Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Last week, we talked about Joker Game, a spy anime that I felt missed its mark what it meant to be a good and interesting spy anime. That’s why this week, I’m going to show you what a good and interesting spy anime looks like and the anime I’ve chosen is Princess Principal. Hands down one of the best animes from 2017. Princess Principal is an original anime written by Ichiro Okouchi who helped write Code Geass and directed by Masaki Tachibana. The anime was produced by Studio 3Hz a new studio that got started in 2013 but didn’t really make their name known until 2016 when they made Dimension W and Actas a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Arts that worked on a number of small animes and OVAs. With an original idea and a small and unknown studio working behind it, the odds were stacked against this anime but the anime prevailed and became one of the best animes to come out of 2017. Let me show you how to do a spy anime correctly and take a look at Princess Principal.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening is “The Other Side of the Wall” by VoidChords ft. MARU. Once again the opening really does good job capturing that spy atmosphere. My favorite part is the piano at the beginning. I really do feel like the piano sets the tone for the song and lets you know you’re about to see something new and interesting. Boy were they right.
The ending is “A Page of My Story” by the VAs of the main characters. While not a bad song I didn’t really care for it all that much. It’s cute, charming, and it’s a good way to put a smile on your face. But I feel like it seemed out of a place at the end of a few episodes.
Episodes 1-4
The anime begins in 19th century London. Thanks to their air force the balance of global power has shifted greatly because they monopolize this source of energy called cavorite. With this source of energy their kingdom called the Albion Kingdom became the greatest power in the world (wow, London rules the world. Never saw it coming). Which means it was only a matter time before a revolution came and boy did it. The revolution caused the kingdom to split into two, the commonwealth and the kingdom of Albion, and they were separated by the London Wall (well we finally get to see one of Trump’s ideas at work and no surprise, it didn’t work). Little did London know, that they would become the frontlines for a war against spies. We return to the present state of London (now having a steampunk feel to it) on the Albion Kingdom side of the wall where a scientist is running away from government officials. He manages to get saved by a girl named Ange a spy working for the Black Lizard Planet who’s been sent to rescue him and deliver him safely to the commonwealth side. She’s voiced by Ayaka Imamura (Miyabi from Absolute Duo). With the help of other spies, they manage to escape their pursuers and arrive at their hideout the Queen’s Mayfair school where they’re students by day and spies by night (everyone needs a club activity). We get to meet a few of the other characters as well. First up is Dorothy voiced by You Taichi, who acts as the leader of the group during operations and is a good driver (for a woman). Also, she’s 20 years old (yet, still looks like someone in high school). Chise voiced by Nozomi Furuki, an exchange student from Japan so naturally she’s good at using swords (and a part of me thinks she’s Goemon’s daughter). There’s Charlotte voiced by Akira Sekine, the princess who’s fourth in line for the throne and seems to be Ange’s friend. Lastly, there’s Beatrice voiced by Akari Kageyama, a girl from noble descent who serves as the princess’s aide and can manipulate her voice to sound like others (the lady of a 1000 voices). After rescuing the scientist he’s told to stay out of sight and is put in the care of Ange who makes him food and talks to him a little. He makes a request that they save his sister Amy who is in the hospital saying he wants to take her with him over the wall and won’t leave without her. The girls sneak into the hospital and find her where we see she has what’s known as cavorite disease (her eyes glow green and her personality has become bipolar). As the episode goes on we see Ange and the scientist develop a bond with each other with Ange opening up about her past like how she was discovered as an orphan with the word spy written on her head (Ange: I wanted to be singer. (Nitsuj): Nope, spy. (Ange): My teacher complimented me on my singing. (Nitsuj): Spy! (Ange): I got approached by colleges who are offering me a full ride. (Nitsuj): Spy! Your future has been decided for you. Now spy~). The day comes for him to go over the wall where they lie to him and say they got his sister because they found out he was lying to them as well. It turns out the guy went to the Duke of Normandy first to save Amy and was going to give him classified information in order to cover Amy’s operation (not cool man). They manage to find the conspirators and Ange takes care of the scientist by killing him all while saying she wasn’t going to kill him and even admitting to lying about her past (scene here: https://youtu.be/OITlDCssAww). As for Amy, they manage to get the money for her operation by having him sign insurance papers before he died. The money from his death paid for Amy’s operation and she’ll never know about it (okay, good setup and all but the pacing is way too fast. I had to rewatch the episode a few times to fully grasp what’s going on and who our characters are. Not to mention they really don’t explain why the girls are spies and what cavorite is. I know I’m harping on this way too soon but it’s the first episode. While you got me interested in the series, you’ve lost me on what’s going on).
