Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. We’re in the middle of February and have been talking about love and romance so why not end the month by taking a look at one of the best romance animes out there. We’re all familiar with the story of Snow White. I mean how couldn’t you be? It was one of the first movies you remember watching. An evil queen casts a spell on our innocent fair maiden which can only be broken by true love’s kiss. A simple story but for the longest time it was one of the biggest tropes in romance stories and Disney movies. Well let’s give a more modern take with Akagami no Shirayukihime. Akagami no Shirayukihime when translated means The Snow White Princess with the Red Hair and is of course a shojo story. The series was written by Sorata Akizuki in 2006 and still continues to this day in the monthly shojo magazine LaLa. The series as you would expect, follows the story of a young maiden and her relationship with a prince which became a pretty big hit with the female audience for it’s writing, art style, and relationship with the two main characters. In 2015 Bones (FMA: Brotherhood, Mob Psycho 100, and My Hero Academia) were having a good year with shows that were different from the norm such as Kekkai Sensen, Noragami S2, Concrete Revolutio, Show by Rock, and of course Akagami no Shirayuki that earned the affection of all audiences both male and female. Let’s take a look at this romantic anime. This is Akagami no Shirayuki.
Opening and Ending
The opening is “Yasashii Kibou” by Saori Hayami. I like it, it’s a good song and really captures that fairy tale atmosphere the anime has going for it. I do like Saori’s voice in this song. It’s gentle, sweet, and caring. It really puts me at ease.
The ending is”Kizuna ni Nosete” by eyelis. Another good song which I’m surprised wasn’t used as the opening theme. Despite being more fast-paced, the song still captures that fairy tale atmosphere and the vocals are good as well. I guess they wanted the opening to be more slow and peaceful.
Episodes 1-4
The anime starts off with our main character Shirayuki voiced by Saori Hayami (Yumeko from Kakeguri. Who has probably one of the sweetest voices in anime) picking herbs in the forest (which I’m not gonna lie is well animated) since she’s the kingdom’s medicine girl (and a rather cute one at that. That red hair has put a spell on me). We then cut to Prince Raj our vain prince for the evening asking his informant who the fairest maiden of them all is (well I can tell you who the vainest is). The informant says Shirayuki and the prince sends his guards for her saying she will become a part of his concubine (no and thank you). Not wanting to marry the prince, Shirayuki decides to run away but not before making medicine for the townspeople (I like this girl) and cutting off a piece of her hair (such a waste). She then leaves the kingdom and arrives at an abandoned house where she meets Zen voiced by Ryōta Ōsaka (Vali from Highschool DxD) and his friends Kiki and Mitsuhide (scene here: https://youtu.be/–bzmZbWGz8). Zen quickly figures out that Shirayuki ran away from her home and when a basket of red apples is presented to them she tells him the whole story. Zen takes a bite out of one of the apples where we see its poisoned thanks to Raj (what the hell man? You were gonna kill her just because she turned you down? You’re an asshole). A guard comes in and tells them that only Raj has the antidote so Shirayuki gives herself up to save Zen. She goes to him where he demands that she beg him to take her back (I swear to God I will shoot you) but Zen comes in and reveals himself to be the second prince of a neighboring country scaring Raj greatly. Zen says he’ll overlook the poisoning as long as Raj stays away from Shirayuki and she demands the antidote for Zen (now hand over your harem. You’ve lost your rights to it). So Zen gets the antidote and Shirayuki decides to go with Zen back to his country.
Episode 2 starts us off in Wistal, the capital of the Clarines kingdom where Shirayuki has found herself a nice apartment with a landlord who gives her free bread (best landlord ever. All my landlord ever did was ask me for the rent). She hasn’t found a job yet but she gets told by the local herbalist to try out for court herbalist. Every year they do a test where the one who displays the best knowledge of herbs gets to intern at the castle which could lead to a full-time job (she’ll get paid, be doing something she loves, and she’ll be close to the boy she’s developing feelings for. What more could she ask for?). She decides to go out to the mountains to look for herbs to study and Zen (wanting to skip out on desk work) decides to escort her to the docks and see her off. As she explores the mountains, she gets captured by a guy named Mihaya a former noble who lost everything and now has plans to sell Shirayuki off in order to make money and return to noble status (it’s gonna be hard to do that with a broken neck). Rather than wait to be rescued Shirayuki actually tries to escape by herself. She manages to untie herself, escape the holding cell she’s in, and even manages to outsmart Mihaya using what she knows to her advantage. Even when Mihaya has her cornered and about to hurt her she doesn’t flinch in the slightest (I am loving this woman more and more). She gets saved by Zen in the end (but that still doesn’t overshadow the sheer amount of bravery she showed in the episode) and they have him arrested.
