Scrapped Princess, or as the fans like to call it, "Sutepri", totally caught me off guard. When I first saw the pretty lame intro animation, I thought "Oh man, this is gonna be pretty lousy". However, much to my surprise - and pleasure - that was certainly not the case. Scrapped Princess turned out to be a wonderful and thought-provoking anime.

The story is very difficult to explain without spoiling everything because the real meat of the story comes in the second half of the series. The first ten or so episodes are pretty much dedicated to introducing all of the characters and getting as many laughs as possible, while still having us wonder "Just what IS Pacifica"? Yes, I know, it's a pretty lousy name, but you get used to it after the first couple of episodes. Then all of the names in the show really start to grow on you, and the world of the Scrapped Princess starts to come to life. There's just so much attention paid to all of the tiniest details in the world that it's just so interesting.

It's difficult to say when the story takes place, as that's also a big spoiler. However, it's a very swords-and-sorcery type of anime. Quite a few surprises pop up throughout the show, and each surprise causes us to think more and more about the history of the world. Unfortunately, it's the way the information was provided to us that I have a little problem with. For the first half of the show, the pacing is quite slow and relaxing. Then, once we get to the second half, everything jumps up about five gears and we're given revelation after revelation. Nearly all of the world's backstory is given to us in a single episode, and it's pretty difficult to swallow. Nevertheless, those of you that can keep up will be heavily rewarded.

I personally liked each and every one of the characters present in this anime. They were all very well designed, each one had great dialogue, and the voice acting was spectacular. Both comedic and emotional lines were delivered with expertise, and both comedic and depressing moments were used very well in the series. Fortunately, even when the story goes into hyperdrive in the second half, there is still plenty of comedy to be had, even if it's a bit more depressing most of the time.

The art and animation in the show were great. Character designs were quite good and a lot of attention was paid to all of the little details. Even the world itself was filled with lush, vivid colors and it was pretty nice. The music, though, really failed to deliver and it never really satisfied me. I was disappointed with the vocal songs in the introduction and the beginning, and I wasn't really captivated by the intrumental pieces in the episodes themselves.

The last thing I'm going to talk about is the ending. I was very impressed with how it was handled, and Scrapped Princess is really one of the few animes that I can say "It had a good ending". So many series fail to deliver, but Scrapped Princess does NOT disappoint. This is because of one crucial element that many endings fail to have: an epilogue. I'll give any series extra points just for having an epilogue. Unfortunately, there were still a lot of unanswered questions left behind when episode 24 finished. I suppose it's possible I just missed something when the anime went into hyperdrive, though.

Bones does it again.

Scrapped Princess is one of the three Bones series that began in 2003, together with equally excellent series Wolf's Rain and Fullmetal Alchemist. Scrapped Princess was also a show that I became interested in before I even knew about Bones and all the studio’s other works. Therefore, I had no high standards set for the series as I did when watching the first episode of, say, KURAU Phantom Memory. Instead, Scrapped Princess was just another of these “fansubbed” series that I had, at the time, thought so radical, having only discovered “ongoing” anime a few months earlier.

Looking back, I can’t think of a better way to have eased myself into the “ongoing” anime community. Scrapped Princess is a very accessible series and not one likely to scare away any viewers because of genre cliches. Despite the high fantasy setting, Scrapped Princess begins as an adventure story more than anything else, and only surprises and impresses you as you watch more.

The story of Scrapped Princess, although slow in coming, is both unconventional and fascinating. Whenever you think you’re on the verge of getting bored with the series of events taking place, some new plot twist is suddenly revealed and boom! You’re looking at the story in a completely new and different light. The pace of the first half of the series is nice and relaxing, and does an excellent job of lulling you into the world of Scrapped Princess, while the second half takes an overdose of speed and doesn’t slow down until the ending. There are a few points during which it is hard to keep up, and some events that take some thinking to decipher, but the fast pace does much more good for the story than it does bad.

The characters are a slightly mixed bag. Most of the main characters, of which there are quite a few, are likeable and believable. By the end of the series, I came to care about them to the point of being willing to cry over their fates. There are two or three characters, however, who receive considerably less development than I would have liked. Although these characters exhibit potential at the beginning of the series, this potential gets more or less wasted by the end. Despite their one-sided personalities, though, these exceptions manage to have excellent dialogue and believable interactions anyway.

The animation is perfect. The CG that is present is in no ways intrusive to the clear and detailed character designs or the colorful, vivid backgrounds. Action scenes are very fluid and even the mecha fighting sequences are fast-paced and captivating. The music, however, is nothing to write home about. While there are a few beautiful background pieces, most of the time the music blends in with the action and becomes all but unnoticeable. The opening theme, too, is rather lousy – as a song, it’s pretty good, but it just doesn’t quite fit Scrapped Princess. The ending song, however, both provides appropriate closure for each episode and is a good song in and of itself.

The ending is overall very well done, even though it does leave some unanswered questions. The world of Scrapped Princess has a long and detailed history, and by the last few episodes it seems that the story is trying to hold this whole heavy world on its shoulders, and thus is doomed to fail. Surprisingly, there is a lot more closure than I could have ever asked for and the anime somehow manages to pull off a pretty satisfying ending. As I said before, there are some unresolved issues, and quite a few things that are explained but still left unclear, but there was nothing that bothered me too much. The ending is, by and by, quite fitting for a work of as high caliber as Scrapped Princess.