Alien invaders threaten the Earth and a team of teenaged cadet pilots are called upon to save the human race using advanced mobile suits. Stop me if you’re seen this one already.
What They Say:
In the not-so-distant future, the people of earth have expanded their frontier into the solar system. And now, we’re under attack! Advances in physics and genetic engineering have created astonishing new flying war machines and pilots with a wide array of enhanced abilities.
Young Izuru has been chosen to lead the hapless Team Rabbits into battle against the sinister Wulgaru forces. Spearheaded by the cold and savage Prince Jiart, these dark invaders possess both superior firepower and technology, as well as an unwavering thirst for earthly destruction. It will be up to Izuru and his brash band of misfits to vanquish the enemy and save us all! If they don’t kill each other first.
Includes 12 Episodes on 2 Discs.
The Review:
Audio:
For this viewing, I listened to the 48 kHz 2.1-2.4 Mbps (the rate varied during playback) 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio English track. The sound is clear without any notable dropouts or distortions. I didn’t notice any real directionality to the sound during playback, even though we had fights in space where the simulation of 3 dimensions might have added something.
Video:
Originally airing in spring and summer 2013, the show is presented in its original aspect ration of 1.78:1 in 1080p using the AVC codec. The video is crisp and clean without any noticeable signs of distortion or compression artifacts. The first disc has nine episodes and the second contains the final three, though there is no notable difference in the image quality of the episodes between the two discs.
Packaging:
Standard bluray keepcase. The cover features a picture of the main protagonist and the main antagonist, Izuru Hitachi and Jiart, respectively. Above them are their mobile suits engaged in a battle in space. The back of the case has the normal mixture of catalog copy, a group of screen captures forming a border around the text description and a larger image of another one of the special advanced mechs used by Team Rabbits. The regular info grid appears below.
The disc art uses images again of Izuru and his mech and Jiart and his mech.
Menu:
The menus feature a static image of the characters from standard promotional artwork to the right, with the episodes listed along the left, directly accessible from the main menu. There is no music in the background. Load times are quick and the menus serve their purpose well enough.
Extras:
None to speak of. Not even clean versions of the opening and closing animation sequences. Just some trailers and the disc authoring credits.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Based on the manga written by Rando Aramine and illustrated by Hikaru Arashima, Majestic Prince received a 24-episode anime adaptation last year animated by Doga Kobo and Orange, directed by Keitaro Motonaga with Series Composition by Reiko Yoshida. Hisashi Hirai adapted Arashima’s original designs for the anime. Sentai Filmworks is releasing the show in two sets, this review being concerned with the first half of the show.
The show’s plot can be summarized quite quickly and compactly, since it’s already been done so many times before: The Earth is threatened by an alien race who appear out of nowhere and attack, using advanced weaponry that make mincemeat out of the Earth’s conventional arsenal of capital ships and mobile fighting suits which shoot both projectiles and energy beams. When things seem at their worst, with the outer defenses of the Solar System crumbling and defeat only a matter of time, along comes a team of teenaged pilots manning special mobile suits which are able to fight toe-to-toe with the foes. That’s all you really need to know about the plot and if you feel like you have already seen this show…it is quite possible that you have this feeling because you already have. Many times before.
Majestic Prince is about as generic a Giant Robots Piloted by Teenagers Save the Earth Show as you can get, with generic arcs, generic characters, and generic-looking mobile suits, capital ships, and what not. Stop me if you’ve seen these episodes before: teenaged pilots are thrown into untested prototypes and while they flail around a bit at first, they defeat the superior alien enemy in a major engagement; the teenaged team are later over their heads in another mission, to be saved by a group of older, more experienced and far better pilots, their seniors from the military academy they attended; the top brass launch a massive counter-offensive using a giant super-gun vessel which results in the super weapon’s destruction and horrific losses among the Earth forces, though the teenaged pilots and their mechs manage to force the enemy to withdraw; in same episode, the most fiendishly evil of the aliens, who turn out to look humanoid, gets into a personal duel with the protagonist and holds off from killing the protagonist only so that he can savor fighting and killing him in the future; a later episode gives the First Half Big Reveal where it’s learned that the advanced mobile suits used by the protagonist and his team are made from alien technology given to the humans by a defector from the enemy; the team is sent on a recon/infiltration mission on an alien planet (pick any alien planet–they chose to go with Mars this time) where they have to deal with bad weather and equipment limitations.
If any of those scenarios sound familiar, then you already know much of what will happen plot-wise with this show. Some of them have been so overplayed, you need not even watch the entire episode to know what’s going to happen, especially with that super-cannon ship. I knew that would be destroyed before the episode was over the moment I saw it.
How then does Majestic Prince attempt to differentiate itself from the pack? With comedy! There are times when the show goes full force comedic, employing tired stereotypes and tropes to make people laugh. The members of Team Rabbits, our teenaged heroes, are pulled straight from The Big Book of Stereotypical Characters and deployed accordingly. One cannot entirely blame them for being predictable stereotypes, since they are all genetically engineered children whose memories were wiped and apparently replaced with otaku fetishes at the military academy they entered at around normal high school age. They’re also given color coded call signs with appropriately colored mobile suits, so they resemble a sentai show squad lineup (and the classic “Five Man Band” as described at TVTropes, which I only bring up because of how stereotypical and cliched this cast really is).
The leader, Izuru Hitachi, wants to be a hero and on top of that draws manga which expresses that desire in words and pictures. His cool, hotshot forward attack leader Toshikazu Asagi is the oldest member of the group, has a superior attitude at times, but also has stomach ulcers (for comedy!). Kei Kugimiya is the brains of the outfit and accordingly is rendered as a defrosting ice princess, with an interest in sweets and Izuru (though Asagi is the one who likes her). Ataru Suruga is a gun nut and walking arms encyclopedia while at the same time being the incredibly unbelievable “chaste pervert” who constantly talks about wanting girls and even tries to hit on them, but is too squeamish to watch a porn video. Finally, there is walking fanservice Tamaki Irie, who is the youngest (15) of the group but sports breasts that are practically the size of her head and a childish personality, while also being desperate to get a hot boyfriend whenever she sees an attractive man.
Of course, we have the inscrutable leader (Capt. Simon Gato), the competent tough-as-nails female direct commander of the Rabbit squad (Cmdr. later Capt. Rin Suzukaze), the most egregious fanservice character (head mechanic Reika Saionji, whose cleavage might well be hiding a planetary system or two), two male bridge operators for a change (Siegfried and Giuliano), an alien princess (Teoria), her male servant/bodyguard (Daneel), the incompetent top brass (lots of them, especially Vice Chief of Staff Dai Komine), and the more capable junior staff officer (Lt. Amane) along with a whole bevy of minor characters (the maintenance staff of the mobile suits, the various support staff aboard ships, starbases and on the ground).
