Written by SolidEther on January 2, 2011 at 12:40 AM
Overall Rating
Excellent
Story: 4
Dialogue: 4
Animation: 5
Entertainment: 5
Shikibane Hime is a wonderful anime. A long the lines of the undead variety. Not a simple vampire take on the whole theme. Corpse Princess is a reality set where the sheer will of the person at death can create the shikabane - a corpse that lives, but not a brain eating zombie. Shikibane Hime- THe corpse Princess has a type of undead warrior that destroys shikibane gone wrong. You see none are "good" but depending on the afflicted forms they can mutate thier after death form some are downright horrifying.
A group of monks can sponsor the good shikibane and they battle to the death with other evil minded corpses. These allow for much variety.THere are many plot details any heartfealt moments to the story, but the most impoortant reasons you would want to watch this one are,
The animation is so very brilliantly designed. The aptmosphere, the backgrounds create and merge with the moving animation. THe lighting, weather effects, explosives are all shown as if they pulled every special effect out of the manual of animations finest to show off.
THe movements and choreography of the on screen characters and the life or unlife given to the different characters is gripping. The battles are fast, flashy, violent, and powerful. And this is no typical zombie killer movie. No No..
Thes Shikibane are malevolent entitys and with each come thier own aggravations, afflictions and viciousness displayed in the mutations of thier dead body.
Also there is no secret stone or specail sword or bullet to the brain that kills these undead.
MUTILATION, utter dismemberment and further envisceration ends them. For example the female lead uses two Uzi sub-machine guns dual hand weilded burners to blast those dead scumpups back to wherever the hell they came from. Also anything that explodes or otherwise is shot or crashed through to do the trick.
The monks heal the good Corpse princess so she may one day move on fufilling her regretful passing.
This one--yeah, if you watch the first episode you will be compelled to watch more if this type of anime is your style, maybe if it is just a little it is worth a look.
