Anime / Fena: Pirate Princess

Fena: Pirate Princess is an anime series produced by Production I.G and directed by Kazuto Nakazawa.

10 years prior, Fena Houtman was inbound on a ship with her father and other friends, when it suddenly was attacked. In the ensuing chaos, her Childhood Friend Yukimaru takes her to safety on a boat and sends her adrift to escape from the attack, but not before listening to her father telling her to "Go to Eden!" right before seemingly dying in an explosion.

In the present day, Fena has been raised in the sleepless island of Shangri-la where there is no hope of becoming anything more than chattel; to be used and discarded by soldiers of the British Empire. On a fateful night, as all the quirky plans she had planned to escape fall through by technicalities, she is suddenly rescued by former subjects who served her and her father. Soon, it's revealed that she must go on a journey to the mysterious "Eden" with an entourage of "pirates" - whom among them has her childhood friend Yukimaru in the group, acting more aloof than he used to be - to find out why her father was seeking the mysterious land in the first place.

The series aired from August 15 to October 24, 2021, with its sub version streamed on Crunchyroll, while its English dub aired on [adult swim]'s Toonami block. The series began airing in Japan on October 10, 2021.

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Fena: Pirate Tropess:

• Abhorrent Admirer: Maxiver Jr. forcibly buys Fena's hand in marriage in order to not only gain access to her wealth, but to claim her innocence, just because he likes that look on a woman. When Fena escapes, he makes plans to get revenge, and would likely continue if he wasn't killed by Abel's servant, Cody, via drowning, after failing a second time.
• Advertised Extra: Brule, Fena's trusty dog, is set up to be a major character in the first two episodes and in promotional art. However, he plays no real significant role after this.
• Always Identical Twins: Kaede and Enju enforce this in order to confuse their crew members, allowing them to play tricks and get what they want.
• Amazon Brigade: The Rumble Rose is led by female captain Grace O’Malley, and her pirate crew is almost entirely made up of women.
• Anachronism Stew: The series doesn't seem to take place during any particular time period. The British Empire is still a global power, but the United States of America are making their presence known, and Japan has at least a few explorers enjoying the open seas. Pocket lighters are a brand new invention and Karin just invented a new gun beyond a black powder flintlock. This all while people still dress out of the age of pirates (from the 1600 and 1700s). The main cast also uses an advanced Clockpunk style submarine. The history does acknowledge Joan of Arc's execution in 1431, though. Further muddying up the timeline is the Wellington Cannon. Explosive artillery was not designed for naval ships until 1822, not tested until 1824, and not mass-produced until 1841, and that was in France, not Great Britain.
• An Arm and a Leg: Abel and Yukimaru's final fight ends this way, with Yukimaru managing to bait him into firing his Tri-barrelled revolver at close range so he can slice the extended limb clean off in a counter-attack. Despite Abel not caring about the loss in the slightest and majorly damaging Yukimaru in turn, the bleeding that results from his severed limb ultimately ends up killing him.
• Apocalypse Maiden: Fena is basically a take of this as the Maiden of Choosing by Eden, who tells her that she has the right to either let the world decay into destruction or allow everyone but Yukimaru survive to repopulate the world from a Noah's Ark ship.
• Bathe Her and Bring Her to Me: Not the literal application, but this is the sentiment for having Fena get dolled up in a nice wedding gown, only to be led to Maxiver Jr.'s bedroom, where he's currently playing around with his harem.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: After escaping the cave in Episode 6, Shitan informs the rest of the Seven that they will not be rescuing Fena from O'Malley - their mission was only to get the coordinates to Eden, after which Fena became expendable to them. He also makes clear that, if they try, they will be branded traitors, hunted down, and executed. While there is some ambiguity around how much control Shitan had over the situation, what firmly puts him into this category is his having kept this aspect of their mission from the rest of the Seven - who were all ready to rescue Fena the moment they got back to the ship - and his Hidden Disdain Reveal when he denounces Fena to Yukimaru, calling her a witch who charms everyone around her. Ironically, Episode 8 reveals that he's like this because he believes that Fena is this as a result of Sanada's claims that her mother had driven a man to madness with her charms.
• Boyish Short Hair: Fena cuts her long hair into a very short pixie cut in the second episode as a sign that she had made up her mind about her destiny to find Eden in her father's stead. After a while, it grows out into a bobbed style.
• Brick Joke: Fena's woefully unprepared for the recoil of a musket when she first tries it out early in the series, ending up injuring Karin, who is standing behind her. In the epilogue, Fena tries again... and the same thing happens.
