天下制覇

 

This is not my beautiful Prism Ark!

Impressions:

If you don’t care about changes that were made from game to show, you may wish to skip the first paragraph because it is chock full of vitriolic rage.

What the flipping hell? I may have well not played the game entirely because this was absolutely nothing like it at all. There’s taking liberties with the source material, which I am all well and good with… and then there’s kicking the source material in the crotch, stealing its wallet, and then urinating on its lawn out of general spite. The fact that the episode centers on Bridget is bad enough, but completely rewriting the entire academy as some kind of demented Priecia-worshipping shrine? Gah… why!?

Okay, with that out of my system, the tone is drastically different from the first episode and is generally more in line with how the Prism Ark game normally goes aside from the immensely irritating Bridget (Brigette… whichever). She can go die in a fire for all I care. It’s not like Prism Ark was ever built on unique character archetypes, but the clutzy ninja who is supposed to be a spy but becomes the center of attention 5 seconds into her mission? Come on. If you’re going to introduce a new character, at least make it someone who doesn’t immensely suck.

Really though, this was the first real introduction episode for the show. You could probably even skip episode 1 and not be lost at all as they re-cover some of the Prism stuff in relation to the golems (alright, ‘moku-jin’… wood people). They pimped up Hyaweh a little bit, which I approve of, but on the other hand, gave Kisarov a mouth. Animation was definitely down a little bit from last week… they really seemed to enjoy the quasi-SD shots of various people. The pacing of this show also baffles me… as they sort of obliquely introduced Fel, Karin and Litte, but almost all of it was centered on Bridget. At most likely 12 episodes, and them having not even made it to the first day of classes… this is going to probably be a pretty bumpy ride.

Give me half an hour and I’ll upload the ED. Do note that there will be versions of the ED sung by almost the entire female cast released, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they switched up the chibi singer relatively often.

And if you’re wondering what Priecia and Hyaweh’s first encounter looked like in the game… then look no further. Yeah, I wonder which is better… game or anime. There wasn’t even any CG for me to compare this episode except MAYBE one shot of Karin’s back, but even that would require squinting and looking out of the corner of my eye.

Prism Ark ED

Night falls across a kingdom. Soldiers all cry out for King Gerod. He announces that the war is beginning and their power will conquer all. From behind a pillar, a black knight walks out, clapping. Everybody falls silent as he tells Gerod that they will not be able to defeat Windland. Sister Hell walks out, saying the same. Princia and Meister’s legacy is too much for them to handle.

Gerod becomes enraged and throws a tantrum at his vassals. Hell and the Darkness Knight continue their warnings and insults as the soldiers begin to become restless. Gerod calls them all to silence and summons a spy, Bridget, who hops into the window and then sends her off to… neutralize the Windland forces.

At Windland, a film is being shown (okay, it’s being recorded… as we’ll soon find out) welcoming people to the academy. There’s even bad audio and the film flipping noise. Karin makes her first appearance as a swordsman instructor, and Litte is shown as being in charge of the magical department. Priecia even throws in some fanservice to entice people.

The film ends, and the director (is that supposed to be Kisarov?) angrily reposes Priecia for her framing to be perfect in order to draw men in. He starts going on and on about her charms and sexiness until she punches him into some boxes.

He recovers quickly and gives her the quick overview for the series… yada yada… evil invading forces… they need to recruit more knights , etc etc etc. He was apparently filming her using a Prism.

Priecia wants to know why she has to dress like that though and the maybe Kisarov gives a long speech about it being for the success of the academy while imagining her in the sexy pose again. She kicks him again and then walks off while he stares at her ass.

Priecia gets dressed in her uniform and heads out into the world.

–eyecatch–

Bridget rides on the back of a cart towards Windland, all while thinking about pleasing Gerod and already demonstrating her abject incompetence.

When she makes it to Windland, she (and a bunch of other students… including Fel, Acty, Ein and Jung) are looking at the banners hanging up, mostly extolling Priecia’s greatness. They all gather up and conveniently discuss the rumors about her valour and battle abilities… and that she’s the ‘princess’ of the academy… all right in front of Bridget, who laps the information up. 

At the assembly, the training golems are all lined up while Karin gives a welcome speech. Jung (the shota priest) is excited to see them.

Once Karin’s fired up speech ends, she has a quick meeting with Litte about how excited she is to finally meet the fabled Priecia that she’s heard so much about.

Bridget imagines what kind of terrible person this Priecia must be if she’s such a vicious person after hearing Fel go over yet more rumors of Priecia’s prowess.

Outside, all the banners start exploding. Priecia has started attacking them, pissed off at what Kisarov did without her permission.

A voice behind her expresses surprise that this is the fabled princess and holds out a flower to her. She gets uppity, but he says to hurry up and go with her and grabs her hand. They run off, with Hyaweh finally introducing himself to her as he drags her onward.

Inside the assembly hall, Fel has mistakenly identified Bridget as the princess. She points her out and Acty asks her what her name it. She tries to introduce herself as Br…Br… stumbling over her name… which Fel finishes as Priecia and everybody fawns over her. Immediately, everybody starts grilling her and causing havoc until Karin screams at them all.

They all withdraw from Bridget as Karin walks forward and invites ‘Priecia’ to give a demonstration of her swordsmanship.

Priecia and Hyaweh make it in there as Bridget is dragged onto the stage to fight the golems. Karin activates them and sets them on her. They all flail about as all the students wonder if she really is such a genius.

One of the golems leaps at her, but Karin steps in and destroys it. Finally, the girl confesses that she’s not really Priecia, but Bridget to everybody’s shock and confusion. Another golem attacks Karin from behind, but Bridget leaps up and destroys it with her knife. Kisarov’s eyes flash when he sees it.

Karin and Bridget stand back to back as they face off against the golems. They then split up and attack them, easily destroying them. Kisarov notes that he recognizes the style of her fighting. The golems are eventually too much though and swarm over them.

Priecia has had enough and leaps into the fight, complete with providing a panty shot for Hyaweh.

Bridget tries to introduce herself again, but Priecia has her sword at the girl’s throat before she can finish. Hyaweh butts in and grabs Priecia’s sword between his fingers, telling her to lay off. She’s amazed and never heard or saw him move… and she can’t wrest her sword out of his grasp either.

He smiles at her and even Karin is impressed. Priecia tells him to get out of her way, pulls her sword back and thrusts. Hyaweh dodges, catches her hand, and then grabs the other, pulling her in sort of a dance. He tells her that they should get along instead of fighting. She blushes for a moment, then jumps backward and starts attacking. He dodges and then gets a gleam in his eye. Episode over.