[[quoteright:298:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shamanic-princess00-298x300_6761.jpg]]
[-[[caption-width-right:298:Our heroine and her "friends", ladies and gentlemen]]-]

''Shamanic Princess'', a six-episode OriginalVideoAnimation series from TheNineties, is a DarkerAndEdgier MagicalGirl created years before it was cool. It starts with one of the oldest {{anime}} character tropes, the CuteWitch, makes a quick stop at MagicalGirlWarrior, and heads directly into PsychologicalHorror territory without looking back. While it is a {{shojo}} narrative at heart, focused on relationships and personal growth, it caters to the male PeripheryDemographic so well that it ceases to seem peripheral. Let's just say that the {{fight scene}}s are impressive and the {{fanservice}} is plentiful.

The story follows the titular shamanic princess, Tiara -- a remarkably [[ActionGirl capable]] (and {{stripperiffic}}) CuteWitch who works as a special agent for [[MagicalLand the Guardian World]] -- as she goes to Earth disguised as an OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent to recover the Throne of Yord, a mystical artifact stolen from her world. Her mission becomes complicated when she discovers a [[DarkSecret terrible secret]] surrounding the artifact -- and when some of Tiara's friends and colleagues from her magical world fight her to keep her from retrieving it. As Tiara soon discovers, the [[BigBad Throne of Yord]] is no mere MacGuffin, but a sentient being bent on making her suffer for its amusement.

Those who know of ''Shamanic Princess'' remember the OVA for its {{Mind Screw}}ery and its somewhat-infamous non-linear storytelling (which [[InMediasRes drops the viewer into the action with little explanation]] and shows [[HowWeGotHere the circumstances that caused it all to occur]] as a [[WholeEpisodeFlashback 2 episode prequel]] after the story's conclusion).

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!!Tropes:

