Murder Princess
Anime DVD Review
With a name like that, it *has* to be good. I mean, how can you go wrong with a title like "Murder Princess"? Further proof that the Japanese take random English words, bash them together, and produce a product. Sort of like rock bands...
But I digress... Bringing with it a visceral mental image of a pristine, noble, graceful beauty covered head to toe in blood, Murder Princess pounds us with a story: In the kingdom of Foland, the stronghold of an ancient and powerful magic, a bloody coup d'état led by Dr. Akamashi and his supernatural cyborg minions (really? They have to be cyborgs and supernatural?) pushes the royal family to the brink of extinction.
 Forced to flee in the hopes of preserving her noble bloodline (Anastasia, anyone?) Princess Alita crosses paths with the infamous bounty-hunter Falis, which causes the two to share a near-death experience which then switches their minds into the other's body, and then things get really complicated!
Oh, and that's just the first 10 minutes of the first episode. It gets really bananas after that, as it turns out that the so called ancient and powerful magic is "old technology", which is much more advanced, and well, let's just say it sorta' turns into Big-O, but with a lot more weirdness. Plus, the good guys are being watched closely by a very powerful duo, who aren't what they appear, and it turns out they've been pulling the strings all along.
It's a bargain DVD with 6 episodes that comprise the entire series, and, well, all we can say is that it's got a bit of every anime series you've ever seen. Plus an ending that kind of reminds us of "Electra Assassin".
All in all, Murder Princess is everything it was billed to be, including the image of a noble beauty covered in blood... and smiling about that!
Reviewed by Brian Cirulnick, July 2009
Below: Scenes from Murder Princess.
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