Shamanic Princess

Genre: Shoujo / Fantasy
Parental Guidance Recommended
1996 Mitsuru Hongo (director). Atsuko Ishida of CLAMP (character designer).

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Firesnshi's Description:
Disguised as a schoolgirl, Tiara quietly leaves her dorm during the night to fulfill a secret mission. She is entrusted to find the powerful Seat of Yord once given responsibility to her rival, Lena. Gifted with powerful Shamanic powers, Tiara is extremely motivated in pursuing her mission until she discovers a bitter truth. Her special friendship is lost and her love betrayed. How is she to continue?

(6 episodes)

NOTE: Some of the reviews were written sometime in 2001 and was recorded in the classic Otaku Fridge as ??.??.2001. Unfortunately the database would not accept non-numerical values, so this review is now dated January 01, 2001 by default.

Huh? That was it?. >>> by firesenshi
With character designs by CLAMP master Atsuko Ishida, one can only expect masterful designs in the artwork. The costumes and imagery were just spectacular, as is the trademark of Ishida-san, who also did Magic Knight Rayearth. Save of course for the hugely exaggerated eyes than most anime I've seen! But that's where it all ends.

It all starts with a simple problem -- Yord's seat is gone. Retrieving it takes a bit of trouble and later on, after so much majestically magical transformations, you'll find out why. By the time you do, you are probably in the middle of episode 4. Why it leaves you in the dark after all this time could be attributed to the fact that the movie bounces you between the inner messages within the dialogue and visual imagery. So by the time you find out WHY, you'll be bored with the dialogues and stoned with the imagery.

I only have one WHY statement resolved while watching it -- WHY is this story so fond of flashbacks? Does everyone love guessing and dramatic ironies? Doing so actually made them change the sequence of the episodes for that particular reason. Trust me, even if the prequel was as it was intended to be where it was supposed to be, nothing would change. Good concept though, but I really did sleep through it.

Individual Rating: Art/Animation 8; Story 4; Characters 6; Sounds 5