• Burn the Witch!: The unfortunate fate of Fena's mother, Helena, after she was impregnated by Abel's father, who had taken her in as a mistress. After word spread of what happened, she was accused of being a witch who had used her charms to seduce Abel's father. Unfortunately, that rumor would end up getting relayed to Shitan by Sanada to keep him from bonding with Fena and transferring his Undying Loyalty to her.
• Call-Back: In most of the early episodes, Yukimaru would bonk Fena on the head whenever she spaced out or was being too silly. In the epilogue, when Yukimaru is spacing out himself after giving Fena a present, Fena playfully bonks him on the head and smiles.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • When Fena and the others find the one who originally carved the glass block, they find out it was commissioned by Joan of Arc, who was supposed to have been killed in 1431. When the group reach the secret cave that has the coordinates to Eden, they discover the block has four Roman numerals carved into it: I-IV-III-I, a.k.a. 1431.
  • The song that Fena likes to sing turns out to have hidden meanings as to how to interpret the clear block's coordinates in order to find the right place to find Eden.
• City of Gold: It's eventually revealed that the clear block is the key to finding El Dorado, though this is revealed to be a Fake Out, being just a term O'Malley was using to refer to Eden as a place of wonder and riches galore, and instead the coordinates lead to Eden.
• Clockpunk: Karin's inventions: Everything from a working lighter to a submarine, all powered by springs. It borders on Magitek.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Episode 6 reveals that the Seven's real mission for escorting Fena is not to help her find Eden herself but merely to lead them to either a map or a series of coordinates that will allow them to search for Eden themselves, with explicit instructions to return to Goblin Island immediately once they discover such so that Fena can be left behind once she'd served her purpose to them. This is in part due to fears that Fena's Magnetic Hero qualities would make the Seven more loyal to her than to Sanada and their ancestors' mission, with Kei being sent after them to ensure compliance, with the heavy implication that he was deliberately avoiding meeting Fena before to ensure the island's best fighter would have no problem enforcing Sanada's orders against Fena's will. These concerns are not unfounded, as the Seven do eventually decide to aid Yukimaru in rescuing Fena, even aware that this goes against what they've been ordered to do.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: Fena, in spades. Her plans for escape early on always fall apart due to her not thinking things through, she struggles with performing many mundane tasks, and when the crew try to teach her how to fight, every lesson goes horribly wrong.
• Damsel in Distress: Fena has to be repeatedly rescued.
• Didn't Think This Through: Fena's many quirky plans to escape from Shangri-la on a boat. One of said plans involved selling her own body, which was the exact thing she was trying to avoid while being on the island.
• The Dreaded:
  • Kei, Shitan's brother, is the one that taught Yukimaru how to become such a deadly swordsman and is implicitly noted to still be stronger him, and is all but stated to be the strongest fighter on the entirety of Goblin Island. The Seven panic when they hear that he's been sent after them to enforce their orders to return to Goblin Island immediately once they have either a map or a set of coordinates to search for Eden on their own, their conversation outlining that even with their own impressive fighting skills and numerical advantage, none of them believe they can stand a chance against Kei in a straight fight. It's heavily implied Sanada had Kei avoid meeting Fena precisely to ensure the strongest fighter he had would maintain Undying Loyalty to him even if the rest of the Seven became more loyal to Fena than their mission.
  • Fena herself turns out to be a downplayed variant towards Sanada, as he makes it very clear to Shitan privately that he's deeply concerned that her Magnetic Hero qualities will end up turning the Samurai Seven against him and their ancestral mission once it's made clear what they're really aiding her in her search for Eden for. Sanada is clearly reluctant to involve Fena in the search even if she's the only hope they have of finding Eden, citing how regrettable it was that Franz Houtman was killed in the attack, as they are left with no other option but Fena, and orders Shitan to kill her at the first sign that the Seven's loyalty is beginning to waver, once they're managed to find a way to search of Eden without her aid. His attitude is born from a sincere belief that Fena is descended from a "line of witches who bend men to their charms", and having encountered once such man before, implicitly referring to Abel and his extreme reactions towards Fena getting hurt, believing that he is merely the norm for those who meet Fena and her ilk.
• Empathic Environment: Eden is this. When Fena and Yukimaru enter, the sky is blue with white clouds. When Abel enters, the sky turns red and with dark clouds.
• Everyone Can See It: The entire Samurai Seven crew sees instantly that Yukimaru is still smitten with Fena, even after all these years. It gives them nice fodder to tease him endlessly.
