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[series:4867#628] | ||||||
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(Two episodes watched): This show was seeming rather dull and depressing early on, as Leticia is whisked away from her family and placed in the care of the scary tutor Laila Mayer. Her only link to her family is her brother, Nadir Dorman, who doesn't seem to care whether Leticia is happy or not as long as he enjoys the privledges and prestige which he has gained. Ten years later it seemed as if Leticia's spirit had been broken and she was conforming exactly to what was expected of her. She is seen as beautiful and widely admired, but seems emotionless. Then the big joke in the ballroom, and we see that Leticia hasn't been transformed into a puppet after all. That made me sit up and pay attention. And no magic! How long has it been since there has been an anime with a fantasy setting but without magic? That is about as far as episode one goes, but from the ED sequence (or was it the OP sequence played at the end for once, because another followed it?) it becomes clear that Prince Clarke isn't finished with Leticia after all. Perhaps her display of irreverence and independence will convince him that she is more interesting than he had thought. It looks like Leticia, Clarke, Nadir and Brianna will be the main characters. Though Clarke seems like little more than a jerk at this point, we have gotten to know Leticia well and can sympathize with her. She and Nadir had made a sort of a bet that if the Prince were to fall in love with some other woman he would help Leticia officially break off the engagement (but Clarke never made clear exactly what was going on between him and Brianna). I was left curious where this would all go; in particular, how will Brianna remain a major character if the emphasis shifts to romance between Clarke and Leticia? I was surprised when ANN described it as a comedy, because there was basically just one joke in episode one. Leticia is enjoying her life of leisure in the countryside when Prince Clarke shows up at her estate and won't go away. He says they are still engaged after all--indeed, he claims to be head over heels in love with her, and says the incident at the ball was just an attempt on his part to make Leticia jealous. I don't know about this; a romance in which one party has already gone the full nine yards before the second even gets moving doesn't seem like a lot of fun to me. It seems like the only possible outcome is for Leticia to be persuaded to love a man that she currently has no interest in whatsoever. And I don't sense anything about Clarke that makes him seem like a desirable husband, except of course that he's a Prince. He has little or no personality at present, and I'm not detecting it growing. Even though him appearing with Brianna was all a stunt, she is expected to undergo the same merciless Princess lessons under Mayer and cannot bear them, which makes her become a sort of supporter of the romance between Leticia and Clarke. I am not sensing much sophistication in the characters or the dialogue, and wonder if I should continue watching this show. Last updated Tuesday, January 28 2025. Created Friday, January 17 2025. | ||||||||
