Shikabane Hime: Aka

Title:Shikabane Hime: Aka
屍姫 赫
Overall:Watch
Keywords: , , , , ,
Notables: AKIYAMA Nana
Animation - Gainax
HOSOME Tatsuya
R1 License - FUNimation
The title "Corpse Princess" belongs to Makina Hoshimura, an undead girl who seeks to hunt down 108 corpses in order to go to heaven.

Animation by - feel & GAINAX.
R1 Licensed by Funimation.
Series first aired on Oct 2nd, '08.
13 TV episodes.

Also see sequel/continuation - Shikabane Hime: Kuro
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Unevaluated Jan-Chan [series:1955#967]
Tis interesting ... Ann is reporting that Funimation will be streaming English subtitled episodes of this series within a few weeks them being aired to Japanese TV.

Episodes of this series will be posted to the mentioned sites of YouTube, Joost.com, Hulu.com, and funimation.com's video services starting on Friday, October 24.

This action, when combined with Linebarrels, does appear to suggest that Funimation is willing to acknowledge the importance and efforts of fansub groups and is willing to permit fans to view a new series - at least until they release the English Dubbed DVDs ...

Last updated Tuesday, October 21 2008. Created Tuesday, October 21 2008.
Watch Stretch [series:1955#628]
(All episodes watched):

This was a show that seemed like fun but hasn't been living up to my expectations. While watching the first episode, the number one thought that occured to me was that this show included a Wild action scene. I see that Gainax was involved, so that explains it. This seemed to have a fairly interesting premise; Shana kind of gave me the creeps with it's fate-worse-than-death storyline, but this one might be more of a roller coaster ride of action and adventure, with a naughty, tempting glimpse of the supernatural. One problem was that the techniques needed to despatch her opponents and the restrictions (don't kill any humans) she has to work under seem frustrating. All she has to do is blow their brains out with ordinary firearms? That's disappointing. Still, I was liking this; I wonder what part exactly the teenage orphan will play.

Episode two was good, but would have been better if it hadn't also seemed muddled and confusing to me. Hime seems to have a frustrating habit of hesitating at critical moments and hence getting beaten up. Monsters that only want to play? They seemed bizarre and I was more confused by them than angry at them. And why was Ouri heartbroken when the last one was killed? He didn't react like that when he first heard that the little girl had died. Whatever the message of this episode was, I didn't get it. Maybe I'm a fool, or maybe the moral of the story should have been explained better (or both).

This is getting frustrating. This show seemed like it had such a neat premise, yet I can't help feeling that the final product is so average. The corpse-of-the-week opponents are supposed to startle and frighten me, yet they seem unexceptional and difficult to take seriously. And Hime just shoots them in the end, anyway. The episode plots seem repetitive; Hime fails in her first attempt to execute a corpse, and gets beaten up, then comes back and pulls the job off on the second try. But the final kills seem anticlimactic; I don't really see any clever change of tactics to explain her success, it's just that she's more lucky the second time around. Cool animation is an inadequate substitute for a well thought-out story. Actually, whereas the FLCL-like fighting animation is wild and interesting, the ordinary animation can be rather cheesy at times. At one point I got the impression that people's mouths weren't even moving as they spoke. In short, a clever premise without enough originality in the execution.

...and yet I keep watching, and feel lucky when a new episode becomes available. Perhaps this is one of those shows which instils high hopes, and I keep hoping it will get better even though I'm repeatedly disappointed. Some new characters, who may or may not be interesting, have appeared. I'm confused by all the different factions; who is on Hime's side and who's not? Episode five, about a sort of possessed rental car, began a two-parter and seemed unusual. But episode six was disappointing and seemed to lose interest and wander away into a different plotline. I'd like to know more about Hime, but the details are slow in coming and she seems just as unfriendly as in episode one. It's beginning to dawn on me that Gainax did nothing more than deliver the animation, and probably wasn't paid very well to do that.

Episode seven, on the other hand, was kind of fun and encourages me. It would be neat, I thought, if Minai, another "Corpse Princess", was recruited into the team, since she has an abusive Contracted Priest at the moment. What actually happened to Minai was surprising and marked a significant improvement in the series overall, I think. There were a couple of good gags in this one as well. One thing I'd really like to know: why is there a talking cat? I think I'd have remembered any explanation that was offered for that. A sort of explanation comes in episode 11, but it raises more questions than it answers.

I thought the set of stereotypical bad guys who showed up near the end of the first season were pretty lame, especially with their flambouyant costumes. I thought for awhile that the fansubbers had lost interest in this series, since the first arc seemed to end with episode 12 and episode 13 seemed to begin a new one--and then new episodes abruptly stopped appearing. But apparently 13 episodes is all there is, for the time being, at least. I was actually a little relieved that I'd seemingly been granted an excuse to drop this show. Perhaps a second season is in the works, but I don't really consider this show to be worth going to much trouble to watch.

Last updated Monday, March 16 2009. Created Sunday, October 12 2008.
Unevaluated Forbin [series:1955#1573]
First Look : Not bad, sorta a female Shana.

Not sure what to make of it but it's watchable.

Last updated Wednesday, October 08 2008. Created Wednesday, October 08 2008.
Watch Xenoknight [series:1955#2967]
Plan to watch soon...

Never forget Xenosaga.

Last updated Thursday, October 09 2008. Created Wednesday, September 10 2008.

Other Sites
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Official Japanese Series Web Site http://www.starchild.co.jp/special/shikabanehime/

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