September 15, 2003

Scrapped Princess Episode 09

Scrapped Princess

"Requiem for the Heretics"

I thoroughly enjoy how they manage to make Pacifica a lovable character, despite her bratty, spoiled princess streak. The artists, animators, and voice actress deserve a lot of credit for bringing her character to life.

In this episode, Pacifica, Shannon and Raquel are crossing through the mountains, stopping at a town where they meet a servant of the church of Mauser, Bergens. He seems a friendly type, despite the fact he is a follower of Mauser, and reminds Pacifica and Raquel of their dead father. He joins them as they leave the town and continue their trek, where it is revealed that one of Bergens' responsibilities is to look for the Scrapped Princess (he seems dismissive that it could be Pacifica, however).

As they trek through the mountains, they stumble upon a village hidden by magic. As they enter, they are taken prisoner by the villagers, who turn out to be worshippers of the devil lord Browning (the anti-Mauser). Bergens is immediately taken away, but the other three are treated as guests after they prove they have no affiliation to the church.

Something's not right in this village, though, as it definitely has a cultish feeling. For example, they're in this compound that is sealed from the rest of the world, they do labor to help out around the place... And they are led by two mysterious figures, one who claims to be the Scrapped Princess.

The other of the two, Lenard, appears to be pulling the strings behind the scenes. He has some sort of hidden agenda, but it isn't quite revealed in this episode. A conversation between Lenard and the supposed Scrapped Princess reveals that she's almost certainly being used for his own ends. Also, Lenard is a magic user, and attempts to get the trio of heroes to assist him. Naturally, they decline.

We'll have to wait until the next episode to find out about Lenard's plans, though.

I should also mention that in this episode, we get to see Raquel pull out a fairly powerful spell, where she summons a huge, spirit being to save the villagers from a mishap at their lumber mill. Also, we see some ancient ruins that look suspiciously like the facade of an office building or apartment complex (I haven't pointed out before that this show definitely has some high tech sensibilities, with references to atoms, DNA, etc.).

Oh and I almost forgot! The last moment of this episode features some absolutely hilarious facial expressions from Raquel, Pacifica and, especially, Shannon. This show does a great job with portraying subtle emotion on the characters faces, and this is just another good example of it.

Curious to find out what happens next!

Rating: B+

Posted by Kei at September 15, 2003 08:48 PM
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