Scrapped Princess Volume 3: Traveling Troubles (DVD) - Anime Reviews


	Number of Episodes 4 Language Options English/Japanese/English Subtitles Released by Bandai Entertainment
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Scrapped Princess Volume 3: Traveling Troubles (DVD)

Pacifica and her siblings are tired and hungry, and they decide to stop at a local tavern. But it’s crowded, and there are no empty tables. Before Shannon can object, Pacifica has accepted the offer of a Priest of the Church of Mauser to share their table. They share a meal and talk a little, and wind up traveling on the same road. They discover a small village who has rejected the Church of Mauser and is led by a masked man named Reynard and a blonde woman who claims to be – the Scrapped Princess! And afterwards, they arrive in the Giat Empire, but before they have time to relax they are captured by Senes, a woman known as the Beast Princess! She and her troops have discovered and restored an ancient device called the Skid, which they use as their fortress. As Senes and her crew explain the true history of humanity, the Peacemakers attack! Now, it’s up to Pacifica to give them all the ability to fight back and defeat those horrible adversaries!

The previous episode of Scrapped Princess was the last episode that I saw before the series was licensed by Bandai, and now I am seeing these episodes for the first time (I’ll admit that doesn’t happen that often anymore, but I was such a fan of the animation that I really wanted to see the DVD picture quality and so I remained patient). Now Pacifica is traveling on foot with Raquel and Shannon and so both the road and journey have become more difficult.

Episode 09: Requiem for the Heretics

After a tiring climb over a mountain pass, the three siblings are tired from the road and manage to make it into a small bar on the other side. When they enter the bar, all the tables are full but one only has a single priest from the Church of Mauser – he quickly invites the three to join him, as he would enjoy some company. He reveals that he is an Inquisitor, and his job is to detain heretics to the Church; but his demeanor certainly wouldn’t give you that impression. He’s a gracious man, and offers to pay for the meals of the three from the Church’s coffers. Now traveling with the group, he mentions that he’s also looking for the Scrapped Princess, but laments that a ton of girls resemble her description, including Pacifica. As the group progresses, they come across a young girl collecting wood but as she sees them she apparently drops off a cliff; so they walk up to where she disappeared and discover that the cliff is just an illusion. Heading past the illusion, they discover a small community which suddenly appears and surrounds the travelers. They arrest the group, and pay special attention to the Inquisitor; Raquel notices that the spell that

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protects the village also prevents people from leaving. Now being taken inside, the Inquisitor notices their totem is a dragon from the Browning Sect (roughly the equivalent of being Satan worshipers). They meet the leaders of the coven: Reynard and Lady Elfitine – Reynard claims that Lady Elfitine is actually the Scrapped Princess.

Once the three prove that they aren’t affiliated with the Church, they are free to look around but not leave (it’s not as though they could if they wanted

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to). They quickly ingratiate themselves once Raquel uses her magic to save a group of people from an accident in the lumber yard. The three are brought to an audience with Reynard who talks about his views of Browning with regards to the teachings of Mauser. He relates the story of Browning and his 23 dragons that fought to overthrow evil Mauser, but failed; and how Browning created magic in the world with his last action. Now asking the group if they will join in their uprising, Shannon responds that while he wants to world to change, he won’t interfere with them but they won’t help them either. Reynard agrees and lets them stay to watch. The episode ends with the beginning of a ceremony involving Reynard and Lady Elfitine addressing the people of the village.

Episode 10: Serenade of the False Princess

With the ceremony in full swing, the siblings decide that this is going to be one of their best chances to escape. Pacifica is insistent that they find and free the Inquisitor, and so she runs off to find him; while Shannon and Raquel examine the barrier that keeps them trapped. While Pacifica searches, she comes across a bathing area where Lady Elfitine is inside preparing for a later stage; she invites Pacifica to join her (far be it from Pacifica to turn down a hot bath). Pacifica learns that Elfitine was merely told by Reynard that she was the Scrapped Princess, but the only power that she possesses is actually mild precognition. Raquel’s examination of the barrier suggests that it is quite different from any spell that she’s familiar with, but she leads her brother to a room filled with small coffins. Each coffin contains a member of the village who has been knocked unconscious and their mental abilities are being lent to maintain the barricade. At this point, the Inquisitor arrives and shows the two the pattern that is emerging in the main meeting area. Raquel recognizes it as a magic circle that could be used for an offensive spell – one that could be used to target the Church of Mauser.

