I wanna know if you’ve ever seen the rain….
What They Say:
Episode 2: The Rain Princess
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
It turns out there was a good reason why I thought the opening last week lacked something. Much of it was placeholder shots. This week we get to see the actual full animated opening, where the solo shots of Nike wandering the palace have been replaced with ones of her and her betrothed. It works much better now that we’re seeing the whole picture. Speaking of which…
Nike has gotten herself into quite the predicament. Her lack of tact when confronting a king who is barely a teenager gets her thrown into the dungeon by the end of their first meeting. The King gives her an ultimatum, become his plaything or starve. Nike chooses starve, but not just for the insult of being betrothed to a boy king, but because he wanted her to show off her powers for his amusement. And after last week we know just how poorly Nike deals with hunger issues.
So Nike delivers an ultimatum of her own. The King must show her the beauty of his country if he wants her to make it rain. Summoning the wind to do her bidding, easy. Summoning the rain requires more dedication and emotion. Except the King is a shallow boy, an extremely smart one who has had everything one could desire, but shallow. He can’t see the beauty in something like a flower. He’s surrounded by so many things that it’s all been devalued. He’s bored with economics and even the conspiracies against him.
Nike thinks that he’s a waste. This actually gets to him, and he wants to know why. When he finds Nike watching the stars he asks her why she needs beauty and she explains how the spell works. It’s clear that he King is older than his years, forced to grow up fast. Nike is actually worried about him and is thinking of him like a little brother. She keeps having dreams about his childhood, and a mysterious woman who kept him company as a child. Finally, he tells her about a rooftop garden and they head there the next day.
All of the talk of conspirators meant that they would have to make a move sooner or later. While taking in the joys of the garden, Nike takes an arrow meant for the King. Stricken, she falls ill, we get to see a reaction out of the King that isn’t one of detached boredom. He relishes the chance to strike back at his enemies, convinced that the world is not sunshine but plots and violence.
Nike is ordered back to her kingdom, much to her anger. The King’s right hand man, Neil, explains his past to Nike on the carriage ride back to the harbor town. His mother was the one we saw in the flashbacks, a low ranking woman who was sequestered with her son away from the rest of the world and eventually met her end via assassination. It’s unsurprising the King sees the world only as something dark to be brought under his control. His culling of the dissidents only drives them to greater acts against him.
It’s hard to say how much of the eventual attack on the King is his own design to test Nike or his enemies, or if it’s an honest plot by his saboteurs. He clearly wanted them to out themselves, and was concerned about Nike’s safety. Of course she returns and sings a ridiculous pop music styled song to call down the rain and put out a fire in the palace. (How this puts out a fire inside the third floor, I don’t know.) The King is saved, and Nike gets to be a badass. Hooray.
In Summary:
The World is Still Beautiful is moving at lightning speed. A fairy tale story of a Princess and a King told as swiftly as any old fable. Perhaps they’re rushing because of the short number of episodes, but I wish they would slow down and give the moments a chance to breath and have some impact. There’s still some awkwardly out-of-place sexual humor, and the animation has an uneven quality to it, but it’s an improvement over the first episode in almost every way. Despite that, the ending of this episode came off as silly and lacked emotional punch because of it. I hope the show finds a way to break out of it’s strict fairy tale mold soon. Nike remains a great heroine, and the King is at least smart. The elements just aren’t meshing yet.
Episode Grade: B –
Streamed by: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment: 27” iMac running OS 10.9.2, via Safari 7.0.2, FIOS 15/5 Mbps connection. Your milage may vary.
