I have been so crazy busy recently working on Yuri Monogatari 6 that, after hours of staring at the computer, the thought of reviewing something for you makes me want to cry. Which is why it is once again my absolute, sincere pleasure to welcome Winterbraid as a guest reviewer! Yay!

I`ve finally bled up enough coin to get the new (well, not really, ’cause it was some time ago) and shiny release of Murder Princess, which got, uh, released – by a company aptly calling themselves “Anime Video” – in Poland. And in Germany too, I guess, since it comes with both Polish and German subtitles; and even two different versions of the latter, according to my video player. I know this series has already been taken apart, like, three times on Okazu; but I`m still gonna write about it excessively.
^-^

I must say, while Murder Princess doesn`t seem to have magically gained more Yuri value (or more innovative value, when we`re at it ^-^;) on the second run, it is still – all the same – an enjoyable anime to watch. I think it`s because it is basically a handful of entirely unoriginal themes blended together in an entirely original manner, serviceliciously free of intellectual baggage, and amply seasoned with awesome (like in “Hey, she just thrashed a monster ten times her size!!!” awesome). ^-^ Yes, I just like this series, somehow – perhaps not the title, though. ^-^;

The release consists of two DVDs in a single box (the summary on the back cover has a rather serious mistake, by the way); the first thing I noticed (or should I say, didn`t notice) upon opening the box was lack of postcard. =_= On the other hand, there was a booklet with several pictures of Faris and Alita, and translated liner notes from Tomoyuki Kurokawa of Bee-Train; quite a nice touch, yeah, but still not a postcard… okay, okay. ^-^; Each DVD contains three episodes, and the remaining space is conveniently filled with trailers; nothing Yuri-esque there, so I skipped that part (the company has also released both seasons of Black Lagoon, by the way).

Now for the translation, which is… rather unusual, I`d say. The translators obviously went the creative way; that in itself is more than commendable, as long as it is a result of actual creativity rather than lack of knowledge. I`d like to believe the former is the case here, although this belief`s been put to trial a few times. In other words, there are moments when the text not only doesn`t make sense when compared with original speech, but it also doesn`t make any sense at all. ^-^; Oh well. Still, there is a number of actual “wow!” moments, and these – at least in my opinion – more than make up for the occasional not-so-wow moment, and the more blatant differences from the original are an extra source of fun. ^-^ The characters are, for once, literate (actually, even more literate sometimes than in the original; that`s okay, seeing that while short sentences might sound cool in Japanese, in Polish they just sound dumb ^-^;), use more than 2000 basic words, and – most of the time – use wording you`d expect from the genre. In fact, the result might be a bit too… theatrical at times, but this anime isn`t one to be taken seriously either, so it`s all right, I guess. ^-^; I believe in beautiful translations rather than strictly true translations, so I wholeheartedly support the turn towards creativity (as long as some improvement is on the way) and I can only wish the editors even more imagination in the future, to cover up any gaps in actual knowledge. And more postcards, perhaps. ^-^

And these were my thoughts on “Murder Princess.”

Erica here – thank you Winterbraid for that insightful and entirely laugh-out-loud review. Consider your thoughts and rambles welcome here any time.