• Exact Words: Episode 6 reveals Abel specifically told O'Malley to bring him Fena unharmed. While he's a little upset at the rope burns she's received from her restraints, he becomes genuinely furious when he notices a cut on Fena's neck, which was caused by one of O'Malley's crewmembers holding a sword to her throat to threaten the Samurai Seven. He promptly interrupts O'Malley's talk of a reward and orders her to Get Out!.
• Eyepatch of Power: O'Malley wears one over her right eye. In episode 7, it's blasted off her face in slow motion as her ship is being blown out from beneath her feet by Abel's artillery, showing that the eye beneath isn't apparently damaged, but merely kept closed. This implies that like real-life pirates who wore patches, O'Malley isn't wearing it to cover up a disfiguring injury, but to protect her night vision in one eye for when the lighting gets poor.
• Foil: Abel seems to be being set up as this to Yukimaru:
  • They share a Red Oni, Blue Oni colour scheme, with Yukimaru being noticeably Hot-Blooded and prone to rushing off and putting himself in danger, especially if Fena is involved, despite his Stoic characterisation, whereas Abel is noticeably colder, calmer and far more focused, rarely raising his voice or losing his temper unless he sees Fena being hurt and in combat being Ice-cold and efficient, blasting the Rumble Rose pirates from afar with an obscene amount of firepower and shooting Yukimaru in the side from his blindspot without announcing himself or giving his presence away and coldly ordering his death without a hint of emotion.
  • They favour contrasting anachronistic weapons, with Yukimaru favouring katanas despite being in a seafaring age where cutlasses and muskets are far more commonly used, while Abel has a tri-barrelled Flintlock pistol as his personal weapon.
  • Abel is a Colonel and a leading figure of authority, whereas Yukimaru is a highly skilled and trusted, but ultimately lowly servant to his masters.
  • Both of them are obsessed with Fena, but whereas Yukimaru sees Fena as herself, having known her from childhood, Abel's obsession is hinted to be more rooted in seeing Fena as a Replacement Goldfish for her deceased mother, whom he was deeply in love with, despite admitting to having seen her when he was only a boy.
  • Finally, when they finally meet face-to-face, Yukimaru remembers seeing Abel as one of the attackers on the ship the night Franz Houtman lost his life, whereas Yukimaru was one of those fighting to defend Fena at the time.
• Freudian Excuse: Abel's incredibly violent reactions to seeing Fena harmed and generally obsessive behavior towards her are rooted in witnessing Fena's mother, who he was deeply in love with, burned at the stake after being falsely accused of being a witch.
• Ghost Leg Lottery: In Episode 3, Yukimaru draws up a very complex ghost leg lottery to determine who stays behind to guard the ship while the others head to shore to gather supplies. He seems to have drawn himself to stay five times in a row.
• Greed: Being pirates, the Rumble Rose crew are made up of women who have this, and it's part of what drives O'Malley's anger against Abel when he refuses to reward her for bringing him Fena.
• Green-Eyed Monster:
  • Fena gets jealous of Arya's advances on Yukimaru, but Yukimaru can't take a single hint and Arya realizes that he likes Fena and even tells Fena about it.
  • O'Malley becomes this when she thinks that Fena and Abel have a deeper connection than she was led to believe.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot:
  • Played mostly straight with the Samurai Seven. Most of the male members specialize in melee combat, though both Shitan and Makaba are excellent archers. Karin and Fena, the two girls, specialize in ranged combat, with Karin using guns and Fena learning how to be an archer.
  • Inverted with Abel's troops and the Rumble Rose crew. The all-female Rumble Rose pirates prefer close-range combat, while Abel's British troops specialize more in ranged combat via muskets and cannons.
• Historical Domain Character:
  • The glass block was commissioned by Joan of Arc... five years after her supposed death.
  • In the finale, one of the possible futures has Fena and Yukimaru as a merger of Noah (of Noah's Ark) and Adam & Eve.
  • The Rumble Rose pirates are all named after famous real female pirates.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Angie, Fena's friend, is one of these. She tells Fena what the weak link in all her plans are and covers for Fena when she escapes for real.
• Identity Amnesia: For taking a different choice regarding how the world and people should live, Fena gets inflicted with this (alongside her hair turning black). Yukimaru and the rest try their best to help her remember by retreading their whole journey and even visiting old friends, but nothing seems to work...until perhaps the very end when she bonks Yukimaru on his head after listening to his Love Confession.