In episode 3 one of the lords in the castle named Haruka doesn’t like Shirayuki coming to the castle and hanging out with Zen (well get used to it buddy because that’s your future queen). So he takes it upon himself to get Shirayuki out of the castle once and for all. He sends Obi a secret agent of the castle to scare Shirayuki out of the castle. He forges Zen’s name on a document that prohibits her from entering the castle but she’s already in the castle. He then shoots a warning arrow at her hoping to scare her away but instead she presses on and continues to look for Zen seeing if he really doesn’t want her at the castle anymore (in her heart and mind she knows that Zen would never do something like this but she wants to face the person who has a problem with her). She finds Zen and tells him everything that happened to her and he is rightfully pissed (heads are about to roll throughout the castle) but Shirayuki calms him down and tells him to let her handle this herself while watching her from a safe distance. He decides to trust her and Shirayuki leaves where she confronts Haruka who she easily figures is the one trying to get rid of her. Haruka pretends to act like Shirayuki is an intruder and draws his sword (an intruder? Dude, she has permission to be here. How many people in the kingdom have red hair like her?). Shirayuki tells him she has permission to be here and psyches him out big time. Zen finally comes out where he says he’ll overlook this event as long as Haruka promises not to do it again and Obi also apologizes for scaring Shirayuki and actually shows us he’s quite the flirt as he too has come to like Shirayuki (it’s the red hair and personality).
In episode 4 the test for the castle’s intern herbalist begins where the students will be put in charge of an herb garden, maintain it for two days, and submit a report at the end. Shirayuki stays and maintains her herb garden late into the night where Zen comes to check up on her. He tries to stay quiet and in the shadows (word of advice Zen, don’t turn this into a habit) but he senses someone spying on him and draws his sword (https://youtu.be/Bxm0A5LHF08). This alerts Shirayuki and the perpetrator gets away locking Shirayuki and Zen in the greenhouse (although since Shirayuki and Zen are in there we might have the change the name to the Christmas house seeing as how we got all the Christmas colors in there now). While locked in the greenhouse, Shirayuki notices that one of the flowers has been planted in the wrong spot thus releasing a sweet toxin into the water that is the disrupting the growth of the other plants. She decides to remove the plants and replant them in the right area as well as replant the other plants so that they can grow properly as well. In the morning when the head herbalist Garak sees what she’s done she gives her a passing grade. It turns out that this was a part of the test (not the getting locked up part, that was just someone trying to screw over Shirayuki) of course all she really had to do was just report it not re-plant them (that’s our Shirayuki, always going the extra mile). Shirayuki along with someone else become interns at the castle. Shirayuki gets supervised by Ryu a young boy genius who is the youngest herbalist in the history of the castle (Isis: And an adorable little nugget that everyone seems to love) but isn’t well liked by patients because he only studies plant poisoning and has been known to use people as test subjects from time to time (it’s all in the name of science). This gets Shirayuki mad, not at Ryu but at the patient talking badly about him which shocks even Ryu a little bit because this is the first time anyone has come to his defense. Ryu tells her not to get mad over something as little as this but this also upsets her and she calls him foolish shocking him once again because this is the first time anyone has talked to him like that (better get used to it kid, she’s under your care now). Ryu starts to feel bad and wonders if Shirayuki hates him now which he openly admits doesn’t want to happen because he likes her (the Shirayuki factor strikes again). Zen sees him worrying and just tells him to be direct with her (good advice). While that’s going on, Garak shows Shirayuki Zen’s medical records where she finds out he’s been subjected to multiple poisoning over the course of his life as a way to build an immunity to poisoning (and shorten his life apparently). This causes Shirayuki to cry and Ryu sees and runs to Zen begging him for help (aww he’s worried about her) and Zen comes and just hugs her until she stops crying. After she calms down she goes to see Ryu where he asks her if she’s mad at him and she says no and thanks him for worrying about her.
