A few days ago, I was looking for a new anime and since I was still in the mood for romance, my choice fell on Akagami no Shirayuki-hime.
Due to the images seen in advance and the skimming of short summarys, I had the expectation of a clichéd, generic romance, with classic role distribution and the usual characteristics of the individuals. For this reason I would like to start my review with this question.
Admitted at the beginning, yes, the initial situation could not be more clichéd. A pretty, low-class young lady, who stands out from the crowd in a special way because of her beautiful red hair and who works as a pharmacist in the city, arouses the interest of the prince of the kingdom, who wants to make her his concubine. Our protagonist manages to escape this predicament only through the intervention of a prince charming from another distant kingdom. So far so cliché, however, it would be grossly unfair to the anime to attach a cliche label to this description of the plot and assume that Akagami no Shirayuki-hime is a clichéd fairytale romance based on the beginning plotline, in which the sexes assume their intended roles and fulfill stereotype characteristics. Because whoever does this makes a false assumption, which first and foremost leads us to our characters.
And professedly, at first glance, the male part of our main characters is a picture-book personification of a prince. Understanding, empathetic, funny, athletic, good-looking, intelligent, experienced in battle, etc. His appearance completes the overall picture in addition to those attributes. One of his weaknesses and this is by me personally to be considered as a good trait that Zen is a lazy man when it comes to office work ^^ In this respect, he would rather absorb the environment and the diverse facets of his country or practice exhausting sword training instead of the tiresome paperwork in the office. In addition, he has moments of embarrassment, or jealousy in the presence of Shirayuki, in which he drops his sovereign and calmly attitude. We later learn that he is by no means a perfect Prince Charming.
Spoiler, click to view
Thus he is occasionally in a position of powerless in his relationship with his brother, in addition to which there is his greatest weakness of character, namely the insecurity and anxiety owing to his position of Prince having people around him whom he can completely trust , as well as who sincerely remain by his side and give him their honest feelings regardless of whether he is a prince or not.With our protagonist Shirayuki, however, the cliché is different even at first glance. Her characteristics and actions contradict in many respects the traits of the stereotypical female role in these stories, which are usually characterized by incompetence and permanent helplessness and whose only purpose is purely to convince in visual ways. Already in the first episode she smashes this narrative. Because in contrast to the already widespread cliché of the clueless stupid, Shirayuki is an experienced pharmacist who has already at the beginning of the story a great expertise in her field at the . Secondly, she knows how to help herself and how to deal independently with emerging problems.
Spoiler, click to view
Examples of that, would be her departure, in order to escape a future as the mistress of a spoiled blag of a prince, that sets the actual story in motion, or her ingenuity to escape captivity in Episode two, in which she mobilizes her wealth of knowledge and personal courage for an attempt to escape, also her courage to confront the person who was hostile to her, and didn't want her at the royal court and in the enviroenment of the prince in the castle and to overcome various dangers to do so, and her presence of mind and sovereignty in passing the examination to become a court pharmacist's apprentice with flying colors can also be mentioned.To come back to her personality traits .
Her main qualities include determination, ambition and boldness.
Spoiler, click to view
Her primary goal is to use her own strength and power to one day overcome the differences between her and Zen, and to be on an equal footing with him and to be able to act as an active supporter.The assassin Obi is another popular figure, and a well designed likeable side character in the series. He is characterized by his informal way of speaking, prefers to be cool and casual, but still cares about his fellow human beings in an empathetic way.
Kiki & Mitsuhide represent Zens, closest advisors, companions, and personal bodyguards. Especially the humorous disputes and jokes between them and Mitsuhide's role as the one who is teased by Zen and her heartily, leads to some amusing situations. I also found the familiar and relaxed relationship between Zen and his bodyguard to be very pleasant.
In Akagami no Shirayuki-hime, attention is paid to the actual plot just at the beginning of the series, in the introduction. It then moves into the format of several short stories that serve to introduce new characters and deepen the relationship of our protagonists.
I really enjoyed both the opening and the ending of the series.
The other soundtracks were chosen appropriately for the respective situations, but none of them specifically stayed in my mind beyond the anime.
Akagami no Shirayuki-hime is an anime that is sorrounded by an an exceptionally positive atmosphere and creates an overall feel-good vibe within a medieval fable framework. The anime comes up with likeable characters and an authentic, relatable relationship between the protagonists. Furthermore, heartwarming and touching romantic elements are included in a large warming amount. The anime is therefore a must-see for fans of the romance genre.
