better than the first because Karen’s part of the story has a character we’re emotionally invested in enough to keep us interested in the more serious elements of this current arc, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will end well. Like previous parts of the episode, the direction and animation are very inconsistent and it nails all the “danger” and intrigue of the land trying to kidnap Karen with all the impact of a napkin sodden was thrown against the wall of a partially inflated plane. bounce house. It’s never a good sign when a plot seems so redundant that it makes the mind wander and pay attention to all the silly, unsightly flaws that you would otherwise be willing to forgive, and I spent five minutes constantly haunted by a single shot highlighting an out-of-focus and horribly simulated CGI horse. I couldn’t get that creature out of my head.
Anyway, at least I’m glad that Karen and Sion got tangled up in the Revolution the right way. Revolution’s leader, Lambert, has a younger sister who could be an interesting addition to the cast. How ironic would it be if Karen, after all this time, became close friends with a girl who beheaded greedy nobles for a living? Lynsha will probably become another princess best friend in this version of Karen’s life, but we could still use a tsundere to spice things up around here.
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Tearmoon Empire is now streaming on Crunchyroll.
James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop culture, which you can also find on Twitter his blog and his podcast.