Scrapped Princess is a light novel series written by Ichiro Sakaki, which was later adapted into a 24-episode anime. It centers around a seemingly 15-year old girl named Pacifica Casull, a cheerful, perky (and somewhat naive) princess who is destined to causeThe End of the World as We Know It. Protected by her older siblingsShannon and Raquel, Pacifica is forced to flee across the world to escape those who want to kill her: kings, peasants, a religious order, and certain mysterious strangers... all while coming to terms with her destiny and making friends with the few travelers who don't yet know of her so-called "cursed" nature.What starts out as a typical-looking Medieval European Fantasy anime takes a dip intoScience Fiction territory at around the halfway point, without straying too far from its fantasy roots. Despite the show's premise (one girl against the world), a lot of the characters Pacifica meets on her journey act reasonably honorable, even though they have their own reasons for doing what they do. With great production values and a strong script by Reiko Yoshida (of Tokyo Mew Mew and Digimon Tamers fame), this is one of the better series you're probably not watching. The anime and manga are licensed and released in full; the light novels were licensed, but were apparently dropped with fifteen books to go.Spoiler Ahoy, arrrr!
This series provides examples of:
Annoying Arrows: In episode 18, Furet fends off a gang of assassins with a pair of knives and two arrows in his back.
While jumping around between galloping horses, no less.
Anti-Villain: Mauser. Also, Chris in the first episodes.
Art Shift / Gonk: For some reason Pacifica's portraits are drawn in-universe with a gonky face.
Bad Export for You: For the US DVD release, Bandai received masters that were of notably worse quality than the Japanese DVD release. Could have been an innocent mistake, but it also could've been a move by Kadokawa to worsen the cheaper R1 release and discourage reverse importation.
Break the Cutie: Pacifica. Yeah, kinda inevitable when everyone in the world is trying to kill you. The Breaking finally comes in the forest night scene of episode 22.
Burger Fool: In episode 3, Raquel and Pacifica try to earn their keep at the inn they're staying by dressing up as the inn's mascot, Soopy-kun, and selling little pastries called "Soopy Buns", to varying degrees of success. Leo tries his hand at it, and likes it so much that the innkeeper lets him keep the costume, which he uses as a sleeping bag.
Calling Your Attacks: All spells require a vocal command to activate. Raquel Casull is especially good with this, since all of her spells have ridiculously short names and charge times (as evidenced by a hilariously one-sided battle in the first episode against a Mauser priest).
The novels explain that it's not so much a short spell, as it is that she keeps an "emulator" spell running at all times - she's essentially using macros to cast her spells.
Combat Pragmatist: Seness, the first time she and Pacifica are facing a Peacemaker. Pacifica has a power that will seriously weaken all peacemakers nearby when her own life is in immediate danger, Seness has a sword. It works.
Emotionless Girl: Zefiris and Natalie. A flashback shows that Zefiris wasn't always like this, as she's seen crying quite a bit when her previous master died. Perhaps a better description would be that Zefiris tries to invoke this trope in a sort of "I am Just a Machine" complex and fails.
Fantastic Nuke: Ginnungagap, a "Long Ranged Strategic Class Spell", one of a whole class of nuke spells.
First Name Ultimatum: Seness has a habit of shouting "EIROTE!" even when her partner is standing right next to her.
Fusion Dance: Shannon fuses with Zefiris to become a D-Knight, and their fighting abilities are amplified several times over.
Gambit Roulette: There are plenty of these to keep you entertained. The anime even pokes fun of it once in awhile.
Gender Misdirection: Mauser is referenced throughout the series either by name only or as "Lord God Mauser". Mauser's name even sounds like it would belong to a male. In the end, however, not only is Mauser revealed to be a woman, she looks like a twenty-something version of Pacifica.
Graceful Loser: Following his defeat in Episode 4, Chris vows never to directly attack the heroes' party again.
Gratuitous English: A good amount of the dialogue is in English, as well as the opening theme. The Ancient's language is apparently completely English, too.
Heroic BSOD: For Raquel, Leo, Chris, and about half the audience when Pacifica's brother, Prince Forsythe, stabs both her and then himself to death.
Holy Is Not Safe: Ginnungagap, the most powerful known military grade offensive spell. It may be holy in nature, but it's sufficiently dangerous that it must be sanctioned for use, by way of unanimous decision, by the High Council. The attack itself covers an unbelievably wide area and is devastating enough on it's own, but the real threat is the resulting shockwave triggered by it. When used, it caused a mega-tsunami that devastated the majority of the continental coast!
Humans Need Aliens: This is the justification Cz uses, when she explains to Shanon why it was necessary for the Peacemakers to keep their world locked in Medieval Stasis. Later, during the final episode, Mauser goes into greater detail, when she explains the reasoning for this to Pacifica.
Humongous Mecha: Peacemakers have the ability to transform into 30-foot tall city-annihilating terrors. The highlight of the series is the battle in the Grand Finale with a mech Dragon fighting a mech Angel... IN SPACE!