* AboveGoodAndEvil:
** The story has strong {{UsefulNotes/Gnostic|ism}} influences -- [[BalanceOfGoodAndEvil good and evil are two sides of the same coin]], [[GodIsEvil god is selfish]], and [[EnlightenmentSuperpowers enlightenment is more potent than god]].
** [[spoiler:The Throne of Yord is the demiurge, Sara is Sophia.]]
* ActionGirl: Tiara isn't just a magic user. She's a FullContactMagic User.
* AllLoveIsUnrequited: There's a lot of {{UST}}, and it either stays that way or shifts to [[DeathByOriginStory angst]]. Depending on your definition, there could be one happy couple to come out of this show, but it's a CrackPairing - [[spoiler:Sara and the Throne of Yord]]. In a reversal, [[spoiler:Tiara and Kagetsu will start over and try to make it work this time, if the ending is to be trusted.]]
* AsYouKnow: The InMediasRes storytelling makes {{Info Dump}}ing difficult to avoid. It mainly takes the form of Japolo telling an indignant Tiara things she already knows.
* BaitAndSwitchCredits: The OP video is fluffy, luminous and {{Moe}}. The series itself is much darker. The different visual style may be a relic of earlier drafts of the story (when it had more typical magical girl elements,) and were likely related to the staff's decision to use digital animation techniques, which were still pretty experimental in 1996.
* BigBrotherInstinct: Kagetsu's protective instinct toward Sara kicks off the plot. He's [[HonorBeforeReason willing to put the Guardian World at risk]] to rescue Sara from the Throne of Yord, forcing the authorities there to send agents to retrieve it.
* BloodFromTheMouth: Leon, when one of his transformations goes awry.
* BodyguardCrush: Afflicts 2 of the show's 3 Partners. Leon [[CourtlyLove stoically adores Lena from afar]], and Graham [[LoveMakesYouCrazy got it bad for Tiara]].
* CainAndAbel:
** At home, Tiara and Lena are friends. Now, they are enemies.
** [[spoiler: After everything's fixed, they become friends again.]]
* CleavageWindow: Tiara is a big winner in the SuperpowerLottery, and her payout includes chest size. Her {{stripperific}} primary costume uses this trope to show it off.
* {{Crossover}}: With ''Anime/MagicUsersClub'' for a one episode OVA.
* CuteWitch: The heroines hail from a magical world, and they are cute. Tiara is a HotterAndSexier CuteWitch.
* DarkIsNotEvil: Tiara's magic is often dark in color, and her SuperMode is pretty demonic-looking, but this is in no way stigmatized. Tiara is just trying to do the right thing. [[BeingGoodSucks Whatever that is.]]
* DramaticHighPerching: The heroines can actually generate their own tall, thin objects to stand on while fighting.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Graham's summoning is basically childbirth via magical portal.
* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: Tiara and Graham's relationship is possibly the most twisted situation in the story, and that's ''really'' saying something. Her treatment of him is pretty much a textbook cycle of abuse and reward.
* EyeMotifs: If the Throne of Yord had a form, it would be an eye. There are numerous stylized eye images used represent it, from a giant, multi-colored, eye-shaped stained glass window to a primitive stone carving.
* FantasticCasteSystem: Suggestions of this trope with the way Partners are treated. They are {{Familiar}}s that border on a ServantRace - sapient beings that aren't given the same amount of social worth as the magic users that summon them. In fact, they're highly expendable (that is, unless a magic user treats his/her companion as [[TrueCompanions a true friend.]])
* FictionalSport: There is a [[ChessMotif recurring image]] of a marble that [[DualityMotif changes colors from black to white]]. The {{origins episode}}s reveal the significance of the symbol when characters are seen playing a {{tabletop game}} on a vertical board using black and white marbles as game pieces. The mechanics seem similar to TabletopGame/{{Go}} or Othello in that the pieces switch between black and white.
* FightingSpirit: Tiara, Lena and Kagetsu can shape their powers into shadowy creatures which they pit against each other.
* FusionDance: The final SuperMode - a combination of [[spoiler: Tiara and Sara]] that [[{{Ouroboros}} annihilates itself to set everything right]].
* GiganticMoon: The moon is drawn selectively huge.
* GratuitousEnglish: The Japanese voices say "Gaadian Waarudo (Guardian World)" instead of "Kōken'nin no sekai".
* GrayAndGrayMorality: Tiara doesn't really have any real ''enemies'', more like friends with differing goals at different times.
* HomoeroticSubtext: Tiara's {{muggle}} friends suggest that the attention she pays to Lena is the result of romantic longing.
* IntertwinedFingers: Tiara and Sara do this at one point. [[spoiler: Except it wasn't Sara — it was the Throne of Yord.]]
* InTheStyleOf: The style of the character design frequently makes viewers think Creator/{{CLAMP}} was involved in the production of this show, when in fact they weren't. However, the character designer had previously worked on the anime adaptation of ''Manga/MagicKnightRayearth''.
* ItAmusedMe: The reason why the Throne of Yord does anything. [[spoiler:It's eternal, all-powerful, and catatonic most of the time from boredom.]] It really just liked the idea of having something interesting happen.
-->''[[spoiler:Sara/]]Throne of Yord'': I'm just playing. There's no meaning.
* LoveMakesYouCrazy: Graham adores Tiara -- she is the center of his world. His literal reason for existing is to eliminate anyone or anything that threatens or hinders her, and he is merciless to Tiara's enemies. The trouble is that Graham's definition of "threat" is broad enough to include Kagetsu.
* LoveTriangle: Tiara is at the intersection of three overlapping ones: Tiara/Kagetsu/Graham, Tiara/Kagetsu/Lena, and Tiara/Lena/Sara.
