First Impressions / Princess Principal

「Case 9 Roaming Pigeons」

3Hz decided to go for a non-chronological viewing order and I’m absolutely digging the style! It was one of the reasons I adored The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Too bad we’ll never get any closure on that one, since the last volume came out over six years ago.

Enough talk about the dead. Time to examine some living specimen from the Black Lizard Planet! With an endearing assassin like Chise joining in, I can confidently say that I really enjoy the dynamic of friendship between the girls. Princess exudes charisma and charm, Dorothy takes the femme fatale up a notch, Ange is simply awesome, and I felt Beatrice in particular greatly improved from last week.

We Are Spies

These girls are pretty terrible spies, but my word do they have fun and go about their business with style. Discussing the secret plan openly might not be a good idea, since unknown eyes and ears might pick up on sensitive information. There is also no reason to go in declaring that you are spies at the end of an operation, in case something ends up going wrong. Not to mention, the trio having their faces uncovered completely defeats the purpose behind having the Princess concealing her identity, due to guilt by association.

Not to say the other girls were useless. On top of being the driver, Dorothy used her assets to woo the guard while Beatrice altered her voice to trick them. Chise cleared a path by taking out the watchmen on the ship, and Princess is the lynchpin that ties the group together. All fulfil a certain niche that makes it really fun when they come together in an operation, which I suppose is what matters.

That said, I always reckoned Ange was a step above the others when it came to the arts of espionage. Taking the dangerous risk of falling between giant fan blades made for a really tense and exciting moment, complete with epic Yuki Kajiura choir soundtrack in the background. We are even showcased a new application for the Cavorite device, where it traced the location of the laboratory. Does Ange’s skill and resourcefulness know no end?

Concluding Thoughts

I can understand why the commonwealth would retain a healthy dose of suspicion towards the Princess for being a double agent of the Kingdom, but it’s interesting to see that they’re not suspecting the Princess of having her own separate agenda. The interactions that Chise and Dorothy had with their superiors indicate a reluctance to betray the Princess for the sake of their sides, and slowly but surely, you begin to notice that a breakaway third faction could be forming.

Though the successfully stolen Cavorite technology may seem revolutionary, I can’t shake the feeling we’ve all seen it somewhere before. Doesn’t Ange utilise a compact source of Cavorite herself? It was obviously a special piece of equipment, but I never imagined that it would be so ground-breaking in the context of our steampunk universe.

But yeah, something fantastic that Princess Principal does is the way it proceeds with world building. Instead of being force-fed prologues or mired by information dumps, things pretty much happen as they do. The pieces of the puzzle slowly fall into place, and as they do, we can slowly begin to figure out the mystery.

Moving onto speculation, these plans to redefine the geography of London seem a tad sinister, in addition to imminent discussions for putting the Princess into a political marriage. I can’t say for sure what comes next, since the next episode will presumably be non-sequitur. However, I’ll choose to sit tight for now and have fun, regardless of where the show decides to take us!

21 Comments

  1. The moment Princess decided to go with them on board the ship, Dorothy said that such risk wouldn’t point to her being a double agent, and then I thought “Unless it’s a really bold act whose intent is to sell the notion that she is genuinely friendly”. And that turned out to be not really out of the realm of possibility when the director alluded to how their spy world is black and grey. Now we know what everyone is lying about to each other at this point, except Beatrice, she’s still sincere, and I hope she stays that way for the sake of being different in her own way:
    Ange is lying about everything she does because that will ward off suspicion, and she needs it to conceal her real identity and her potential subsequent deception for the sake of Princess. Princess is lying to conceal her relation to Ange so they can be together in this dark world, but then who knows what secret agenda she may have. Chise is lying about her allegiance to team Principal to inspect their actions. And Dorothy is keeping up a facade to keep a close eye on Princess for fear of her being a double agent. Black and grey means nothing is clear cut, which makes their inner lives not that glamorous and sweet. Hence the solace Dorothy found in the new team name “White pigeons”. A white within the grey. A truth within the lie.

    This has been really great so far.

    yoloalchemist
    Reply

    1. Hey Yoloalchemist! I wouldn’t have had my doubts disappear like Dorothy. As someone whoe plays a lot of face to face mafia with people at university, I’m well aware of the lengths that individuals can go to in order to mask their trail. If we extrapolate something from a casual setup, and say its application is even more true in the world of spies and espionage (where one mistake can really spell the end of your life), then I would probably remain wary. That’s just personally speaking by the way.

      Really like how the lies are interwoven. Would love to see it all crashing down like a stack of cards though. I live to revel in chaos and destruction 🙂

      Zaiden
      Reply

  2. I just had to make this a separate comment, but I really understand where you’re coming from Zaiden, concerning Amazon. I live in Canada and as luck may have it, we don’t have the double paywall of anime strike since the streaming service was only recently implemented in here. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck. Their uploads are completely whacky. Besides the horrible delays (Altair episode 4 still isn’t up), case in point, Ballroom aired its episodes 4 and 5 at the same time, but Amazon Prime Canada uploaded episode 5 only, with 4 being uploaded only later. You’d think Made In Abyss doesn’t have it as bad, only for me to find out that its “Episode 4” (seriously not a joke) is actually Princess Principal episode 4 with the subtitles of Made In Abyss episode 4 printed over it. Then you have Love and Lies episode 2… still lacking subtitles. How about that for a fantastic anime streaming service -_-

    Granted, I don’t know what’s the Amazon situation like in other countries, but it seems to be generally not pleasant.

    yoloalchemist
    Reply

    2. We don’t have Anime Strike in the UK. That said, I have an Amazon Prime subscription for a year that I gained with some student bank deal. Let’s just say they sadly don’t offer extensive streaming services the way Anime Strike do.

      Zaiden
      Reply

  4. I’m a bit confused about the non-chronological order – ep 1 was actually case 13 although the anime only has 12 episodes? What’s the studio’s grand plan behind this… 😮

    Pegas
    Reply

  6. “…obviously a special piece of equipment, but I never imagined that it would be so ground-breaking…”
    Even in back Ep.01/as far ahead in time as Case 13 – the defecting scientist recognized Ange’s sphere and thought its miniaturization impossible. So his research might have been on cavorite – especially with the “accident” giving his sister cavorite poisoning – at his workplace when she came to visit maybe? So we’ve had the clue Ange’s sphere was ahead of the curve and we get another reminder this ep just how much so.

    Hanover Fist
    Reply

    1. Hanover Fist, nice catch! The non-chronological order makes it difficult to create a thread of continuity in terms of information, but I have to agree that Case 13 highlighted that Ange’s Cavorite device may go beyond what modern mainstream science has attained within her universe.

      Zaiden
      Reply

  10. “I can understand why the commonwealth would retain a healthy dose of suspicion towards the Princess for being a double agent of the Kingdom, but it’s interesting to see that they’re not suspecting the Princess of having her own separate agenda. The interactions that Chise and Dorothy had with their superiors indicate a reluctance to betray the Princess for the sake of their sides, and slowly but surely, you begin to notice that a breakaway third faction could be forming.”

    t will be interesting if the Princess goal is reunification.

    ordnance11
    Reply

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