Princess Resurrection is a 26 episode supernatural action anime, with aspects of harem. First impressions of this anime are mixed, I immediately picked up a drink upon seeing the intro and suspecting harem ecchi. It seemed to have promise with an interesting unique plotline about siblings of royal blood killling each other for the throne. There's a lot of crazy action sequences with fictional monsters like vampires, werewolves and fishmen. Some of it feels cheesy and some aspects the story are unexplained, heck the story is incomplete. Something I disliked about this anime is how oversaturated it becomes with death (of one character), to the point where it becomes insignificant.AnimationThe animation isn't so bad for a 2007 anime. I watched it in 480p but I assume that it could be available in HD quality somewhere. However, given the animation quality of anime made before and after it, it doesn't compare too well and seems to be at most average. The animation style is somewhat generic, though there are some unique designs and some things remind me of other anime. The main female protagonist Hime reminds me of Holo from Spice and Wolf. A few quirks go to great lengths, like members of the royal family sharing the same eye design. There isn't anything wrong with the normal designs but at times, there can be some atrocious fan service. In the third episode, one character fights wearing nothing but a bathrobe sometime after having a shower. Of course the bathrobe becomes very loose and makes the character look very revealing. But thankfully this doesn't happen too often.SoundThe intro and outro music aren't that bad. The outro especially gives me vibes of the Another intro. I'd say its fairly suitable music for this anime, due to the supernatural subject matter. I am a bit iffy about the lyrics to the outro though. I suggest watching without subtitles, if only just for the outro. Otherwise, if you understand Japanese or do use subtitles, then be prepared for inappropriate lyrics. The rest of the music is used fairly well too. Certain bits of music indicate certain characters or regular events. Like the xylophone-y music for everytime Sawawa visits her favourite cafe. There's creepy music for the creepy parts and comedy music for the funny parts. Most of the music is rather gothic, which is well suited for an anime of this theme. It does seem oversaturated at times, as if music is playing most of the times. This anime is available in both English and Japanese audio.
I would say that the dub is sometimes cringeworthy. Otherwise Hime's VA Shelley Calene-Black did the voices of Kyou from Clannad, Shirakawa from Elfen Leid and Saki from Yumekui Merry. The voice of Hiro, Blake Shepard did Takabayashi from Another and Yumeji from Yumekui Merry. Luci Christian features as the voice of Riza Wildman and did the voices of characters like Sekine and Masami from Angel Beats, Nagisa from Clannad, Mariko from Elfen Leid, Clara and Wrath from FMA, Nami from One Piece, Makina from the Shikibane Hime series and Yui from Yumekui Merry. Hilary Haag who does the voice of Princess Sherwood also did Yui from Angel Beats, Fuuko from Clannad, the dog Menchi from Excel Saga and Merry from Yumekui Merry. Major names in the voice industry like Monica Rial voice of Sawawa, Chris Patton voice of Zeppeli, Andrew Love voice of Alec, David Matranga voice of Duke Dracul and Greg Ayres voice of the racoon/Tanooki also feature. Many big names, but a handful of these voices may not be so desirable, though one could argue entire characters are pointless.CharactersHime is the female lead, a haughty princess of the royal family who rules over the monsters. She regards herself above all others and expects them to serve her. A real oujo-sama and quite the pretentious woman. She doesn't care for morals and safety and will happily throw chainsaws around the house and swings swords disregarding Hiro's well-being in battle. She is quite skillful with those weapons and is knowledgable about the various fantasy creatures. She is rather cold-hearted at times. But overall she means well and has escaped her home realm to live peacefully in the human world and avoid fighting her siblings. She has no interest in inheriting the throne and is willing to co-operate peacefully at times. As royalty, she has the ability to give half-immortality to dying/dead souls.
Hiro Hiyorimi is the typical highschool student protagonist of this harem. And what a kid he is. He'll mindlessly throw himself in harms way to save/help the other characters. There's a difference between being thoightful and dumb, but I guess this anime doesn't give him any chances to be smart about it. He dies fairly often and is revived by the flame of life given to him by Hime. This flame of life often runs out and needs to be renewed or he'll die. As such, he is indebted to her and becomes the only member of her royal guard, not that it means anything special. He's pretty slow and stupid and I have no idea how he became the centre of such a harem. Like most student characters in terrible anime, parents remained non-existent and unexplained for the whole anime.
