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Majestic Prince

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I recently pledged quite a bit of money on upcoming online space-trading / combat simulator Star Citizen, and I put part of the justification in doing so on Hanabee Entertainment who recently released the anime Majestic Prince in Australia and New Zealand.

While our technological capabilities have been exponentially increasing every year, it is highly unlikely that you or myself will be alive to see what a spacefaring and/or technologically advanced future will hold. This is why I personally love about anime or other fictitious works set in the future… as while there is a lot that can be done with the present or past, it is always much more exciting to see different writers interpretations on the future none of us have yet to experience. It has been awhile since I last had the chance to watch Madman’s Stellvia of the Universe or Hanabee’s own Bodacious Space Pirates, and Majestic Prince has reminded me why I have always been intrigued by series based in a spacefaring future.

Storyline

Majestic Prince revolves around five members of a student group known as “Team Rabbits” – Izuru Hitachi, Toshikazu Asagi, Kei Kugimiya, Tamaki Irie and Ataru Suruga. All five were born as generically enhanced children with greater abilities that give them an edge when piloting a ship. With all memories of their childhood purposefully purged before entering the training academy, they live, sleep and breathe to one day serve in protecting humanity against a powerful alien race known as the Wulgaru. Despite each having their own particular special ability, all five lack teamwork which results in poor performances during training runs – earning themselves the title “The Fail Five” among their peers. But a successful impromptu mission using a series of new mecha suits known as AHSMB sees them enter the fray for real… provided their lack of teamwork and personal issues doesn’t kill them off first.

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There is still much left to explore in the second half of this 24-episode anime series, however Majestic Prince has so far set the foundations for what could be an overall memorable watch. While some may watch it for the space-oriented combat, it is the other elements of the storyline that truly shine. One stand-out concept is how the mecha units work, where the users DNA is integrated into the ship which allows its abilities to be enhanced and react in response to a pilots sympathetic nervous system causing the ‘fight or flight’ response.

The concept behind the main characters enlistment in the program and their development are also highlights of Majestic Prince, with no character falling short in terms of intrapersonal and interpersonal development. Every character is genuinely interesting and distinct, with the writers at least making a decent attempt not to make one main character (Izuru Hitachi) stand out too far ahead of the rest. The secondary character cast is also fairly large, ranging from members of each characters maintenance crew to the military command unit. Several characters are clearly being underutilized at this point, but hopefully will have a bigger role as things begin ramping up in Part Two.

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Design

In order to remain as impartial to a series as possible, I try to watch them with as little background knowledge as possible. When I first laid eyes on Majestic Prince a couple of days ago, my first thoughts were that it resembled a series at least a couple of years older than its 2013 initial air date. While not terrible in any sense, the animation and design quality was fairly basic with nothing that stood out during a majority of the episodes where all characters live out their own “normal” lives. Mind you, with many anime nowadays attempting to be as flashy as possible in the visual department, the simpler designs were refreshing in a way.

Instead, it seems like animation studios Dogakobo and Orange put much more effort into the scenes that take place during the numerous battles. Every battle was filled with fantastic animation, actively moving units and a level of detail that you would expect from a good quality mecha / space anime. Unfortunately I found the decision to release Majestic Prince on DVD-only hindered the visuals slightly, and wouldn’t have minded these battle scenes presented in a higher quality video format.

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Music / Voice Acting

The first 12-episodes of Majestic Prince include a single opening and a single closing sequence. The opening theme Watashi wa Souzou Suru by Natsumi Kon features simple animation yet an impactful song, while the ending theme Sayonara tte iu by Chiaki Ishikawa is pretty unmemorable in both regards. The musical and sound effect backing across the episodes are also of a solid standard, and particularly managed to give an extra edge to the longer, drawn-out battles that take place.

While Hanabee Entertainment have opted to set the Japanese dub as default in their DVD release, Sentai Filmworks’ commissioned English dub is also featured on-disc. The character cast does an impressive job at matching their characters personalities, with particular highlights including Houston Hayes as Izuru Hitachi and Tyler Galindo as Ataru Suruga.

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Extra Content

As with many series localized by Sentai Filmworks in North America, there is a distinct lack of extra on-disc content. The only bonus features included in Hanabee’s collection are four trailers for their upcoming and recent anime releases. Yawn!

Final Words on Majestic Prince

One of the major hurdles that Majestic Prince had to face when entering the anime market was that it would ultimately be going up against the “big boys” of mecha anime series including Sunrise’s 35-year-strong Gundam franchise and the Macross franchise which has been running almost as long. While it is far too early to tell if Majestic Prince will reach expectations or fail in its latter half, the first half-season delivers some interesting concepts, well developed characters and an overall attention-capturing experience. This combination of features resulted in strong foundations for what will hopefully be a memorable second compilation of episodes. Just when the second collection will be released is a mystery however.

Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.

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