4 December 2008: Re-watching Scrapped Princess
Pacifica.
I've started re-watching Scrapped Princess again. Has it been five years already? I loved this show when it first aired, as did most other viewers at the time, but now it seems I hear negative opinions more often than positive views whenever I notice Scrapped Princess mentioned at all. Has it really aged that poorly?
Raquel.
Re-watching the series with the benefit of hindsight, I'm still impressed by all the elements that made Scrapped Princess a great show to watch the first time around. First of all, its pacing and timing is impeccable, particularly in the comic scenes. The most important facet of comedy is timing; through the early episodes, Scrapped Princess is perfect. Second, the music is great. Watching Scrapped Princess, I appreciate that it has an actual musical score, as opposed to random bits of filler background music as you'll find all too often. Third, this series is heavy on cliffhangers. Cliffhangers probably won't impact your enjoyment of the show if you're marathoning the series in batches, but when I was watching it for the first time, they certainly kept the anticipation high from week to week.
Shannon.
Seeing as how the series aired five years ago, I suppose there could be some readers who know very little about Scrapped Princess. Here are the basics:
- A prophecy predicts Pacifica Casull will destroy the world when she turns 16. The series begins with the 15-year-old Pacifica running from the Mauser theocracy. Its faithful are trying to kill her to keep the prophecy from coming true.
- The setting of Scrapped Princess follows sword and sorcery idioms, but is it magic...or just something indistinguishable from magic?
- Most of the names are borrowed from real-world firearm manufacturers. E.g., Casull, Mauser, Steyr, CZ, Armalite, Winchester (Winia Chester), et cetera.
- Pacifica likes eggs. And how.
- All the female characters have zero-gravity breasts vacuum-sealed into revealing outfits. Okay, not Raquel—at least not often.
- Pacifica takes a lot of baths. And how.
Leo.
But is Scrapped Princess any good? Hell yes. Nobody should have any complaints about the first half of the series. There is a plot device in the second half of the series that a lot of people don't like, but I'll address it once I get that far again.