Alright, episode 2 kind of serves as a prequel as we see how everyone came to know each other. It begins with Ange coming to the school as a new student and Dorothy being her partner in the operation. They were sent to the school to capture the princess, Charlotte, and replace her with Ange. At a ball the two receive new orders to go after Morgan a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee who has blueprints that he plans to deliver to the Duke of Normandy (who just happens to be Charlotte’s uncle) in exchange for asylum. The army wants those blueprints as this could lead to a war with Northern Europe so the girls drop everything and go after Morgan. Dorothy tries to approach him using her body (I know your 20 but I don’t think he knows that and he’s not risking going to jail) but agents from Normandy get in the way so they go with plan B, using the princess. Ange gets close to the princess and spills some wine on her dress so she has to take it off (and let me just say she’s wearing some very sexy lingerie. Not sure what she was expecting to do tonight but who am I to judge). Ange takes the dress, cleans off the wine and approaches Morgan dressed like the princess where she strikes a deal with him to get him and his wife to safety if he hands over the key to the blueprints (it’s either that or I kill you right here). He agrees and hands over the key. He then tries to take his leave but the Duke of Normandy shows up and gun punches him in the chest (man, those Europeans have cool spy weapons) and alerts the guards. This causes everyone to get locked inside where they’ll be searched which means Ange and Dorothy will be found out. Lucky for them, Charlotte comes in and tells them that she knows they’re spies and threatens to expose them unless they give in to her demands. She wants them to join her team and help her become the next queen (alright. Take out 3 royals and we’re done). Ange tells her superiors the demands of Charlotte and they argue amongst themselves on what to do because they think Charlotte might be a spy herself. Once Ange says she’ll kill Charlotte should she leak any information they agree to Charlotte’s demands and she helps them out by taking the key herself since the guards won’t search her (scene here: https://youtu.be/PoPQAG_2BXk). So their mission is a success but there’s still the mystery of how Charlotte found out they were spies. The answer, Ange told her or rather Charlotte told Ange. In a surprising twist at the end we find out that Ange this whole time was Charlotte and Charlotte this whole time was Ange and they’ve been friends ever since they were kids (I don’t know what’s going on either. The anime’s messing with my head. . . and I like it).
At the start of episode 3 Ange tries to get Charlotte to run away with her to Casablanca where they can live together in peace (and live in a garden of ecstasy. Nothing confirmed yet but it’s getting there) but Charlotte says no she wants to be queen and eliminate anything stopping them from being together (see? It’s getting there) and Ange reluctantly agrees to help her out saying she’ll fool everyone including herself. Ange and Dorothy bring Charlotte and Beatrice to their club room where Beatrice is still against the idea of partnering up with spies (I mean they’re spies, why would she trust them). Ange and Dorothy are given a new mission to recover the printing plates for the Commonwealth Pound from the royal air force. They were stolen and now the Duke of Normandy plans to mass produce pound notes to create financial instability. In order to get aboard the ship holding the plates, Charlotte and Dorothy will go on board and create a way for Ange to stowaway and retrieve the plates from an agent of Normandy. Dorothy creates a way for Ange to sneak in using the water pipes and Beatrice tags along as well by accident. From there the episode becomes about Beatrice learning to trust Ange and accept her as an ally to Charlotte. We get to learn that her dad was a tinker and used her in his experiments. One of which resulted in her dad implanting a mechanism in her throat which allows her to change up her voice. Ange manages to get the plates back, but she’s injured and there’s only one parachute to escape with. Ange chooses to give it Beatrice so she can escape but refuses to leave Ange behind. When the guards show up they manage to fool them using Beatrice’s voice and escape together on the parachute landing safely.
