Scrapped Princess Volume 1: Family Ties (DVD) - Anime Reviews


	Number of Episodes 4 Language Options English/Japanese/English Subtitles Released by Bandai Entertainment Extras Textless Opening
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Scrapped Princess Volume 1: Family Ties (DVD)

A Girl with a destiny…

Pacifica Cassul is a girl with a destiny. But unfortunately it’s not a good one – she is the Scrapped Princess, a girl who, according to prophecy, is the poison that will destroy the world. Naturally, the means that people want her gone. But two powerful people have sworn to protect her – her brother Shannon, whose swordsmanship is impeccable, and her sister Raquel, who is able to wield devastating magic when the mood strikes her.

Traveling without attracting attention proves very difficult for the outspoken Pacifica, and they soon find themselves in trouble from various sources. Traitorous friends, assassins, and even an operative from Special Forces all stand in their way. But along the way, they make a few friends as well, including the naïve would-be Knight Leopold and the shy Winis.

Being a Scrapped Princess means that you always have to stay one step ahead of the enemy. How long can they go before their time runs out? And is Pacifica really the girl who will cause the end of the World?

It’s hard growing into a family business or a job that you know from early on that you are going to have to do, so imagine if that job were to destroy the world? That’s quite a buzz-killer and one hell of a weight on the spirit of any individual, especially a bubbly girl who doesn’t appear to be the genocidal maniac that her destiny would have people believe. Pacifica as the Scrapped Princess is destined to the be the destroyer of the world when she is 16, which is coming up soon. Her only family are her adopted siblings, brother Shannon and sister Raquel. Shannon takes the duty of being the hard-ass, saying the difficult things and doing the hardest work while loving Raquel tries to act as the buffer from the hateful outside world for Pacifica.

Episode 01: Overture of the Abandoned-Cat Princess

Pacifica travels in a cart with her two siblings to avoid the groups that serve the god Mauser and are looking to kill the Scrapped Princess. Whenever the general populace stands in their way, both the proficient strikes from Shannon’s sword and the powerful spells from Raquel are able to disperse the rabble. The extensive traveling is hard on everyone, and Pacifica keeps wanting to stop for food or proper lodging instead of the “roughing it” that they’ve been doing up to this point. So when the trio comes across a sect of their family, they are grateful when they are given a small chance to relax and enjoy the creature comforts for a little while.

However, once the Aunt brings Pacifica to the leader of the local church of Mauser, it appears that the ties of blood do not mean as much when compared to the fears of the Scrapped Princess. It takes the assistance of Raquel, to “convince” the priest that he cannot stand against them and that he should let them go. The conflicts up to this point have not gone unnoticed though, their successes at evading capture have started to draw fiercer

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competition and the church has now sent one of their special operatives, Chris, to try and kill Pacifica. After a quick, tete-a-tete with Shannon, Chris decides that he will not have an easy time defeating both siblings and withdraws to avoid escalating the fight.

Episode 02: March of the Half-Baked Knight

Another full episode – Pacifica and company are trying to get a little laundry done when they are interrupted by some robbers but before Shannon can introduce the fools to a beating a

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would-be knight tries to lend a hand by charging the enemies… and then completely over-runs them. With their rescuer’s distraction, Shannon quickly dispatches the foes and the party continues on the journey. Pacifica checks up on the knight, and then sets off with the cart and the knight gallops to keep pace and talk to Pacifica. Eventually confessing his love to her, and giving his name (Leo) he explains that he is looking for a former knight of the Imperial guard (Sir Barret) that lives in the area and wants to get some advice about becoming a knight himself.

