DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ActionHime Kishi wa Barbaroi no Yome

REVIEWS

• 

  Azzarrel

  53/100
  Another love story, that drifts into half-baked side-plots without any depth to them.

  As I watched Hime Kishi wa Barbaroi no Yome, I couldn't help but think back to Maou no Ore ga Dorei Elf wo Yome ni Shitanda ga, Dou Medereba Ii? , which I reviewed a while back. I found that it had some of the same issues, which I will briefly share here. Mind that I will reveal surface-level plot points to properly explain my discomfort with this anime. While I won't go into enough depth to take away any enjoyment, those sensitive to spoilers are warned!

  Sound & Animation:

  Let's start with the smaller issues first. The series clearly does not have a particularly high animation budget, but for the most part, it works around that limitation well enough. Quieter scenes, conversations, and character-focused moments generally look fine, and the character designs are appealing. Also, there are far too few bearded main characters in anime, so Veor at least gets some bonus points there.

  The voice acting is solid, as it usually is in anime, but the direction leans a bit too heavily on exaggerated reaction shots and repeated vocal gags. This becomes especially noticeable with a character introduced later, whose main contribution often seems to be screaming "Seraphina-sama!!" whenever the female protagonist does anything.

  The action scenes are scattered across the 12 episodes and are mostly passable. The animation and CGI are never outright terrible, but the fights lack weight. They do what they need to do for the plot, yet rarely leave much of an impression. For a story that opens with warfare, conquest, and a supposedly brutal clash between nations, the actual combat feels oddly toothless.

  ---

  Side Characters:

  The side characters are fine for what they are, though I wish they had received more room to develop. Most of them get a quick introduction that establishes their personality, motivation, and general role in the story, but after that they are usually reduced to either moving the main plot forward or commenting on events from the sidelines. Once they have served their purpose, they tend to fade into the background or disappear almost entirely.

  This is especially noticeable with Veor's maidservant. The anime hints that there is more to her past and that she may be more important than she first appears, but she remains fairly underdeveloped throughout the season. For a character who seems like she should matter to both the plot and Veor's personal life, she gets surprisingly little active focus in the 12 episodes we are currently given.

  ---

  Plot:

  Now, without any further ado, let's move on to the most pressing issue: the plot.

  The first episode begins with Seraphina, the female protagonist, fighting in a brutal campaign against the barbarians to the east. Her homeland, Illdoren, is suffering from a drought, and the war is framed as a desperate struggle for survival. Seraphina is eventually defeated and captured. Prepared for the worst, she instead finds herself being proposed to by Veor, the warrior who beat her on the battlefield. From there, she begins exploring his strange and unfamiliar homeland together with him, slowly being drawn in by his strong, kind, and reliable personality.

  My main issue is the massive tonal clash between Seraphina's homeland and Veor's. Illdoren is treated with seriousness, political intrigue, desperation, and bloodshed. Veor's homeland, meanwhile, is basically sunshine and rainbows. The problem is not simply that the two places are different. The problem is that their entire mindsets feel so incompatible that the contrast destroys my suspension of disbelief.

  Imagine being thrown into a setting like Game of Thrones, with all the suffering, hardship, and brutality that implies. Then imagine reaching the scene where Daenerys meets Khal Drogo, only for the supposedly savage warlord to turn out to be an awkward, kind, and proper gentleman, while all his hardened warriors are just earnest men living simple but honest lives. That is roughly the kind of tonal whiplash this anime gave me.

  Early on, Seraphina is captured after her men are slaughtered, while she herself kills as many barbarians as she can before going down. She then wakes up in a cell, bound and stripped. Of course, this is immediately softened into a misunderstanding, because her captors only wanted to wash her and check her for wounds. Veor wants her as his bride because he respects her strength, but naturally he has no intention of forcing her. Instead, he patiently waits for her to fall in love with him first, without any darker intentions whatsoever.

  We then learn that this is apparently a tradition in the barbarian lands. Warriors who defeat strong female enemies abduct them, propose to them, and eventually build happy, consensual families with them. Apparently, none of these women struggle with remorse, homesickness, or second thoughts. They simply fall for their gentle, strong, and honest captors, abandon their knighthood and obligations, and become mothers to their offspring.

  The barbarians, in turn, show no real animosity either. They treat deadly battles on the borders of their realm like a minor inconvenience that happens from time to time. There are no widows, brothers, children, or friends who resent Seraphina as a captured enemy commander. No one seems particularly angry about the people she killed. If anything, the men are more interested in sparring with a strong opponent than mourning their dead comrades. Such is life... I guess?
  This continues from episode to episode. Multiple nations live together in harmony, sharing and trading with one another, apparently free of prejudice, xenophobia, or serious conflict. Other races, such as dwarves and elves, are shown as more advanced or more powerful, yet they seem to have no ill intentions, ambitions, or desires that could create tension in this perfect magical land. Then, from time to time, the anime cuts back to Illdoren to remind us of the evil empire where everything is rotten and cruel, somehow existing in the same world as the barbarian wonderland.

  ---

  Verdict:

  A concept like this works in Hime-sama, "Goumon" no Jikan desu, because that series explicitly and purposefully subverts expectations as a comedy. A similar contrast between dark setup and wholesome execution also works better in Maou no Ore ga Dorei Elf wo Yome ni Shitanda ga, Dou Medereba Ii?, because the main character is clearly introduced as an outlier. In Hime Kishi wa Barbaroi no Yome, however, every new episode felt like it was trying to romanticize a deeply uncomfortable situation with such pure naivety and so little subtlety that it became hard to take seriously. I still wanted to see where the story goes and finished this anime, but there hasn't been anything, that would want me go back, if it gets another season.

