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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Unevaluated |
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[series:4566#628] | ||||||
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(Two episodes watched): Based on the synopsis above, you would probably think that this show is a comedy--but, as far as I can tell, it isn't. For four years Elianna has made good use of the library while prince Christopher has gone about his usual duties. We are told that romantic feelings between the two of them 'do not exist' and this will be nothing more than a marriage of convenience, if it is ever completed. Elianna thinks of herself as a 'phony fiance' since she performs no service in exchange for the time she gets to spend in the library. Then she notices Christopher laughing with another woman and (it is not clear) seems to feels a twinge of jealousy. But why she would feel that way escapes me. She has spent hardly any time with him for four years and we hardly know him any better than we did when he was first introduced. Nor have we gotten to know her much better. She just reads voraciously. As a result, this story seemed to be moving very slowly to me. If this is really going to be a romance, we need to know why these two might concievably fall in love, and so far little or no effort has been made to do that. He's handsome and she's beautiful but that's about it. Maybe her character is deliberately being kept vague so that little girls watching this show can imagine themselves being in her place. A mere ten minutes would have been enough to tell the story so far--maybe five would do--rather than 23. Something funny seems to be going on regarding access to the library, but again we have no idea what. Will books really play any role in this story? At the end of the opening episode, I could only ask 'what am I supposed to watch this show for?' I watched episode two as well, just in case there would be some startling twist to the plot. For some reason Elianna has indeed fallen in love with Christopher, and the romantic triangle that seemed to be developing doesn't last long. But it all seemed like shallow wish fulfilment for little girls--a Prince Charming is all you need to be happy--rather than an interesting story for adults. I wondered where the plot would go with Elianna's romantic rival apparently already out of the way, but not enough to keep watching. Last updated Wednesday, December 28 2022. Created Saturday, October 22 2022. | ||||||||