Episodes 5-8
In episode 5 we journey outside the sunny kingdom to the snow lands where Shirayuki is running an errand. She gets a ride from Zen, Mitsuhide, Kiki, and Obi (who pops out of nowhere. Ninja powers) who is under a trial period to become a part of Zen’s personal bodyguards. After dropping Shirayuki off at her destination they go on their mission which is to investigate a fortress under Zen’s control. The fortress has stopped sending reports and Zen wants to investigate it to make sure everything is alright (well knowing our luck it’s not). They arrive at the fortress only to discover that all of the soldiers except for one young man named Shuka has fallen ill and he doesn’t know what the cause is saying it’s the curse of a witch (The Wicked Witch of the Snow). Zen and the others investigate the fortress but don’t find anything out of the ordinary (aside from everyone getting sick and the armory emptied out). They decide to call in Shirayuki (the best cure ever. Just seeing her smile will make everyone feel better) hoping she can figure out what’s wrong with them. While she’s doing that, we get a better understanding of the relationship between Zen, Mitsuhide, and Kiki. Mitsuhide and Kiki are very lenient with Zen, allowing him to run off and do whatever he wants however they’re always there to remind him of his responsibilities as a prince and stop him from doing things he might regret in the future. For example, when the sun goes down Zen wants to stay in the fortress to keep an eye on Shirayuki but Mitsuhide reminds him that he was only supposed to stay until sunset and reminds him of his responsibilities. Zen apologizes for his rash actions and leaves only to stay close to the fortress and lay in the snow. We find out later that the only person who Zen really listens to is Mitsuhide which is why he doesn’t talk much. He obediently follows Zen but not to the point where he’s a mindless yes man bodyguard. Later that night, Shirayuki discovers the cause of everyone’s illness, the firewood (https://youtu.be/-N3Uk8Y5km8?t=7s). Apparently, the firewood releases harmful particles when set on fire so Shirayuki gathers it all up and throws it out the fortress where Zen just says she’s so cool (took the words right out of my mouth). Zen ask Shirayuki if she can stay a little while longer and she says yes. The next day Mitsuhide and Kiki report that it was bandits who gave them the firewood and emptied the armory so Obi goes out to search the area hoping to find them. Meanwhile, Shirayuki stays busy making medicine for the soldiers and begins to become pale since she hasn’t slept all that much but she decides not to tell anyone or let it show because she wants to end everything on a happy note without worrying everyone (you truly are a selfless woman). But Zen and Shuka realize this so he puts her to sleep by having her close her eyes and count to 60 (you should have sang to her). Obi manages to find the bandits and Zen and his bodyguards take them out themselves. After defeating the bandits, Zen returns to check up on Shirayuki where he tells her not to do everything on her own, blames himself for not noticing her sick condition, and thanks her for everything she’s done by kissing her on the hand (more towards the face next time).
In episode 6 we finally get to meet Zen’s older brother Izana (who oddly enough resembles Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle) who is rather cynical when it comes to Zen. He wastes no time in trying to figure out Zen’s relationship with Shirayuki (future wife and your sister-in-law) going as far as to invite Raj to a party and see if Raj wants Shirayuki to come back to his kingdom (yeah that’s not happening). Raj says no saying that Shirayuki’s place is hear and once he gets put in the hot seat with no way out he makes up the excuse that Zen thinks of Shirayuki as his fiancée (and minds have been blown). Zen drags Raj away and informs him that they are just friends (yeah friends who obviously like each other). Shirayuki overhears a lot of the conversations about her returning to her original kingdom and begins to wonder if she should do that (No. No. And no).
Not much to say about episode 7. We find out that Izana knows that Zen has a crush on Shirayuki (thank you captain obvious. Here’s another one, you’re a douchebag) but doesn’t think Shirayuki is a good match for him because of her status (who cares about status. All that matters is the person and in my opinion you can’t find a better woman to marry then Shirayuki). Izana tries to get Shirayuki to leave but she stands up to him and says no prompting him to kiss her on the forehead (oh man Zen he’s stealing a march on your unofficial girlfriend). We also get this cute moment of Zen and Shirayuki hugging (scene here: https://youtu.be/bkd6K7yZ1Fo).