In episode 4 the group is tasked with infiltrating the cavorite mines. The kingdom has developed a cavorite sphere (the same sphere that Ange uses) and now the spies of Commonwealth are afraid that they’ll use this power to create anti-gravity weapons which will crush the Commonwealth easily. The group must now infiltrate the mines, find the prototype, and escape (all while looking cool and badass doing it). Thanks to the princess they manage to get inside the mines for a party (who the hell holds a party in a mine?) and split into two teams. Ange, Beatrice, and Dorothy go to get the prototype while Charlotte stays at the party with Chise as her bodyguard. It’s during this time that we see Chise is secretly working for her country who are trying to decide which side to back up, the Commonwealth or the kingdom (whichever side has the cute and awesome loli spies is the side you should be backing up). Dorothy is also told to keep an eye on Charlotte as her bosses still believe in the possibility that she’s a double-agent working for the kingdom and might take action to sabotage this mission (if she’s a double agent than she’s got everybody fooled). Dorothy distracts the guard allowing Ange and Beatrice to go deeper into the mines where Ange goes in alone to retrieve the prototype. She reaches the depths of the mine only to find that the research facility has been moved via ship and is on the way to Thames. Ange meets back up with the group, and they head to Greenwich hoping to catch up to the boat before it’s too late. They catch up to the boat but before they board it the group airs out their suspicions of each other. For Chise the group keeps putting her on guard duty not because they don’t trust her (I’m sure that’s lie), but because she’s an honored guest and they don’t want to put her in any danger. As for Charlotte, she says she’s going to board the boat with them saying that she has to help them succeed because if they fail her secret is blown (in the end, the person who has the most to lose is her). This convinces Dorothy that Charlotte isn’t a double-agent because if she was it shouldn’t matter if her secret gets out because she would have a safety net. But here, she’s willing to put herself in danger and risk exposing herself all for the sake of the mission succeeding (no double-agent would go to such lengths to keep their secret hidden). So they board the ship, knock out the guards, save their mole, and not only get the prototype sphere but also the researchers of said sphere (today’s a win).
Episodes 5-8
Episode 5 serves as the introduction to Chise. In the episode, Horikawa an ambassador from Japan has come to London to discuss treaty matters. However, a rogue samurai named Jubei who is the last remaining remnant of the shogunate is out to assassinate him. Charlotte and the rest of our spies are to accompany Horikawa on his train ride to London where Chise stowaways on the train saying that she’s here to kill Jubei herself because he killed her father (he’s your father isn’t he?). Chise begs to be allowed to stay but Ange wants to get rid of her because she’s unpredictable (and that’s what makes her so enjoyable) but Charlotte tells Ange to be friends with Chise and the two slowly begin to bond. Jubei finally makes his move by attacking the royal train and we get a thrilling fight scene between Chise and Jubei while Ange and Charlotte stop the trains before they crash into each other. In the end Chise defeats Jubei and buries him revealing him to be her father (Called it. Too easy. Scene here: https://youtu.be/I7RwfHSIyMQ). Chise then transfers to the school and joins their club at the request of Horikawa.
