12 March 2024: I was expecting Torture Princess to be more popular even though I stopped watching it
I like that they imprisoned her with her sword.
When I first heard about Torture Princess, I assumed it was some sort of edgy bullshit manga. Then, when I found out it's a comedy, it wasn't difficult to piece together what it's actually about. Later, when I learned it was getting an anime adaptation, I assumed it would generate a fair amount of buzz, since I had always heard the manga is popular. As it turns out, I dropped Hime-sama, "Goumon" no Jikan desu ('Tis Time for "Torture," Princess) after two episodes even though it was mostly fine.
Cordless phone.
I stopped watch Torture Princess because I assumed it would continue being mostly variations on the same basic joke. I'm sure this sort of thing can remain fresh if it's done creatively, but I'm not a huge fan of reaction-based humor to begin with. As a result, I got my fill of Torture Princess gags pretty much right away. It didn't take long for me to lose interest. There were some jokes that I liked because they did not follow the basic template of the main gag, but they weren't enough to keep me watching.
Where does she poop?
Still, I assumed the anime would be fairly popular with other viewers. And while I wouldn't call its current performance a failure, it at least doesn't seem to place highly in weekly popularity polls and whatnot. I also don't encounter much enthusiasm for the series in the corners of the Internet that I frequent. I suppose I should avoiding putting too much stock in that one particular metric, since I don't encounter much enthusiasm in those areas for BokuYaba or Frieren either, and those are my top two shows this season by a considerable margin. There's no question those two are popular, though. Torture Princess, not so much.
