September 16, 2003
Scrapped Princess Episode 11
"Rhapsody of the Beast Princess"
While the plot of Scrapped Princess is slowly ramping up, and more is revealed, the show continues to rely mainly on the strength of its characters. There's not a character that I don't like so far through (with the possible exception of the emotionless dragoons, but they're far too mysterious-like to get attached to). In this episode, we get to see Shannon's impeccable swordsmanship in action, and more of Raquel being her carefree self.
As more of the details about the history of the world of Scrapped Princess are revealed, it is quite clear that this show takes place in a world where once technology ruled. Somehow, the dragoons were involved in this world, fighting in a battle called the Genesis War, which has been alluded to a few times, but never explained.
The outcome of the Genesis War is fairly obvious, but the real nature of the dragoons and what their new objectives are (Natalie, the newly introduced dragoon, mentions something about Zefiris' former lord, and that Zefiris is only using Shannon temporarily), and what exactly Shannon's connection to all this is (the "D" in "D Knight").
Minor footnote, it's Leo in the Soopy-kun outfit! (Haha!) He's accompanying Winia on a journey, so we can only hope that they'll be rejoining the story proper soon. I'm surprised about Winia, I thought her part was done, though it was fairly obvious that Leo has a larger part to play than just be the goofy knight-in-training (larger part than just dressing up as Soopy-kun, I mean).
I have some reservations about the whole high tech backstory of this show, and as not enough has been revealed about it, it's just a little apprehension (it is my firm belief that fantasy and science fiction do not go well together). I should also mention that they still haven't dropped any more Norse mythology references, so maybe it was just a one-time thing.
Rating: B+
Posted by Kei at September 16, 2003 11:46 PM