Episode 6 is a Dorothy episode and it’s probably the darkest episode in the bunch. Dorothy and Beatrice are tasked with going into a morgue, finding the dead body of someone, and retrieving a cipher. A simple (yet disturbing) task but things get complicated when we see that one of the workers is Dorothy’s father Danny a deadbeat father who used to be a steam engineer until an accident caused him to lose one of his arms and he takes his anger and problems out on everyone and everything around him in a physical manner. As a child, Dorothy was constantly beaten by him within an inch of her life until she finally had enough and ran away to the Commonwealth on the same day the Revolution took place meaning she could never return. Danny is now an agent for the Duke of Normandy and is also looking for the body Dorothy and Beatrice are after as well. In order to get information on the body they’re looking for, Dorothy and Beatrice infiltrate Danny’s home where we see that despite driving everyone he loved away, he still loves them and longs to be with them (then get your shit together, https://youtu.be/UYKKQn3WXh0). Hell, we find out later that he’s doing all of this to turn over a new leaf and start over and now that Dorothy has re-entered his life, he wants to start over with her and become a loving father she can be proud of. We also discover that Dorothy’s real name is Daisy while Dorothy was her mother’s name. Danny, not knowing that Dorothy is a spy tells her some characteristics about the body he’s looking for and tells her to tell him about the body immediately if it comes in. Dorothy and Beatrice find the body, recover the cipher, and Dorothy hands her dad what I assume is a fake cipher in order to help him out. Danny tells Dorothy to meet him at the pub later to celebrate and when he goes to give the cipher to the agent from Normandy he gets killed. Dorothy and Beatrice wait at the pub for Danny to show up totally unaware that he’s dead and is now in the morgue (scene here: https://youtu.be/h7BW2j0e6hE).
In episode 7 a serial killer has been killing people in the Commonwealth that our spies support. The killer kills using a nerve gas, an illegal gas which can only be found inside the London Wall warehouse which is also where the military is stationed at (you know, it’s probably not a wise idea to put your military next to gas that could potentially kill them). They come to the conclusion that the killer is a member of the military however there’s too many soldiers to go through and the military is a boys’ club so going undercover as soldiers is out of the question (they’ll pick up their scents right away). With no other option the girls pose as new laundry attendants for the laundry mill to find their killer since the gas would adhere to his clothing and the military sends their laundry to the mill for washing. The mill isn’t what I would call the best working conditions as the place is disorganized, cluttered, unsafe, and in debt (geez, minus the debt and this place is no better than the house of the Jack Bros. (Baron): Actually, you might want to add the debt part. We owe the Tengu mafia some money we borrowed. (Nitsuj): So that’s why I’ve been seeing a lot of crows recently). Since the mill is in debt there’s a good chance it’ll be shut down but Charlotte comes in and says she’ll buy the mill (what the hell are you doing?). With Charlotte in charge, our spies fix the place in the span of one night by organizing the machines, performing maintenance on machines, making the place easier to move around in, and increasing morale with a good song (whistle while you work). They even manage to get more customers outside of the military and increase their profits by 231%. They finally find the uniform of their perp, William Ricard, a soldier in platoon 2 who shows up and tries to kill Charlotte but Chise is there to knock him out with an iron (let me get those wrinkles out for you). With the perp captured the spies hand the mill to the workers and go back to their spy work.
Episode 8 focuses on Ange and Charlotte and their relationship with each other (just a little heads up, this part of the review will be a little confusing with the names). Okay, so at a young age Charlotte (now Ange) was trained to be a proper princess. Learning to play the piano, study, horseback riding, dancing, the list goes on. The whole experience was suffocating to her until the day she met Ange (now Charlotte) from a hole which led to outside the palace. The two were amazed at how they looked alike (yeah you guys had a regular princess and pauper thing going on here) and it didn’t take long for them to become best friends where Charlotte would teach Ange all kinds of stuff and the two would play pranks on the palace staff (kids). One day, Charlotte asked Ange to switch places with her so she could go outside the palace and see what it is like, what she found was a world where people suffered and the strong use their power to abused the weak (some things never change). It was also on that day that the revolution broke out and the people rebelled against the royal family. Charlotte made it back to the palace and met up with Ange where she says she’s going to become queen and tear down the walls that separate them (and live in that garden of ecstasy I’ve been talking about) but before they can switch places again the people attacked the palace and Charlotte fell down a hole where Ange presumed she was dead. With Charlotte gone and everyone now believing Ange was Charlotte she was forced to be a princess otherwise they would kill her. This girl, who was born on the streets and received no solid education throughout her life learned how to read, write, speak 9 different languages, dance, and became the best pianist in the country all for the sake of staying alive and carrying on the wish of her best friend (by God, she is a strong and brave girl. Seriously, I can only imagine the stress that girl went through. Just imagine, the slightest mistake you make could give yourself away and would lead to your death. Ange literally became a princess in order to survive). As we all know the two reunited in episode 2 and now Ange is determined to make Charlotte’s dream come true no matter what. Aside from this story, there’s also the group staking out this noble who is secretly meeting with a spy from the Duke of Normandy. He wants to go over the wall (catapult him) and believes Normandy will help him but in truth they plan on killing him. When the group discovers that the person he’s been meeting with is a spy from Normandy they get him an invitation to Charlotte’s piano recital where she gives him a new option and manages to save his life. The episode ends with Ange and Charlotte playing a duet together secretly.
