Not Scrapping The Princess

After watching Haibane Renmei, one of my friends suggested I watch Scrapped Princess. I'd never heard of it before, but I figured I'd give it a go nonetheless.

I meant to post about halfway through the anime, but I was so dragged into it I kind of skipped past that whole thing and watched through right to the end. It's only one Season (24 eps). It's relatively recent (2003), and one of the character designers, Takahiro Komori, also worked on Cowboy Bebop.

I was taken aback by how good it was, when it seemed so lighthearted and silly in the beginning. I'm in the middle of watching Trigun right now, and I suppose I could compare Scrapped Princess to that. The main character, Pacifica, is a 15 year old rambunctious, bossy, and innocent girl who is prophecied to destroy the world at 16. What was so interesting about this anime is how it so perfectly integrated her innocence with such a doomsday plot line. It's set in the future, yet not in the future. You'll understand if you watch. Oh, and yes, the end was actually conclusive, though..it leaves you with philosophical questions to ponder, such as:

Is it right to deny people freedoms because you want to protect them?

Is it right to kill someone because you've been ordered to, even though you know they don't deserve to die?

Is it right to kill someone because there is a possibility they might kill millions of people?

Or is it right to protect them just because of your personal feelings, even though they might kill millions of people?

And of course: "Would you?" could be tacked onto all of those questions.

All of these questions lead to a dramatic ending for Scrapped Princess.

Grades?
Plotline: Excellent
Characters: Very Good
Music: Good
Animation: Very Good

Lupin By Miyazaki?!

Upon reading the comment left by parrots on my last post about Nausicaa, saying how I should watch more old Miyazaki films, I decided to look up Miyazaki on IMDB. I know he has directed films like Porco Rosso and Kiki's Delivery Service among many others that I haven't watched, but what I found made me do a double take.

Hayao Miyazaki was the director of 15 Lupin III episodes!

The catch here is that there were three different versions of Lupin. The first in 1971-72 was more serious, and this is the one that Miyazaki had a hand in. This is referred to as the "green jacket" version. The second series ("red jacket", 1977-80) is what has aired on Cartoon Network, and seems to be the most popular. There is also a third series ("pink jacket",
1984-5).

I never liked Lupin III, but that's probably because I've only watched the red jacket series. I really want to go and find the green jacket series now!

The Second Time Around

So I watched Haibane Renmei again this past weekend with some friends, and this time I got to watch the dub instead. The dub was actually not half-bad, but I still largely prefer the subtitled version, as the voices in the dub became a little annoying after a few episodes. Still, it's nice not having to read my screen once in awhile.

What I figured would happen, happened. It was as good for me the second time around as the first; however, I think this is just the perfect anime for me. I think I'm a total fangirl of this anime because I enjoy the messages in it, as well as the fact that the Haibane look like little angels. It's almost as if this anime was made with me in mind. Creepy. Regardless, my friends did seem to enjoy it, but not nearly as much as me.

Still a big two thumbs up for Haibane Renmei.

A Change In The Wind

Of all of Hayao Miyazaki's films, I watched Princess Mononoke (Mononoke-hime) first. So, when I watched his earlier film Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Kaze no tani no Naushika) for the first time, my immediate reaction was to say, "Oh, Princess Mononoke was a natural evolution from this film. This one was imperfect so he did it over, and you can see that in his later film."

I was wrong. I got the DVD of Nausicaa for Christmas and watched it over. I was wrong to make my hasty judgments. Even the dub is awesome, with an all-star cast including Patrick Stewart and Uma Thurman.

I am sorry, Nausicaa. I am sorry, Miyazaki. Sorry for doubting you.