* LotusEaterMachine: Tiara passes out [[spoiler:from shock after seeing a [[TheCorruption Throne of Yord-corrupted]] Kagetsu threaten to kill her]], and wakes up on a [[HappyPlace sunny hillside]] with her {{muggle}} friends. They chat about their pleasant, mundane hopes for the future, [[DreamWithinADream then Tiara wakes in her bed in the middle of the night.]] And that's not all. It goes at least another layer deeper before Tiara [[EpiphanicPrison realizes what's going on]].
* MagicalGirl: Most of them.
* MagicalIncantation: There are a variety, with transformation spells being the longest.
* MagicContractRomance: {{Deconstructed}}. The fact that beautiful young women are summoning sometimes handsome young men to be their "Partners" which, despite the name, are distinctly subservient to them doesn't always work out too well.
* MagicMusic: As opposed to Tiara's full-contact method of fighting, Lena uses a flute that manipulates a plant-like substance in battle. It's also used in invoking Leon's transformation.
* MarkedChange: Tiara, Lena, and Leon all get facial markings when they shift into their SuperMode.
* MirrorMatch: On two occasions, the Throne of Yord manifests as a duplicate of Tiara to fight her. Once in her normal form, and again in her SuperMode.
* MindRape: The Throne of Yord has a [[NightmareFuelStationAttendant knack for the horrifying]] and likes pushing people to their limits. For example, when it assumes Tiara's form, then [[BreakThemByTalking tells her about her personality flaws]]. Or when it tells Tiara it's [[StalkerWithACrush in love with her]] and [[ShapeshiftingSeducer feels her up in the form of her ex-boyfriend]].
* MsFanservice: Tiara bounces her chest, gets a ShowerScene, gets ClothingDamage, gets to [[ZipMeUp zip herself up]], [[ZettaiRyouiki has a miniskirt and thigh-high boots]], etc.
* MultipleDemographicAppeal: As noted above, the narrative tone is pure {{shojo}}, full of complex emotions and romance, but there's also a ton of {{Fanservice}} and magical combat to appeal to [[{{Seinen}} males]].
* NightmareFace:
** Once, when Sara's face [[spoiler:splits open, leaving a black gash running from forehead to ground]] and a vertically oriented eye appears in the gulf.
** Again, when Tiara smashes her {{doppelganger}}'s face.
* NonindicativeName: The Throne of Yord is not a chair, it's a painting -- of a landscape with pond. No thrones in sight. And there's more to it than that: [[spoiler:the Throne is the all-powerful source of all magic, creator of the Guardian World.]]
* PainfulTransformation: Transformations appear to cause physical pain by default.
* PlatonicCave: The cave is Tiara's perception of her friends. As the show gets into exploring the nature of the "true self," and it becomes increasingly difficult to tell [[NotHimself who is an illusion]], [[MoreThanMindControl who is under outside influence]], [[BrainwashedAndCrazy who's being forced to try to kill her]], and who is "genuine". There are multiple exchanges that go more or less like this:
-->'''Tiara:''' "Are you the real ''character name here''?"
-->'''Other character:''' "I am me."
* PowerNullifier: Kagetsu is a "neutralizer", meaning he can interrupt the powers of any magic user for a short time. Comes at a price of not having much attacking strength, so he uses a daemon to fight for him.
* RedOniBlueOni: Tiara (red) and Lena (blue).
* RescuedFromTheUnderworld: Subverted. [[spoiler:All the characters fail to rescue Sara from the Throne of Yord. She cannot be saved and does not need saving.]]
* RivalsTeamUp: Tiara and Lena join forces against the Throne of Yord, and even have a heart-to-heart in which they admit that the bad blood between them is fueled by [[IJustWantToBeYou mutual envy]].
* SceneryPorn: The highly detailed watercolor backgrounds throughout the show.
* ScrewYourself: While Tiara, as a child, is trying to tame Graham, her "evil" self manifests as a red-skinned (and naked) version of her powered-up form as an adult. It proceeds to grab her and give her a deep kiss.
* SlasherSmile: Tiara directs one at her rival after completing her first TransformationSequence, made even creepier by her weird eyes. It's one of your first clues that [[DarkerAndEdgier this is not your average]] MagicalGirl anime.
* SmokingIsCool: Leon smokes and looks cool while doing so. Lena [[NoSmoking admonishes him for it]], but simply because it's illegal for people his age to smoke in the world where they're staying.
* SnowMeansLove: It's snowing in Tiara's memories of when she and Kagetsu were together.
* SoundtrackDissonance: The scene in which [[spoiler: Sara]] [[CurbStompBattle curb stomps]] Japolo is accompanied by a sort of lullaby, whose bilingual French/Japanese lyrics [[LyricalDissonance read like a]] {{Yandere}} [[LyricalDissonance love poem]].
* SourceMusic: The background music is part of the scene when Lena plays her flute.
* SplitPersonalityMerge: In episode 5, Tiara's uncontrolled magic manifests as a shadowy, seductive EnemyWithout which attempts to dominate her. Eventually Tiara realizes its power is a result of her fear, so [[ImNotAfraidOfYou she asserts herself]] and [[NeckLift shows it who's boss]]. It merges into Tiara, giving her access to her SuperMode for the first time.
* SwallowedWhole: [[spoiler:Leon and Japolo are making a good effort at defending their partners against the Throne of Yord]], then it just shoots out some mouth-tentacles and eats them. And they're gone. Without a trace.
* TalkingInYourDreams: Tiara has several {{cryptic conversation}}s with Sara in her dreams.
* TearsOfBlood: Lena cries a bucket-load of blood when she loses her transformation in episode 3. Before that, in that same episode, Leon shed a few.
* TimeStandsStill: Partners have the ability to freeze time so their masters can engage in magical battles without attracting {{muggle}} attention.