• I Kiss Your Hand: Yukimaru's totally-not-a-marriage-proposal culminates in this. Fena is emotionally overwhelmed by it and nearly faints.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Despite Yukimaru slicing his arm off, Abel disregards the injury and uses the same instant to stab him through the chest, inflicting a nasty wound that threatens to kill Yukimaru from blood loss if he continues fighting. A flashback that he then relives upon recognising Yukimaru shows that he did the same thing to kill Franz Houtman personally during the attack in Fena's childhood. As for the 'extreme prejudice' part, Abel holds immense hatred towards Franz, blaming him for taking Helena away from him, and has been hallucinating Yukimaru in Franz's place throughout their duel, so that part's not in question.
• Important Haircut: Fena cuts her hair after escaping as a sign that she had made up her mind about her destiny to find Eden in her father's stead. She regrows part of it during her adventure.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In Episode 4, the twins and Makaba get a brief scene where they complain about not getting any lines in a while.
• Living MacGuffin: Despite having kept the clear block for generations, Sanada states clearly that they cannot uncover the mystery behind it without Fena, whose buried memories are apparently the key to figuring out its purpose, imploring her to go on her journey to solve its mystery and find out why her father was killed because of Eden. This gets proven when Fena is somehow able to lead the Samurai Seven through the winding maze at the abandoned dig site to find the cave where the clear block can be used to form the coordinates to Eden, without taking a wrong turn once and able to perfectly open a combination lock sealing the entrance to the cave almost on instinct. However, it's shortly afterwards subverted once they have the coordinates, as Shitan informs the others that Sanada instructed him to return immediately to Goblin Island once they had either some sort of coordinates or a physical map to search for Eden by themselves, with the implication that Fena had served her purpose to them by then. It's implied that both Sanada and Shitan are wary of Fena's Magnetic Hero qualities, and concerned about the effect she'd have on the loyalty of the Samurai Seven the more time she spent with them, leading them to be unwilling to abandon her once they could search for Eden on their own. It is later double-subverted, as the island where Eden lies only rises in response to her approach and "the calling" is required to open the final door.
• Loyal Animal Companion: Brule accompanies her when she escapes with the Samurai Seven.
• MacGuffin: The strange clear block that the Samurai Seven guarded on their island. It turns out to be a keystone with hints to where Eden is. The first four Roman numerals are inscribed on it and become visible when placed in a pedestal in an underground cave.
• MacGuffin Escort Mission: The crux of the plot is to search for why the clear block was made and what it has to do with Fena.
• Magnetic Hero: In spite of basically being The Load when it comes to practical or combat skills whilst on the Seven's ship, Fena's one true demonstrated talent is the ability to earn the Undying Loyalty of those around her, from Otto and Salman in her youth to Yukimaru, who remains as devoted to her as he was in his childhood, even if he obscures it with his current characterisation. This is actually deconstructed as the series goes on, as Episode 6 reveals that the Seven's real orders were to follow Fena until she could provide them physical coordinates or a map to allow them to search for Eden on their own, then immediately return to Goblin Island, with the implication being that Fena was to remain behind once she'd served her purpose. The fact that this was hidden from all but one of the Seven, who were all on board with rescuing Fena up to that point, as well as Shitan calling her "a witch who charms those around her", implies that both Shitan and Sanada were deeply concerned and wary of her spending too much time around the Seven in case they became more loyal to her than to their mission. The fact that the other members, save Yukimaru, who had already left to pursue Fena, all unanimously decide to join in on his Roaring Rampage of Rescue shows their fears weren't unfounded. Episode 8 even reveals that Sanada ordered Shitan to kill Fena out of concern that she would drive Yukimaru and the others mad with her charms, citing that he knows of another man who was similarly driven insane by her mother in the same fashion.
• The Magnificent Seven Samurai: The Goblin Knights are based on the legendary Seven Samurai. However, instead of defending a whole village, they’re defending just one person: Fena.
• Manipulative Bastard:
  • Sanada is revealed to be this in Episode 6, as the only reason he had Fena rescued was so she could lead the Seven to either a physical map or a set of coordinates so they could search for Eden on their own. This is something that the majority of the Seven were totally unaware of, genuinely believing in the story he told Fena as to why they served her family so loyally, and it's furthermore revealed that he'd sent Kei out after the Seven to ensure they followed orders, or they'd be regarded as traitors and punished at his hands.