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• 

  HeartbreakRebel

  76/100
  A misunderstanding turned to a beautiful relationship

  My Review of "The Warrior Princess and the Barbaric King"!

  

  ---

  Wholesome (and sometimes funny) romance in the style of Clevatess.

  ____Story____

  Serafina de Lavillant was the West’s strongest knight and princess, but was captured by barbarians after her sword broke in the middle of a fight. She thought she was going to be killed or be mistreated, but was actually forced into marriage with the king of the barbarians, Veor. This show documents the journey of the two’s love story and shows off plenty of new sights and experiences that Serafina had never seen or experienced before.

  ____The Good____

  One thing that I really liked from this anime is the artstyle. It has a very similar style to that of Clevatess, which I also really liked the design for. I like the introduction to how the two met each other and I found the misconceptions to be pretty funny in itself. Speaking of funny, the comedy in this show was right up my alley. I felt the sort of embarrassing and silly moments were the highlights for me. Especially when they introduced Marsius into the main cast. She was like a gold mine of comedic stupidity and unawareness. She was definitely my favorite character from the main cast. The animation was quite nice itself. It was quite fluid in my honest opinion, which really complimented the artstyle. There were plenty of beautiful scenes in this show that I really admired and appreciated. I think the romantic relationship between Serafina and Veor was paced really well. It makes sense that it would need a bit of time to hit considering the situation that Serafina found herself in. I also really liked the world building of this show. They really showed a lot of background information about the various settings which in hand also gave information about the other characters of the story, which I was interested in. Overall, this show did pretty well pacing and managing the romance while incorporating good comedy and animation.

  ____The Bad____

  This is just a personal preference, but I wished that there would’ve been more action in this anime. I understand the focus of the show is supposed to be on the romance between Serafina and Veor, but if you introduce them as two super strong people, I would expect them to showcase their dynamic in battle more. Sure, they did do that, but I really wanted more. And it’s not like they lack the animation quality to do so. The animation was actually fairly smooth for this anime. It’s just that the story didn’t seem to lean that way. I honestly thought that the final episode of the show was quite underwhelming for me. The final battle scene was lackluster with a boring outcome and there wasn’t really much to be said except a teaser for the second season. Another personal preference I had was the involvement of Cersei. Apart from a few moments, it feels like Cersei doesn’t do much to the story or the show in general. She’s sort of just there and has her occasional moments. Marsius at least brings a lot of comedy and fun expressions while Cersei just inserts a few comments every now and then. I don’t dislike her, but I wish she did a lot more in the show.

  ____The Downright Ugly____

  There is nothing downright ugly about this anime.

  ____Is It Worth The Watch?____

  I think that this show is worth the watch. The Warrior Princess and the Barbaric King is a nice and fun romance anime that sets itself apart with its Clevatess-like artstyle and barbaric setting. The comedy was the main highlight for me (especially with someone like Marsius) and the romance definitely developed nicely throughout the 12 episodes. I just wish that there was more action but apart from that, it’s a good show.

  Thank you for taking the time to read my review. I hope this helped you with your decision on whether to watch this anime or not! If you already have watched it, I hope that you can agree with me with some of the points I made. If you enjoyed this review, I would greatly appreciate a follow too! ^^

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• 

  Strichael

  56/100
  An interesting setting, which is sadly not touched upon enough, only to make a subpar romcom

  Where do I even start with this one... probably with a few positives before I bash into the negatives so be warned as this will dive a little bit into the spoilery territory:

  I liked the thick outlines as it as a bit different from the usual thin ones and I like the setting overall. It could promise to be a nice internal conflict between the new better kingdom and her old one and how she could get diplomatic or have internal struggles with the discrepancy between her two worlds. I like that Veor is contrary to his design and role as a barbarian actually really thoughtful and tries to use his head and feelings. I like that in the beginning he is very teasing towards Vera and calls out her Tsundere behavior which makes it feel wholesome and cute. Sera also has potential to be a well crafted character due to the situation she is in and her inexperience with man and her act as a tsundere is amusing at times. The combination of all of that is what sold me up to the 4th episode...

  Then characterchoices appeared that I didn't fully agree with liked or questioned their absence in the first place. This show had a lot of potential to make something interesting since the setting itself was worthwhile but it constantly threw away the obvious interesting bits and made a boring non-organic subpar romance.

  First of Sera feels like such a waste because there could be done so much cool internal conflict here but it always ends with her merely blushing by the guy who kidnapped her and now she doesn't even contemplate how her old kingdom is doing and ways to help the poor of her kingdom she previously was sooooo set on helping, she feels just hypocritival to me, given all she does is enjoy her new life after realizing it's so much better at the barabric side.

  The we have the fact that somehow the barbarians are always good and right for some reason? I find it truthfully pretty annoying that they constantly play Marcius out as a joke and say she is wrong. Uhm sorry to break it to you, but lowkey she is 100% right lol, her and Cersei being comedy duo is also not that funny but whatever. The Romance feels really forced and stagnating after ep 4, also missed potential because of the previous mentioned disregard to her own kingdom.

  This is not a good show but also not a bad one per se. it has relatively decent worldbuilding with it's many fantasy races and definitely some build-up to a continuation that could turn interesting. Sadly it's also clustered with subpar comedy, boring sideplots instead of actual interesting character development and for an ecchi show not much of that either so if you're there for that than I have to disappoint you.

  Overall an average fantasy show which I hoped would be better in either romance or character development/worldbuilding but hasn't met my expectations. If you howver want a a simple romcom with a tsundere virgin-mary that gets teased a lot you will maybe find this more enjoyable than me

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