Bibliophile Princess

daisy113 Dec 17, 2022

9

This series begins by explaining that Eri, (who can only be described as the softest, most precious human with an obsession with books) has entered into an agreement with a prince she had been a childhood friend with. She agrees to be his fiancee in title only in order to buy him time from being pressured to choose anyone else, so long as he grants her access to a library and allowed her to continue reading in the meanwhile. She, like many of her family, was only really interested in books, and had no interest in becoming a queen as it would interfere with her freedoms to do so. However, her mind starts to slowly change as she realizes her feelings for the prince. Over the course of the anime, we see a lot of growth in Eri as she expands her horizons beyond books to navigate relationships around her, contributing her knowledge to the Prince's plans to aid his kingdom in wise and clever ways. As people begin to recognize her contributions, she reaches a crossroads where she needs to determine her own feelings toward the prince. While she had technically been with him for years, the relationship was never romantic. It never felt real to her because it was born out of a mutual agreement that they never really communicated further about. On the other hand, we repeatedly see that she left a far bigger impression on the prince as children than she remembers, or that he lets on, and she was always the only one for him. Overalll a high quality story, with a very Shoujo, soft color story and animation style that I love. However there are two points I would have loved to see improved. First, because of the premise of the show and how independent the characters are, we don't see our main two characters together quite enough. The prince is always so busy with state affairs that he is constantly away for long periods of time, and Eri travels away from the castle often as well. This directly causes the second point, as so much time away from each other opens a lot of opportunity for doubt in Eri, which genuinely does not feel true to her character compared to how independent she was before this agreement. All this being said, this may not be the anime for you if you don't enjoy sad episodes. For a happier vibe with a similar premise, try similar title Snow White with the Red Hair.

apoc9 Dec 22, 2022

8

I was truly surprised how much I enjoyed to watch this bitter sweet romance between prince Christopher and lady Ellianna. It has heart-warming moments, but plentiful sad emotional moments as the story is seen entirely from the viewpoint of the main character Elliana. She is known for being bookworm. She is well read, kind and feminine soft lady, but very melancholic. She worries a lot and is prone to come to the worst conclusions. She doubts herself after any small mistake and underestimates her value and contributions. This is well portrayed during her inner monologues underlined by appropriate soundtrack and visual cues. It doesn’t help much the prince is quite occupied with his duties and doesn’t spend as much time with Ellianna. Audio visually the series aims for typical romance style. I really like the soundtrack despite the fact I don’t care much about opening and ending, because that is not my kind of music. One could also criticize two main conflicts for being too similar. I didn’t mind that much. Overall, very nice feels centric series with introverted main character. If you want to watch some melancholic romance, I would recommend to check it out.

YukinaZero Jan 10, 2023

6

The first 3 episodes was like reading a short little diet Otomen Isekai story. It was nice, even made my cold dead heart feel things.  After that everythnig just felt very meh~ to me. It was fine, the romance already felt finished and i just kinda watched it brain deadly. I would like to say tho, that is was very appealing brain dead watching. Every single aspect of this anime from the animation, to the music, to the editing just felt so on point to me. It got to the point that i would be watching a scene and I would completely ignoring what was happening with the characters and just enjoying the beautiful music and pretty animations. Maybe thats a weird confession. Also, wow thats a lot of arian blood XD