Princession Orchestra

Princession Orchestra is a magnificent demonstration of the best tropes and story qualities that have been absent in Magical girl series in recent years.

Namely:
There is a clear commitment to building up the dynamic and threat level of the villain group Band Snatch (and their spooky leader). Seriously these guys steal the show (Quite Literally! They hijack an entire episode!)


The show does a good job of balancing their funny interactions and loveable personalities without diminishing their strength and presence.

Then there's the way the show embraces it's musical aspect, inheriting some DNA from it's big sister series Symphogear. it pays homage to that franchise while still being ... it's own thing.


Especially in it's overall design and aesthetics that truly make the characters ''pop''.


It hits that ''Symphogear itch'' effectively, but with a brush of Precure paint.


There are an excellent mix of songs throughout that are implemented in a very fun, interesting way. The songs power the action through the magic of ''Mussesence''.


As for the action, this one isn't afraid to get it's hands dirty, there are some stand-out hand to hand combat sequences. These hot-blooded punch outs are a blast while still being completely kid-friendly, but it finds other cool ways and ''acquired add-ons'' to keep the fights fun beyond just punching and special finishers.


For the forces of light and goodness in our 3 leads in Minamo, Shirube and Nagase are fantastic additions that find a way to shine with each of their interactions and bonds formed with the vibrant occupants of the ''Wonderland'' Alicepia.


On the production side it does have it's ups and downs, but for the most part it has maintained a consistent quality with some nice eye candy sprinkled in for the big special moments and transformation sequences.


This one is a must watch! It brings a breath of fresh air to the genre and It has managed to carve out a solid identity of it's own among it's counterparts. It has only been getting better every week!

It's the perfect Saturday morning cartoon/anime!

Honestly one of the strongest Magical Girl anime made in a while. Which isn't saying much sadly. It's solidness for me comes from mostly the fact that it actually has a plot! I've been begging for Precure to have this level of story telling for years now, and the most we seem to get is some really enjoyable character moments. Princession doesn't have as good as highs as precure so far, but across the board it has a more stable scores. At the end of the day my feelings are "its fine, i hope it gets better"

The Art? Fine. I like the bright colors and ... the show doesn't over sexualise the girls, which was a worry when i first saw the designs.

The Music? Fine. The songs sadly fall into the same trap most song based magical girls do, which is only ever doing epic ballads. This is one of the few things Idol Precure did well, but look at how limited that is. So i won't say which was is better, but i will let you know you'll get music with singing while you fight, and then music while talking, and then back to singing when you fight.

The Characters? Fine. I don't love or hate anyone, i think they've nailed down the friendship dynamic quite well. Meteor is often taking over the flow of conversion, which can be annoying, but they've done it in a way where it really emphasize who she is and she's growing on me. it's only fine because its missing some spice. which i have high hopes we will get!

The Animation? It's fine. Sadly where i think they are lacking is in the final attacks. they are muddy and not super focused, but they do feel powerful and are unique to each girl. they just need to clean them up.

The Villains? Probably the strongest thing so far, although i will say the story is kinda hurting from a length stand point and it really shows here. im writing this around episode 20 and we've already got three scenarios of the bad guys powering up in one way or another. plus the big twist around this part was predictable, not that that makes its bad XD

Im giving it an 8 out of hope and kindness, with knowledge of the environment it was first shown in. subject to change if the mess up the landing. If you are a magical girl fan of any kind its definitely worth checking out!

It’s fun. Nothing amazing, but if you like magical girls, this is a solid watch.

I won’t call this a Precure rip-off, because it’s different enough (and I don’t believe they’re *trying* to blatantly steal concepts). Even so, it does lean *very* heavily into the tropes of said franchise, especially in its snarky gang of teleporting villains, physical fights, and genki-girl lead character, all of which are very reminiscent of Precure more so than any other magical girl show.

Pros:
- If the over-merchandising of Idol Precure irks you, perhaps you’ll enjoy this because it is a lot more subtle in that regard
- The songs are solid, ... and are the only aspect which I would say Princession has over Idol Precure
- The animation is fluid, and the transformations are surprisingly cool

Cons:
- If you have watched a lot of Precure, you won’t be able to unsee the extreme similarities
- The main fairy is boring and is little more than a plot device at this point, not having much of a personality at all

It’s fun enough so far, although I can’t say I enjoy this more than You and Idol Precure. As a substitute for Precure, it fails miserably, but as its own thing (which I hope it branches out into as the episodes progress), it has decent potential.

Give this a watch and judge it for yourself.