Hypnotic Eyes: Simply looking at a Peacemaker directly in the eye is enough to brainwash an entire city.
Hypocritical Heartwarming: Shannon teases Pacifica relentlessly... but he's also willing to defy a god for her.
Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every episode title is in the form "Classical music genre of focus person/group of the episode". The genre is usually related to the mood of the episode. (e.g., The Waltz of the Abandoned Dog Girl, Symphony of Those Who Protect)
Idiot Heroine: Pacifica never does quite figure out what's going on, Fortunately, she doesn't have to understand, just choose.
Low Culture, High Tech: What everyone believes to be magic is really just Lost Technology, although it would probably be more accurate to call it confiscated technology.
Magic from Technology What the magic turns out to be. Not that surprising considering the terms used, at least if you've already seen Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Or pay attention to the odd shapes the runes take. Or to the mention of DNA and serial numbers in the second episode.
Make Me Wanna Shout: Pacifica's tragedy-triggered superpower is a sonic scream that undoes the mass brainwashing of the Peacemakers.
Medieval Stasis: Justified in that the Peacemakers committed some genocides every few hundred years to make sure it stays that way.
Offing the Offspring: Pacifica's biological parents tried to drop her off a cliff fearing that others would try to kill her for being the "Scrapped Princess". She survived, and she's still being hunted.
But her mother arranged for her fostermother (a powerful sorceress) to be waiting at the base of the cliff to catch her.
Parental Abandonment: In addition to the above, her adopted mother died some years ago and her adopted father was killed by an assassin in the first novel (just before the first episode).
People Jars: Lord Renard places several of his "followers" into comas and encases them in containment tubes in episode 10 to use them to power a spell to zap-fry the city of St. Grendel, a rival of the Church of Lord Browning. However, it turns out to be a ruse, as he later abandons them to die, revealing himself to Pacifica and her crew as a Mauser heretic inquisitor.
Power Limiter: The Peacemakers have 4 modes from sealed mode to normal, to limited battle release to full release which isn't capable of being used safely (for everyone else) in the atmosphere.
Rage Against the Heavens: Lord Browning's plan, and by extension, Zefiris and Natalie's. Seness agrees with them, but very few outside Scarlet do. Somewhat the overall plot, although the Gods turn out to be more Alien Overlords.
Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: Pacifica and Winia hit it off almost immediately during their first meeting in Episode 3. Nothing comes out of it, as Pacifica later asks Princess Elfitine (who has Psychic Powers) if she'll have a boyfriend in the future. Plus, Winia and Chris also wind up getting married during the Distant Finale.
Ruins of the Modern Age: Seen when Pacifica, Shanon, and Raquel spend days traveling in an abandoned subway tunnel, and when they happen across ruined skyscrapers.
Save The World Climax: Shanon and Raquel's only goal is to protect their adopted sister, Pacifica, from the Church of Mauser. It isn't until they're captured by Princess Senes that they learn the truth about the church, Pacifica, and themselves, as well as what's really at stake. Shanon and Raquel then realize that they're protecting far more than their sister.
Science Fantasy: The series as a whole, and one of the best examples of the genre.
Screw Destiny: This becomes Shanon's stance after the countless attempts that are made to kill Pacifica. Summed up by the following:
Shanon: (pissed) "I don't give a DAMN about a world that has no place for my little sister in it!!"
Selective Slaughter: The Peacemakers use their power to kill everyone but their assigned target: Pacifica Casull. Apparently their programming will not permit it.
It is suggested that this is because her power (a kind of Magic-EMP which leaves nearby peacemakers considerably weakened) is unleashed when she is directly attacked. Thus they need to convince humans that she should be killed rather than kill her themselves. At one point Seness decides to exploit this trait by attacking Pacifica herself in a battle with a Peacemaker.
Possibly being a genetic near-clone of the human savant placed in charge of the Peacemakers is another possibility; could be she registers as "in charge" to them.
Sleep Mode Size: Cz is first introduced as a small orphan girl who appears to have No Social Skills. When she returns later in her true form as a Peacemaker, she appears as a fully-grown woman, much to Shannon's dismay.
The "girl" part is lampshaded by Zefiris, who is of the same model. She says she's not the one who came up with this look, thereby implying the invocation of the trope by their creators.
You All Meet in an Inn: Not really their first meeting, but after her amnesia, Pacifica, Raquel, Leo, Doyle, Winia, Fulle and Leonard bumped into each other in a tavern.
Functional Magic: Theurgy variety; a strange twist is that instead of invoking gods or spirits they are giving orders to unthinking machines who merely respond to commands with set responses.
Magic Misfire: Raquel's first-class spells have a 25% failure rate.
And her utility spells have an even worse success rate: something like 33% of her attempts at magical cooking result in blowing up whatever she was trying to cook. Not that Shannon will let her try that anymore.
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