Riza Wildman, daughter of Volg Wildman, is a half-werewolf who's arms can turn into werewolf arms and is empowered by the full moon. She is a rather boisterous, hot-headed, energetic and aggressive at times. She rides a motorbike, is a bit of a tomboy and is sworn to avenge her brother Lobo Wildman. As a werewolf, she hates vampires and really doesn't get along with Reiri. Nothing much to complain about this character really. Just a quick-to-anger half-werewolf.
Speaking of vampires, the vampire 'protagonist' of this anime is Reiri Kamura. She is also a student at Hiro's school and due to her vampiric charms, she is the most popular girl in school. Of course, none of her fellow students know about her supernatural side except for Hiro. She lives in a church, sleeps in a coffin, is able to walk in daylight and is unfazed by garlic, due to her being a pureblood vampire. She has a bat companion who informs her of goings on in town. She seems shady at times and her true objective is to drink some of Hime's royal blood.
Princess Sherwood is the youngest of Hime's siblings and is essentially a child. She is quite pretentious like her sibling, but is less strict and more caring. Especially towards Hiro who saves her during her first appearance and develops a crush on him. She lives in her own mansion with various servants, including certain animals. There are many occasions during which she tries to get Hiro's attention. Not much more I can say about this character.
The other characters aren't too great. Hiro's big-breasted older sister Sawawa work's as the maid of Hime's mansion and because of her, Hiro gets to live with her at the mansion. She loves to eat sweet things, especially parfait at her favourite cafe called Dandy where the waiter and customers are attracted to her innocence and give her free treats. This character is absolutely useless, she is unaware of the supernatural things and adds nothing at all to the story. The anime would be better without her. All of the androids (bar one) are power-hungry super strong and heavy beings. This includes Hime's android, the child-like Flandre and Sherwood's android, the adult-like Francesca. This is major BS as clearly the technology exists for speaking androids. Other characters aren't so important.Story
Hime and her siblings are fighting, literally killing each other to inherit the throne. She's moved to the human world to get away from all this and live a life in peace. She gives Hiro the ability of half immortality. This is the aspect of the story I hate the most. Death is a powerful plot mechanic and this anime completely shits on that idea. Hiro constantly dies in such silly ways and keeps on getting resurrected. Character deaths mean completely nothing due to this power of resurrection. The overall plot doesn't do much past the first few episodes, even though individual episodes may provide interesting story. Some characters are given backstory and this is partially explored. Some aspects of the story remain unexplained, like how exactly the hospital remained the way it is. There are a few plotholes, like how the androids of the royal family are unable to speak, despite there being the technology for speaking androids. Or monsters running through the city and nobody noticing, it's not like the setting is one where they say people accept fairy tale creatures. The fight for the throne barely features. You'd expect some back stabbing with the introduction to the character of Sherwood. It goes without saying that the harem is left unresolved as is typical of terrible harem anime. It still depicts various creatures and monster from fairy tales and folklore, like witches, vampires and were-wolves, with relevant lore. Tings do get quite intense later. Things start to link together and the episodic stories last longer than a single episode. It tackles interesting subjects like torture and perhaps eternal life. Though the latter is simple in that the villians just desire it. However, it only starts to link together and the overall plot is still lacking.ConclusionOverall, one of the better harem animes, only because the story is focused elsewhere. It's got episodic tales featuring various fairy tale creatures and monsters. I got bored of this one at times, the story didn't interest me enough. Perhaps watch the first few episodes and see what you think. It isn't worth everyone's time, mainly because the overall story-arc is non-existent ans it contains minor annoyances. It's better than the usual harem anime, since that aspect is barely touched, thankfully.Family-friendliness Rating: 2/5 Occasional fan-service (lower is better)Overall Rating: 6/10 (higher is better)
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