  • Ironically, Sanada and the others on Goblin Island believe Fena to be this, believing her to be descended from "a line of witches who bend men to their charms" as is capable of intentionally subverting the Seven against them. This perception is brought about by Sanada witnessing another man who was similarly driven to madness by her mother and honestly believes Fena is capable of doing the same, ordering Shitan to kill her if she begins turning the seven against him, and planning to remove her from the search for Eden once she'd led them to a physical clue they could use to find it without her.
• Mask of Sanity: Abel keeps the air of being a no-nonsense and even gentlemanly lord for much of the show, even as the more questionable elements of his fixation on Fena begin to show. Then the penultimate episode, which partially takes place through his perspective, shows just how off his rocker he's been ever since he saw Helena get burned at the stake.
• Men Act, Women Are: Of a sort. Fena plays this completely straight, as she is useless in battle and has zero knowledge of the outside world, but everyone is after her to unlock the path to Eden and the Samurai Seven all strive to protect her because she's such a sweet girl. However, Karin and the Rumble Rose pirates avert this, being far more proactive and able to fight.
• Mrs. Robinson: Shitan and the twins troll Fena by painting Arya as ready to jump Yukimaru's bones despite their age difference.
• Mundane Utility: Karin declines Fena's request to learn how to shoot firearms and storms into a rant about how you have to study everything that makes up the firearm before you can just start shooting it. Her tangent reminds her of a new gun she invented designed to shoot beans into the soil to plant them.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Fena's pirate crew, the Samurai Seven, is made up of samurai with ninja-like skills, on top of being pirates in name only.
• No Kill like Overkill: Abel decides to deal with O'Malley's pirates deciding to attack his ship after he takes back his promise of reward after he sees Fena's neck wound by shooting their ship with the Wellington Cannon, which is normally meant for taking down fortress walls. Not only does it go through the Rumble Rose like a knife through butter, the ship then immediately explodes so badly there's nothing left but wreckage afterwards.
  Captain: As I've surmised, it's overkill to use this weapon against a little ship. Makes a mess of the sea.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: Abel does not screw around when it comes to combat, maintaining focus on efficiency combined with maximum possible force wherever possible to utterly obliterate all opposition to his goals. In Episode 7, when the Rumble Rose decide to attack his ship for breaking their deal over Fena— and breaking O'Malley's heart as well— he orders that the Wellington Cannon be used to retaliate on them, a BFG designed to be used to blast down fortified locations, combined with an explosive round to boot. The shell basically tears O'Malley's ship in half just from the initial shot, and the resulting explosion once the shell detonates reduces the entire vessel to kindling. When Yukimaru storms the ship and prepares to cut down as many soldiers as he has to to save Fena, Abel remains quiet and unnoticed and shoots him twice In the Back when he's distracted by the soldiers in front of him, coldly ordering him to be finished off afterwards without a hint of emotion on his face. It's noticeable that both encounters had the offending parties standing between him and Fena, as well as also threatened to indirectly harm her in the crossfire, which is hinted to motivate his excessive yet pragmatic use of force in taking them down. In the final fight with both himself and Yukimaru, He keeps trying to just shoot Yukimaru in the face and primarily uses his own sword for defence, rather than attempting to attack Yukimaru with his own sword skills, refusing to face Yukimaru on fair terms. Even when Yukimaru is able to cut off his arm, he never loses focus for a moment and uses the momentary lapse in Yukimaru's concentration to impale him in the chest, which puts Yukimaru in serious danger of bleeding out if he keeps fighting back and further exacerbates the wound.
  • It only gets worse as Fena remembers what the British did to the transport ship and sees soldiers indiscriminably murder the crew she was with. For those who haven't taken a history lesson; Britian was an incredibly dangerous force during the Age of Piracy and had little sense of humanity in themselves. Combined with Abel's position of the next heir of Britian, that shows deep, DEEP worry for the audience of the universe's future.
• No Sense of Direction:
  • Otto and Salman successfully rescue Fena from her captors. Unfortunately, they happen to take her the opposite direction they were supposed to go, when their real destination was almost right next to the tower she was at. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Mary, one of the O'Malley pirates, has such poor directional skills that her captain exploits it. If she says to go in one direction, O'Malley will immediately have everyone go in the other direction.
• Once an Episode: Someone, usually Fena, gets bonked on the head almost every episode.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Abel might be obsessed with hoarding Fena all to himself, but he genuinely cares about her safety and will do whatever it takes to ensure that safety, even if that means completely destroying a ship full of pirates willing to hurt women and children just for money. After doing this, Abel quotes a passage from the bible to the extent of "sewing a patch of cloth into a garment to mend a tear merely detracts from the beauty of the original, and it is better to leave it unfixed", as if to mock O'Malley for thinking any relationship they shared could equal what feelings he possesses towards Fena's mother, and accordingly, towards Fena herself.