In episode 8 Zen is worried about Shirayuki (as you should be because any guy would love to have her as a wife). Thanks to Raj everyone in the kingdom thinks Shirayuki is Zen’s fiancée so now all eyes are on her and some have even tried getting close to her in the hopes of raising their rank (nobody likes a kiss ass). Zen decides to send Obi to be her bodyguard for the time being (you do know the guy tried to kill her in the past? If anything I think Kiki would have been the better choice). Shirayuki’s okay with Obi being her bodyguard and Obi asks her a rather interesting question: have you ever wished Zen wasn’t a prince? This question actually upsets Shirayuki that she doesn’t even give an answer to it (oh man, you know you’re in trouble when Shirayuki is upset with you). This leads to a sad trip down memory lane to when Mitsuhide first became Zen’s attendant. Originally Mitsuhide wanted to be Izana’s attendant but was put as Zen where the two didn’t know how to approach each other (only one way to resolve this. Drinks and fights at the bar). As a young child Zen only had one friend a young archer guard named Atri who Zen felt that because of his social status he didn’t have a right to have friends (wow, that’s pretty sad). But despite knowing this spending time with Atri was when Zen had the most fun of his life (to lose that would be like facing death). When Atri gets moved to night duty Zen still sneaks out to see him only to get caught in an ambush waiting for him. A few bandits who lost their status thanks to Izana want revenge on him so they used Atri to infiltrate the castle and befriend Zen so they can use him as a hostage to get Izana (oh man the friendship was a lie). Izana and Mitsuhide show up to fight and save Zen with Mitsuhide delivery the final blow to Atri to save Zen’s life. Also, we find out that Shirayuki is a lightweight when it comes to drinking in this episode as she gets drunk and passes out (scene here: https://youtu.be/I1ogBQiafPc, even when she’s drunk she’s still cute).
Episodes 9-12
In the first half of episode 9 Shirayuki wakes up still drunk wanting to steal a horse so she can ride to Laxdo Fortress and check on the soldiers to see if they’re okay (wow, she’s a compassionate drunk. She’s a fun drunk as well). Before she can ride off into the night (ride sober or you will fall over) Obi tells her that he went to check on the soldiers in the fortress and tells her they’re all doing well, saying thank you to her and everything, and promising to do their best. This makes her happy and puts her at peace. She finally passes out again forcing Obi to carry her. In the second half of the episode we see more of Zen and Mitsuhide’s past. After the assassination attempt Zen was put under house arrest for one month and after one month had passed Mitsuhide gives him the arrow of Atri as a memento since he has no grave (you tried to kill the prince. No grave for you). This causes Zen to breakdown as now he’s unsure what to do now. Before, he thought that he could have friends but now he’s not so sure anymore. Luckily, Mitsuhide is there to support him saying he’ll be his shield no matter what and that Zen can put his trust in him. This inspires Zen and he decides that from now on he’ll strive to become a prince his servants and kingdom can be proud of (and while he’s at it, earn the attention and love of a certain red-haired girl). Back in the present Zen finds out about the drunk Shirayuki and rushes out to see her (don’t do it Zen. When you do it with her you want it to be special) where he runs into Obi carrying her and they drop her off in her room (I assume) and have a drink on the floor (she has chairs and furniture guys. If you want to get drunk there are much better places to do it). This is a celebration in honor of Obi for officially becoming Zen’s messenger. His work title holds him responsible for looking after Shirayuki and reporting to Zen on her activity (kind of a safe stalker kind of thing if you ask me).
