Synopsis
Anri is the princess of Inaco, a minor kingdom sandwiched between two powerful kingdoms. When her father is injured she is sent to act as the representative for the signing ceremony to be held in Selenfalen, a powerful theocracy. Upon arriving at the castle however, she finds that the princes and nobles of the neighboring kingdoms are more than a little strange…
General Impression
The main highlight of the series was that it was a comedy work that took on the reverse harem genre and basically had fun with it without making use of the usual clichés, except for a few times to squeeze in the romance. On that note, the romance, when it happens is rather nice in that it doesn’t necessarily focus on one pair. The problem with this however is that with the series being primarily a comedy work, there is tendency for the first half to come off more as a filler and slight build-up to the interesting portion that is the second.
And the second half is truly, as expected, things come to a climax and the character’s development shined. This especially applies to Prince Narek given how outlandish his characterization was made and how subtle his development was until the end. Sure, enough there was some solid development with the other characters but it was still a pleasant surprise. While the focus tended to go off point at times, there was a solid tie-in towards the second half the made up for a lot.
Ending Thoughts
When everything was laid out in the final half of the series, the ending came off as rather predictable though the events that lead towards it was different at least. The most predictable portion of the ending however was with the reverse harem aspect of the series. Since the start there was no clear final pairing, and while it was a nice change of pace, it would have been nice to have seen at least a little more on the romance in the end.
A sad thing with the ending though is that while at the start, there was a lot of interesting points done for Anri, the ending half pretty much had her as a secondary character. It is a understandable given that the spotlight was meant for the princes given the way their characters were worked for most of the series. Still, it would have been nice to have more scenes given to her. On the plus side, everything that was foreshadowed and built up in the series was pretty much tied together neatly in the end. Though there were a few hits here and there.
Conclusion
As a comedy, it does great, as a reverse harem on the other hand? Moderate at best, given how predictable it ended up being but given how dynamic the characters are, it can be ignored. While it wasn’t obvious at first given how the side plots shone more, the development and foreshadowing were slipped in and tied together rather well. Overall this was a series that didn’t always hit the mark but ended up turning rather interesting in the end.
Rating: 7/10