At the group’s next stop at a local lake, the playing around is interrupted by a giant frog (the 40 foot tall variety) and it takes the sudden appearance of a mysterious girl to stop the rampage. Casting a spell, the girl reduces the frog to a woman and asks Pacifica to tell the woman that she can now sleep. Doing so, Pacifica asks the girl what was going on and the girl responds that she cannot explain right now and disappears into thin air. The calming of the frog is seen as a good dead by a local woman who explains that the water spirit that inhabited the lake has been dangerous for many years, and she was happy to let the spirit have some calm. Telling the group where they can find Sir Barret, Shannon, Pacifica and Leo proceed to meet the former knight.

The meeting with the knight doesn’t go exactly as planned, and Sir Barret doesn’t seem too willing to talk about his past or the tenets of chivalry with Leo. Dismayed at the meeting, the group returns to base camp where Raquel and the local woman prepare dinner. Relaying the meeting with Sir Barret, the woman explains that he become disillusioned after being the man responsible for executing the Scrapped Princess at birth – he was to throw her off a cliff to her death and did so. The incident became a crisis of faith for him and he left the Imperial Guard as a result. Leo takes the information hard and he also begins to question the requirements for being a knight.

Episode 03: Fanfare for the Unforgiving Man

The group are heading for the next town by back roads trying to avoid any sort of attention, but unfortunately the side road that they were on ends early and there is only one pass into the next town of Taurus. At the gates of the town, a detachment searches for Pacifica amongst the travelers, but Pacifica covers up her blonde hair with a wig. When the group is stopped and searched, Leo’s family name vouches for them and they are allowed to proceed into the city unmolested. In town, the trio decides to stay in a hotel and Pacifica quickly makes friends with the quiet girl Winia, who works as a maid in her Uncle’s inn.

For the course of the day, all members of the team start to look for work to earn some money back and while Shannon works in the inn, he is visited by the mysterious girl from the last episode. She warns him about the presence of assassins looking for them and reveals her name as Zephiris. Not wanting to get caught by the searching team, the group plans to leave immediately, but before they can leave, Winia is taken as a hostage by Chris (leading a detachment of Special Forces) who leaves a meeting place. While alone with Winia, Chris tells her of the prophecy about the Scrapped Princess (the female of a pair of twins born to the royal family) and explains about her surviving and even names Pacifica as the Scrapped Princess to Winia.

Episode 04: Concerto of Meetings and Partings

With the kidnapping of Winia, Shannon heads to confront Chris and after an extended fight, he defeats his opponent and spares his life. This upsets Chris, who questions how effective Shannon will be in protecting Pacifica if he won’t kill to protect her. Shannon answers that Pacifica would be upset if anyone were hurt in her name. Shannon brings Winia back to town and after resting shortly, the group eats then leaves town quietly. Watching over the fight was a group of clergy from the Church of Mauser who decree that they will now try to stop the Scrapped Princess and will purge the town of Taurus in the process by using one of their elite Peacemakers (think: shocktroop). So, when Chris returns to the command area he learns of the impending attack by the Peacemakers and how the Special Forces have been ordered to withdraw.

Stopping his forces from attacking, Chris links up with Pacifica and company and tells them about the Peacemaker that will attack Taurus. Returning to help the villagers, Shannon and Raquel try to attack the Peacemaker’s spell – a giant black blob that is consuming people and buildings alike. Pacifica is able to stop the being subconsciously, so the Peacemaker changes tactics and hypnotizes the populace into killing Pacifica. The sight of Shannon trying to kill her causes Pacifica to scream out in horror which breaks the spell on the people of Taurus. As a last ditch attack, the Peacemaker has his blob attack more aggressively killing people indiscriminately. The sight brings Pacifica to tears and she destroys the spell with her emotional release.

This first disc of Scrapped Princess just starts to hint at the depth that the series will develop. You start to see not only the conspiracies that are flying around between political groups, but the limits of the world are starting to be broken by the magic users which raises the questions about what the world really is. Scrapped Princess is a beautiful and bright animation with an excellent story to drive it. Highly recommended.

- Tazman

(April 29, 2005)

"Over this interview is."

- Yoda (Chapelle Show)