Episodes 9-12
Episode 9 is a pretty dull episode. It focuses on Chise writing a letter to her older sister and her talking about how strange the country is, the difficulties she has fitting in, what she thinks of her teammates, how this country knows nothing about Japan, and her work as a spy. The only two good things about this episode is that it gives us a look into the school life of the girls which is something the anime hasn’t touched on to this point and we get an awesome duel between Chise and a male student who insulted her and her country. The male student rigged the guns so that Chise’s gun wouldn’t fire correctly so she says guns are for noobs and goes all David and Goliath on us and wins the duel.
In episode 10 Ange, Dorothy, and Beatrice are sent to recover some documents from a manor. In order to get inside they receive help from another spy named Prefect who was in the same class as Ange and Dorothy at their spy school where they were the only 3 students to graduate (the other students failed and were presumably killed. It’s a spy school, no blabbing). We see that Prefect is just as skilled as Ange and the two were always going neck and neck with each other but Ange would always beat her (and even though the two don’t show it they pretty much hate each other’s guts). They manage to get the documents and go out for drinks where Ange and Beatrice leave early and investigate Prefect’s dorm for proof that she’s a double agent. Ange and Beatrice find nothing but purposefully leave evidence that they were there to see what she does. Prefect makes her move by escaping into the night but Ange faces her only to let her get away and board a train (what the hell are you doing Ange?). The spies catch up to the train and this time Dorothy goes to face Prefect (yeah, because Ange dropped the ball big time) where Prefect reveals that the person she was always jealous of and the person she wanted to be like the most was Dorothy because she was like the wind, free and unpredictable (and she had good seduction techniques). Dorothy can’t bring herself to kill a friend so Prefect does the deed for her and kills herself (scene here: https://youtu.be/7VkMifX7leI, where apparently this train is soundproof as nobody heard that gunshot). Ange and Dorothy return to London where they’re given their next assignment, killing Charlotte.
Picking up where episode 10 left off, episode 11 starts with Dorothy trying to keep Charlotte alive saying she’s their ally but Control says she’s a royal and there’s a risk that she’ll betray them and they don’t like taking risks (isn’t that what being a spy is all about? Taking risks and coming out looking cool and badass?). Ange agrees to kill Charlotte and takes her place. Of course we all know Ange won’t kill the person she loves, and she tries to tell Charlotte what’s going on but Control doesn’t trust her either and has beaten her to the punch by bringing in new agents to head up the operation and replacing Dorothy as the leader with this woman named Zelda, Chise being reassigned and moved to another school, Beatrice nowhere to be seen and Ange can’t get close to contact Charlotte to let her know what’s going on (there’s no way out and no room to talk). She gets told the operation will commence the day after tomorrow and Ange is given the honors of taking out the princess herself (you know, if they were smart, they would lock her up until Charlotte is dead and then have Ange take her spot. I mean, you guys don’t trust her so why have her roam around freely?). Ange asks Charlotte out where they ditch the other spies and hop on an airship to Casablanca where Ange tells Charlotte everything that’s going and says they have to run away (it’s time to go to our garden of ecstasy). But Charlotte refuses to run away calling Ange a coward for running away all the time (she’s got a point, you may perform your missions but when it comes time to the big moments you run away) and locks her in the storage cabinet (which can’t be opened from the inside. Good thinking everyone) and Charlotte returns to the spies posing as Ange who is posing as Charlotte (was that confusing? Good). As the episode comes to an end we find out the Commonwealth are planning to go to war and kill the queen replacing her with a doppelganger and there’s a slight chance the Duke of Normandy might have some hand in this plot.