• Pirate Girl: Fena is a Friendly Pirate, or dressed like one at least. O’Malley and her crew are more straightforward examples of the trope, being actual looting and kidnapping pirates.
• Pirates vs. Ninjas: In Episode 3, the Goblin Knight ninja group is beset by a group of female pirates in town. The pirates become regular antagonists.
• Post-Kiss Catatonia: After Yukimaru declares he will always go wherever Fena goes and kisses her hand, he leaves. We then cut over to Fena, who is frozen in shock with her face beet red, then falling onto her back, unable to say anything afterwards.
• Protagonist-Centred Morality: From Abel's perspective, he's The Hero of the story trying to reunite with his lost love Helena after she was wrongfully stolen away from him by the manipulations of Franz Houtman, and thus every action he takes is justified in allowing him to reunite with his one true love. From Fena and the other's perspective, he's an insane madman obsessed with having Fena for his own reasons and is willing to kill anybody who gets between them, no matter the cost or firepower he has to utilise to achieve that goal, and Fena herself is scared of his intense focus upon her.
• Public Domain Artifact:
  • Yukimaru and the Goblin Knights seem to be on a journey to find the Kusanagi of the Japanese Imperial Regalia.
  • Episode 11 name drops Noah's Ark, the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Convenant, and many, many more historical treasures.
• Reckless Gun Usage: Karin tries to show Fena how to properly hold a rifle in order to actually hit her target. Unfortunately for her, Fena pulls the trigger a little too early and isn't prepared for the recoil, thus jabbing the butt of the gun right into Karin's nose.
• Recycled Premise: This series borrows a lot from Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, such as the globe-spanning quest led by a young girl with short hair who has a mysterious gem necklace and a mysterious past, her joining with the crew of a seafaring vessel that probably shouldn't exist in that time period, and uses a lot of real-life myths and historical characters in service of the plot.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: O'Malley and Abel, respectively:
  • O'Malley and her crew are wild, reckless, brazen pirates who greatly enjoy their freedom and are more than willing to get dirty to get what they want. She and her ship are even clad in red.
  • Abel prefers stability and decorum, being an English royal, and not only dresses in blue, but his ship is clad in the same color as well.
• Replacement Goldfish: Rather disturbingly, Abel's fixation on Fena is specifically because she reminds him of her deceased mother, who he had feelings for.
• Samurai Shinobi: While the Goblin Knights are based on the Seven Samurai, they have a lot in common with ninjas both in the way they dress and their skills in stealth an assassination.
• Sanity Has Advantages: Zigzagged. Abel's deteriorating mental state as he approaches Fena and Yukimaru within Eden means that he ends up announcing himself before them, rather than retaining the element of surprise like he did last time to put a bullet in Yukimaru's back when his guard is down, and allowing the deadly swordsman to have a fair chance at beating him in a duel. This in part seems to be because he believes himself to be The Hero of the story and is convinced that he will triumph over "Franz Houtman", whom he's perceiving Yukimaru as, simply because he's "in the right" after Franz "stole" Helena away from him. However, the same lack of sanity means he's completely non-plussed after Yukimaru slices his arm off in their duel, instead of going into shock, allowing him to retaliate in the same instant and impale Yukimaru through the chest, giving him a near life-threatening wound in return.
• Shout-Out:
  • The title is a reference to Xena: Warrior Princess.
  • Otto and Salman are a pretty obvious one to Mario and Luigi. The red one is short, stocky, and identifiable by his prominent mustache, while the green one is tall, lanky, somewhat more prone to fits of shock, and identifiable by his angular face. Otto is even introduced properly by jumping on an enemy. They're also both guardians of a young woman.
  • The crew that rescue Fena are known as the Samurai Seven in the Japanese version. In the English dub, they're known as the Goblin Knights.
  • The beginning of Episode 1, where Fena's ship is attacked, has many allusions to the first scene of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
  • O'Malley's ship and crew are both called the Rumble Rose, and most of the named characters are named after famous female pirates and sailors.
  • In Episode 10, having found a stupendous amount of treasure the twins swim in it.
• Single-Minded Twins: Enju and Kaede act like this, so much so that even the rest of the crew often confuses which one is which.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Yukimaru only has eyes for Fena, not that he'll admit it. When Arya shows interest and tries flirting with him, he responds with confusion.