However, this is all a ruse. Reynard intends to escape with Elfitine and the spell will instead blow up killing the entire village. He intends to report to the Church having killed an entire town of heretics and use the status to quickly move up the ranks. The team catches him and Pacifica convinces Elfitine to stand up for her beliefs; Reynard runs away but Elfitine convinces the villagers to stop the spell. She admits that she’s not the Scrapped Princess, but the villagers do not care and still accept her for saving them. The Inquisitor tells Shannon that they should proceed to the next region, and mentions that he knew that Pacifica was the Scrapped Princess (but considering that he liked her, he couldn’t bring himself to harm her).

Episode 11: Rhapsody of the Beast Princess

Shannon, Raquel, and Pacifica reach the Giat Empire and not five minutes in they are immediately surrounded and taken prisoner by Senes the Beast Princess – she’s the 3^rd princess of the Giat Empire, and is currently operating out of a fortress similar to the bug hive from Disc 02. She separates Pacifica from the other two, sending them to the beaches outside while she interrogates the Scrapped Princess. She tries to get the measure of the young girl by taunting her and goading, but when Pacifica doesn’t aggressively respond (i.e. with force), Senes gets annoyed and goes outside to talk with Shannon. Pacifica has now boiled over and is in the middle of a good tantrum until Senes’ second in command (Eirote) comes in and smoothes things over with just a few words. Eirote explains that Senes is very similar to her, except that her siblings were trying to harm her as well as the outside world; she was openly attacked by her brother and sister.

Shannon has talked with Zefiris, and wonders how Senes could know so much about them. Zefiris states that she’s going to look around for a bit, and she comes across another Dragoon – this one named Natalie. Senes approaches Shannon and asks him to join them; she wants to dominate the world and she thinks that Shannon’s D-Knight powers would be an important aid. She offers to spar with him, and Shannon agrees. The battle is interesting as Senes is an excellent weapon master and also has some magic background, but no matter what she does, she cannot defeat Shannon. After the end of the fight, Senes’ soldiers tell them that the other dragoon is awake; so Pacifica and company meet Natalie who is with Zefiris.

Elsewhere, Christopher is with his adopted mother and is meeting with the Queen (Pacifica’s birth mother). The Queen is quite a beautiful woman with an understated kindness; she is quite concerned about Pacifica and she presses Christopher for all the information that he can give her about Pacifica’s life and history. Back in Taurus, Winia and Leo are preparing to head out on a journey together to visit the base town where Christopher is staying (it seems as though Winia is pining for Chris).

Episode 12: Battle Hymn of the Two Princesses

Natalie admits that she lost most of her body and was only able to survive by transferring some of her data into the skid. She has been the one that has taught Senes about Pacifica and the powers of Shannon and Raquel. Natalie begins to explain to the three all the details about Pacifica’s existence: she is the key to overthrowing the Peacemakers and her powers are slowly manifesting; her protectors exist thanks to the seeding of genes that would make some people more predisposed to helping her. The two with the highest expression of those genes were Raquel and Shannon; but all the people with those genes were shown, including some people we’ve already met: Leo, Winia, Berkens (The Inquisitor), Elfitine, Keydarf, and Raquel and Shannon’s parents.

On the surface, a flotilla of Giat ships approaches the Skid and Senes is forced to counter-attack to protect their position. When the group joins up at the command center, they see the incoming ships. The leader of the mission is Steyr who has hypnotized the fleet command into following her orders. She has created proxies (the monster that attacked in Taurus) and is preparing to have them attack the base momentarily – but for now, they are annihilating the fleet. Shannon decides that he will go outside to fight them with Zefiris. Steyr exerts her power: hypnotizing all of the people in the control room, but Shannon and Zefiris are attacking. Shannon is really upset with all the information that they’ve just learned, and is having a hard time trusting Zefiris, but she insists that their linked power is weaker without trust. As a result, they are losing the fight, and they are forced to retreat. Eirote explains Pacifica’s future powers further, she is the only being capable of resisting the Peacemaker’s commands and as she reaches 16, she will gain control of those powers and potentially be able to raise an army to battle the Peacemakers. With no Zefiris or Shannon, the proxies now reach the land and begin attacking the base itself. Pacifica is finally able to duplicate the same feat at Taurus, and the army is finally able to start fighting back against the proxies; at the same time Shannon sneaks up on Steyr and runs her through. The attack isn’t particularly successful until Zefiris rejoins and they seriously wound her, but she is saved by Cz. Cz tells Shannon the location of the next battle, and that they have 15 days to get there. Every day later will result in 1,000 people being killed. Pacifica and company decide that they have no choice but to go; but as the episode ends, the Skid finally powers up and lifts off of the ground.

This disc of Scrapped Princess is showing more of the “dual” world that has been eluded to up to this point, and so far it’s been quite interesting. Most impressed with this disc, and I’m looking forward to the next one already.

- Tazman

(September 17, 2005)

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