Egao no Daika

Title:Egao no Daika
The Price of Smiles
エガオノダイカ
Overall:Rent
Keywords: , , ,
Notables: Animation - Tatsunoku Production
HANAMORI Yumiri
HAYAMI Saori
On her 12th birthday Princess Yuuki officially becomes the leader of a nation founded by colonists from earth on a distant planet. Her parents were the nation's founders and are idolized by the people, but both were killed in an accident. Will the orphan Princess be able to handle the job?

12 episodes
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Rent 8 7 8 6 7 8 Ggultra2764 [series:3633#1552]
The Price of Smiles focuses on two young women living on a distant planet with both their kingdoms at war. The first, Yuki, is the princess of the kingdom of Soleil and national symbol following the loss of her parents, who has an idealistic belief in wanting the best for everyone while oblivious to the true reality of war. The second, Stella Shining, is a soldier within the Grandiga Army attempting to find purpose in her life after having been raised as an orphan and has difficulty expressing her true emotions to others due to her rough upbringing.

To start things, I'll just say first impressions with this series can be a bit misassuming. The first episode has you believe this may be a light-hearted mecha series with the typical story setup it establishes with Yuki's character and I've read that this has led some folks to not watch the series beyond this point as a result. The Price of Smiles isn't afraid to explore how harsh the realities of war can be. While the series explores how both kingdoms have justification to fight in their war, it shows both sides committing morally questionable acts to accomplish their goals and the series isn't afraid to kill off major characters to emphasize this. It also shows that having the more capable mecha within the series can mean squat as Grandiga's greater numbers for their armies are occasionally shown to overwhelm Soleil in spite of their superior technology. Plus, idealism isn't always a good thing to have in a brutal conflict such as war, which Yuki is painfully shown to realize throughout this anime's 12-episode run.

As far as the storytelling for the series goes, it has its ups and downs. Yuki and Stella serve as the focus characters for each side of the war to explore how their kingdoms are faring. The series does a solid job showing off the justifications both sides have in their conflict and that the characters focused on in both factions are not irredeemable. Stella's character focus was largely solid in exploring her rough upbringing and shown to undergo gradual development as she comes to develop bonds with her brigade members and finds purpose for herself. Yuki's character focus is more weaker as the series chooses to still have her stick to her idealist beliefs throughout the series in spite of the hardships of war she is confronted with and makes her feel quite out of place in the story that Price of Smiles is going for. The ending for the series also felt both a bit rushed and rather anti-climactic in how it addresses both a certain element of Stella's past and how the war gets ultimately resolved in spite of hints to this direction being alluded to. In addition, the series can get fairly heavy-handed in how it expresses its themes at points and this could potentially turn off viewers who hate this approach to storytelling.

In short, Price of Smiles offers a mostly solid, though somewhat flawed, series that takes some creative risks with bucking a number of the typical cliches of a mecha war series in exploring the realities of war and exploring how the focus characters withing both kingdoms cope with these realities. Personally, I felt Stella's developments with the series were better handled than Yuki's and I do realize this series is likely to not be everyone's cup of tea with the rather mediocre first episode and the heavy-handed approach to handling its themes. Still, I'd at least recommend sampling the first few episodes of the series to see if it's something you may have interest in watching the entirety of.

Last updated Monday, September 05 2022. Created Sunday, September 04 2022.
Unevaluated Stretch [series:3633#628]
(One episode watched):

Here we have another anime about a teenage member of royalty who will no doubt have some sort of challenge to face. The problem is that episode one gives us little idea what sort of challenge it may be. At one point someone argues that the nation has no need for a monarchy, but if I understood correctly the person was conducting a test of Yuuki's character and wasn't serious about any sort of revolution. The fact that our first introduction to Yuuki consists of her sighing in a brain-dead sort of manner as she looks at something majestic made me worry that she may not have much of an interesting personality. Mobile suits--they may or may not be known as 'Chrars' here--will play a significant part in the story, which may suggest that a war is going to break out. Personally, I was not terribly impressed by episode one. We don't really get to know anyone very well or get any idea what they might fight for or against, so I was kind of bored. I wish main characters like Yuuki and Joshua had been given a minute or two to say something which would give us a hint of what sort of people they are and whether we can sympathize with them and like them. There's a simulated mecha battle, but with the characters as shallow as they are (so far) it was hard to get excited about it. I do not detect any signs of there being anything really noteworthy about this show, and I think it's safe for me to drop it.

Last updated Friday, January 18 2019. Created Thursday, January 17 2019.

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