• Sins of the Father: Gender-inverted. Shitan is incredibly mistrustful of Fena due to her mother Helena's reputation as a witch who had the ability to drive men mad with her charms, which isn't helped by Fena easily gaining the Undying Loyalty of everyone she interacts with. Tragically, Helena wasn't even an actual witch even though she was burned at the stake like one. It was just a rumor that spread after she was impregnated by Abel's father.
• Slapstick: Both Fena and the crew are targets of Amusing Injuries.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • In Episode 1, Fena's Old Retainer duo Otto and Salman break into the tower to rescue her from Maximer Jr. Unfortunately, while they're still capable of managing a breakout, they're a pair of old men whose best years of combat prowess are far behind them and enacted their plan at night on an island with a high military presence. If not for the efforts of the Samurai Seven, they would have no doubt failed and gotten themselves killed.
  • Fena cutting her hair isn't treated as permanent. By Episode 4, it has started to grow out again.
  • In Episode 5, the Rumble Rose pirates are able to trap the Samurai Seven inside a cave by igniting a Powder Trail whilst they have Fena hostage, blasting the entrance to pieces and burying them alive. In episode 6, the Seven are able to escape because not all the explosives detonated, leaving some gunpowder behind that they're able to use to blast a strategically placed exit. A large mass of explosives are used in such situations to guarantee that at lease one of them will go off, because there might be a misfire or complication with the others that prevents some of them from detonating. The explosives coming packaged in sturdy crates and gunpowder barrels for safe transport can also protect their contents from the shock of the blast, even if they're right next to it, allowing the samurai to scavenge enough usable gunpowder to suit their purposes from one such container.
  • In Episode 7, the Rumble Rose pirates end up turning against Abel and the British when Abel refuses to pay them for kidnapping Fena and delivering her and the coordinates to Eden to them, all because O'Malley and her crew got a small cut on Fena's neck in the process. The Rumble Rose have been shown in past episodes to be a skilled group of quirky individuals whose talents put them on par combat-wise with Yukimaru and the others, whereas Abel only has uniform soldiers with inferior fighting skills to face her. However, despite the pirates having better fighting skills, they still need to get close to Abel's ship to board them, and they're nothing more than a motley Ragtag Bunch of Misfits against members of a trained, disciplined, and well-funded British army. Abel simply uses the superior resources on his ship to blast the Rumble Rose before they can ever close the distance on them, though the extent of the firepower he brings to bear borders on absolute overkill. Nonetheless, when the Samurai Seven are able to sneak in closer to the ship, their skills allow them to begin overwhelming the soldiers in close combat, showing that the British are a serious threat, but only so long as they have adequate distance to their foe to use their greater resources.
  • The Rumble Rose pirates are a quirky crew of named individuals, and have an important antagonistic role in the story, having aided Abel in attacking Fena's ship in her youth and being the main forces pursuing her in his stead. At the same time, however, they're merely human beings, and not protected by any kind of supernatural luck or such. When Abel blasts their ship with the Wellington Cannon, despite the possibility being open that the named crew could have survived the blast and returned for revenge on Abel, they're effectively removed from the story by that point onwards. Even when the epilogue reveals that at least three crew members did survive, O'Malley herself isn't amongst them. Just because you're a named character with an established backstory and personality of your own won't protect you from being unceremoniously killed, especially not with the sheer firepower Abel used against them.
  • Yukimaru is shown to be a skilled and dangerous fighter, capable of blitzing through multiple foes, especially if he has the element of surprise on his side, but in a pitched and chaotic battlefield where he's right in the thick of the action, it's impossible for him to keep track of every single threat around him, especially when he's distracted making sure that Fena is safe from those targeting her. He's twice injured from bullets striking him from unseen angles in combat against the Rumble Rose and Abel, and both Shitan and Makaba comment that the former's role in combat is primarily to look after Yukimaru to make sure that he doesn't get blindsided when he's taking on entire forces single-handedly.
  • In the penultimate episode, Abel gets his arm sliced off in a duel with Yukimaru, and rather than consider it merely an inconvenience, he bleeds out and dies because of it, though he is able to last for several minutes before expiring due to his iron willpower and could very well have killed both Yukimaru and Fena before getting distracted by Helena's spirit. Similarly, Abel is able to impale Yukimaru in the torso, and whilst the wound isn't immediately fatal, it's very debilitating and Fena interferes in the fight to stop Yukimaru moving anymore, pointing out that if he fights back whilst injured like that, he could tear the wound open further and bleed to death himself.