In the final episode we get more details about the Commonwealth’s plan to start a war. They plan to have the ceiling of the new royal cathedral crash down on the queen (holy sacrilege) and pin the assassination on Charlotte which will incite the rebels and start the war. Of course, once the war has started, Charlotte will have fulfilled her purpose and they’ll kill her (and all of London will fall in disarray and be stuck in a war with each other). Ange manages to escape the storage room by starting a fire and then parachuting down to the ground where she finds out their plan and meets up with Dorothy and Beatrice (where the hell have you been?) who have been waiting on Ange this whole time. They race off to the royal cathedral where they get cornered underground by the guards but saved by Chise who was there with the representatives of Japan to offer a prayer as well. She tells them where to find Charlotte and they split into two teams with Ange and Chise going to save Charlotte and Dorothy and Beatrice disrupting the ceremony. Charlotte tries to stop the rebels’ plan herself but Zelda stops her and ties her up about to kill her but in comes Ange and Chise who save Charlotte. Chise tries to take out Zelda but she escapes using the cavorite ball the same as Ange. Dorothy and Beatrice cause a panic at the ceremony and everyone runs out (don’t forget to leave an offering and go with Christ). After this fiasco the girls take a relaxing vacation in Casablanca (where there’s no garden but there’s a beach of ecstasy) and that’s the end.
Final Thoughts
Can you see why this is better than Joker Game? Besides having a cool setting and story, this anime treats its audience with maturity and respects their intelligence. The anime does a good job adding something new to the story and the characters while also keeping you interested in all the spy stuff that they do and the secrets that go along you with it. They keep you in the dark but give you enough information throughout the anime for you to either figure out what’s going on or make things clear when it all ends. Stuff like that is great and keeps you interested in the story and characters. Speaking of characters, I really did enjoy all of the characters in this anime. Ange on the surface is that perfect spy but underneath it all, she just wants to protect her friend and hates herself for putting her in that position. Dorothy was one of the comic relief characters. I did like the backstory she had with her dad and wished they would focused more on her story. Beatrice was another comic relief character and while she may be the weakest member of the group, I liked how they made her useful with her voice change and the way they use her is perfect. Chise was hands down my favorite character. She’s badass, has cool moves, and her story of being this foreign girl in another country is good. Charlotte’s backstory was great and just like Dorothy, I wished they gave her more stuff to do and explored her more.
The animation is fantastic here. I love the steampunk look of London. It’s like what would happen if the industrial revolution never stopped and kept going. The soundtrack is excellent. The jazzy music is a perfect fit for this anime and it’s all great to hear and listen to. The action scenes are well-choregraphed. While it may not look like a lot is going on, the movements and the way it’s filmed is done brilliantly. Each move just feels real and carries a level of weight and purpose to it. If I had to name the downsides of this anime is that the story does fall short at a few parts. For starters, they never go into much depth on what the cavorite is. They don’t explain where it came from, how it got discovered, why it was weaponized, or even the dangers of it. While the cavorite may not have been used as much as we would have thought, I think they should have explained what it is. Like I said before, I wish we got a chance to explore more of the characters and focused on them more. Finally, I’m curious as to what the Duke of Normandy is planning as well as the rest of the members of the royal family. What are they like and what are they planning? But despite these complains I can overlook them because of how much I enjoyed the anime and how original it is. In the grand scheme of things, these are major problems I have with the series but not enough to stop me from loving the anime.
Final Score
My final score for Princess Principal is an 8/10 with a must watch stamp of approval. This is how to do a spy anime correctly and with the announcement of a 6-part movie set to start later on this year, I’m very excited to find out what happens next. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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