In episode 10 a girl named Kihal from Yuri Island (it’s not as kinky as it sounds) has an audience with Zen. The birds on her island have been helping out her tribe for years with fishing and finding minerals in the water. This is all accomplished by a special whistle they use to communicate with the birds and a bell which brings the birds back to them. However, the local lord of the island Brecker enjoys hunting the birds for sport (it reminds him of the hunt) and despite the island folks telling him how important the birds are to them he still hunts them because their feathers are quite rare and sell for a good price (all the more reason to preserve them). Kihal and Brecker go before Zen and he tells them to work it out between them (they tried that and it failed). Even though Zen would like nothing more than to help Kihal there’s not much he can do. Unless the birds can show their value to the kingdom or they’re endangered Zen can’t protect them. Luckily, Shirayuki comes in and tell him that he can use the birds as carrier pigeons to deliver messages between each other at a fast rate (brilliant! I’m surprise they haven’t thought of this yet). The next day they decide to do a field test where Shirayuki will be waiting at a castle near a lake with documents for the bird named Popo (not the best name but okay) to pick up and return within 25 minutes. While waiting for Popo to arrive Brecker tries to bribe Shirayuki to get the test to fail but she quickly refuses (hell, she didn’t even let him finish his proposal). Brecker than goes to plan B by stealing the bell and throwing it into the lake (dick move man. Dick move) and locks Shirayuki in a small room. Now normally around this point the girl would just give up and wait to be rescued by a guy but not our Shirayuki. She opens up a window and jumps into the lake to find the bell herself (God I love her) along with Obi who saw her jump into the lake (Zen is so gonna kill you). They manage to find the bell and Popo arrives back to the castle in time giving Zen a reason to keep the birds safe. Once Zen finds out what happened at the lake he rushes there where we see the guards have sided with Shirayuki and arrested Brecker for his crimes (man she is good. She’s not even royalty yet and she still has guards rallying around her). We see that Shirayuki’s arm got injured in the jump (odd, considering that there were no trees or anything sharp in the vicinity when she jumped. If anything, I was expecting her to have a sprain ankle) and when Zen goes to see her we end the episode on a satisfying note with Zen finally kissing her (scene here: https://youtu.be/a6P-1YzyDZM. YES!).
So after the kiss in episode 10 (you the man Zen) he open up, says to Shirayuki that he loves her and wants to know how she feels about him the next time they meet (well that was considerate of him. Most guys ask for a response immediately. Zen, he actually gave her sometime to think). So because of the kiss and that confession Shirayuki doesn’t know what to do and engrosses herself in work with her face as red as her hair (it’s actually kind of cute. For the first time she’s been thrown off her game). While she’s sorting out her feelings, Zen goes to Kihal’s island and works out the deal with the locals to use their birds as carrier pigeons. While there he tells Mitsuhide (his bro) that he kissed Shirayuki and yes his response is hilarious. When Zen finally returns to the palace, he runs into Shirayuki and Obi where she runs away from him into the forest and Zen goes after her, alone. He finally catches up to her where the two talk and both confess their feelings for each other (scene here: https://youtu.be/SizzsYpQ-aQ. It’s official, they’re a couple).
In the final episode it’s Open Castle Day a day where the normal citizens are free to enter a certain section of the castle (to see how the 1% live) as well as partake in a lot of other festivities going around town. As Shirayuki is walking through the castle she runs into Zen disguised as one of the guards. We get a rather cute moment seeing Shirayuki blush because she’s around her new boyfriend but the sweet moment gets interrupted by Mitushide, Kiki, and Obi (the 3 Cockblockers as I like to call them). They all decide to go check out the stalls where Shirayuki wears a hood to cover her hair as to not attract attention (such a shame. That red hair of hers is beautiful). After checking around a bit Zen has to go and greet the crowd with his brother. After that Shirayuki and Ryu get called to check out one of the actors part of a performance troupe who got injured before a play. Her foot is badly injured but when the leader sees Shirayuki’s red hair he begs her to be her stand in (your honor, he was hypnotized by the red hair). She accepts but she wants her hair to be covered up (again, such a waste). While on stage the troupe leader tries to expose Shirayuki’s hair to the audience but Zen is there to save her with some good improv. After that the episode just kind of plays out. We get another cute moment between Zen and Shirayuki and ends with the festival coming to a close with everyone sending lantern balloons up into the sky (and yes it is quite beautiful to look at).
Oh man I feel so warm and fuzzy are the inside. I need to go hug something. Please join me next week when we cover the second season of the anime. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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