• Take a Third Option: In the ending, Fena ultimately decides not to go through the two possible futures given to her by Eden but rather wishes for history to continue as is if it means her friends and the world won't be drastically changed, believing that things will be alright without her intervention. However, the drawback is that Eden induces permanent Identity Amnesia as retribution for the optional choice.
• Theme Naming:
  • The members of the Rumble Rose are all named after real-life female pirates and rebels.
  • The Samurai Seven/Goblin Knights are all named after plants.^note Shitan - Rosewood, Karin - Quince, Tsubaki - Camellia, Kaede - Maple, Enju - Pagoda, Makaba - Birch
• Through the Eyes of Madness: In the penultimate episode, Abel's final confrontation with Yukimaru and Fena is framed this way, with him hallucinating Fena as Helena and Yukimaru as Franz Houtman, and his vision being tinged in red. It's implied that this is at least partially something that Cody/The Observer has a hand in, given how the weather turns stormy and blood-red lightning starts striking as Abel approaches, and his eyes are glowing red throughout the entire confrontation, with the weather clearing up as Abel starts to snap put of his delirium and see Fena and Yukimaru as they really are.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Shitan is secretly mistrustful and disdainful towards Fena at the beginning, viewing her as a witch who uses her charms to drive men to their doom in their efforts to please her. After a heart-to-heart talk with her in response to his Hidden Disdain Reveal towards her, he realizes the error of his line of thinking and softens his stance towards her.
• Trailers Always Lie: The promotional trailers painted the anime as a serious adventure through the sea. While it is partially that, it is also made up of many comedic moments à la One Piece.
• Trailers Always Spoil: Episode 5 ends with most of the Samurai Seven trapped in a cave and caught in an explosion large enough for Tsubaki to see from the Bonito II. The Toonami preview that aired right after reveals that everyone made it out OK. Granted, nobody actually believed any of the group died, but still.
• Trickster Twins: Enju and Kaede pull this off whenever they want to go off and do their own thing.
• Uncertain Doom: The main crew of the Rumble Rose in Episode 7. On the one hand, we only see the corpses of unnamed background members, while O'Malley and the named crew go unseen. On the other hand, it was a massive, all-encompassing explosion, and O'Malley herself is seen to be consumed by the flames à la Lord Cutler Beckett in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, with her Eyepatch of Power being blown off by the explosion, hinting that even if they survived, it wouldn't be without cost. By the end of the series, it's revealed that at least three of the Rumble Rose pirates managed to survive the blast, but the rest are unseen, including O'Malley, hinting that they really were just killed like that.
• Undying Loyalty: The rest of the Samurai Seven quickly fall into this regarding Fena, but Yukimaru tells Fena in Episode 8 that he will always be by her side, supporting whatever decision she makes regarding Eden, sealing it with a kiss to her hand. Given he was down on one knee when making said speech, he essentially gave Fena a marriage proposal in all but name. Notably, the elders of Goblin Island were afraid this exact thing would happen and ordered Shitan to kill Fena, if necessary, once they got the coordinates to Eden, with Kei being deliberately kept back as a fallback option.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Yukimaru, whom Fena remembered as an energetic kid, is now a grown aloof man trying to keep his distance away from her for unknown reasons. There are moments, however, when Fena annoys Yukimaru and he loses his composure, along with shy signs of affection, or being flustered, like his earlobes turning red. Episode 7 hints that his stoic characterization is something he learned from Kei, to better control himself and learn how to 'cut through fear' to master his sword skills and emotions together, implying the change in his mannerisms is due to him attempting to master and control his more outspoken nature to better protect others, especially Fena.
• Virgin-Shaming: A lighter example. Yukimaru, who is Fenasexual, is a virgin, so when the others see him reject the offerings of other beautiful women, the more mature members of the group, especially Shitan, tease him about still being a virgin.
• Wham Line:
  • This is said by Cody when he finds Fena while they are in Eden:
    "I am the observer of your story."
  • Yukimaru tells Fena this after she loses her memories following the decision she made in Eden:
    "I love you, Fena"
• Woman Scorned: The other reason for O'Malley turning on Abel at the end of Episode 6. She's been shown to have a very casual demeanor around him, was confirmed to be sleeping with him at the end of Episode 3, and angrily confronts Fena when she believes the latter has a deep connection with Abel. However, this anger results in her almost being shot by Abel, who orders her to leave.
• Would Hurt a Child: O'Malley has no morals in hurting children and gets joy from inflicting harm on them. When Cody refuses to let her see Fena, O'Malley kicks him through the door. Though, the penultimate episode raises questions about whether or not Cody even qualifies as a child.

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