Marginal Prince ~Gekeiju no Oji-tachi~ (~The Laurel Tree Princes~) Episode 1 - The Jade-Green Escuela
OP - Hanashitaku wa nai (FLAME) - cheese-tastic bishounen song with one of the worst OP animation’s I’ve seen in a while; it’s all static pans! Bonus point for the demi-cyborg rabbit, though.
ED - Look Up Days (Michihiro Kuroda) - ride, silhouetted bishounen! Ride into your shoddily animated future!
A boy named Yuuta gets enrolled in a super special secret school (”escuela” is Spanish for school, folks!) on an island called St. Alphonse Academy, where there’s only something like five other students who are all “Marginal Princes”. I have no idea what was supposed to be so special to land Yuuta there, as all the others are famous for various regions (one of them seemed to be called Alfred Biscotti, which would have been an awesome name, but it seems it’s Visconti instead…). They have a butler called Butler, though, which is really quite awesome.
Anyway, some very tedious induction goes on and eventually Yuuta gets summoned to dinner with the other Princes; they have multicoloured hair and cookie-cutter personalities, and the only one that matters is the green-haired Joshua because the opening is filled with angsty shots of him. They accuse Yuuta of stealing a gem set in a portrait of St. Alphonse himself (an amusingly bearded king-like figure); Yuuta gets chucked out of the school at the end of the episode, but it’s obvious he didn’t do it.
I thought this was going to be a total snore fest after the first 15 minutes or so, but then THE SONG happened. Yuuta sees Joshua walk outside in the rain and follows him; he then sings A BALLAD OF WOE! It’s quite incredibly awful and cheesy (all quiet goodbyes and holding people and that sort of thing) and whilst we see a beautiful flashback to Joshua’s youth and obvious mother abandonment issues, it then cuts back to him and his shirt has slipped off his shoulder oh so seductively! My god, what a load of pap.
Marginal Prince is mostly notable for being based on a mobile phone game; the pre-OP sequence is Yuuta’s big sister on the video phone to all the Princes, and Yuuta is so obviously made up as an audience identification figure (because all Japanese girls want to be shotas really…) that it’s clearly a dating game show. Unfortunately, aside from THE SONG, it’s dull as ditchwater, with soporific string music and non-existent animation.
But hey, there’s a reason I started the new season with this; things can only get better. Right?
October 4th, 2006 at 12:33 am
I’m sorry the episode sucked so terribly, but if it comforts you at all, your review was excellent. One of the few times I’ve giggled so much at just a review XD I think I might need to see this “ballad of woe” myself..
October 4th, 2006 at 3:29 am
If the shirt slipped off a woman’s shoulder would you have the same reaction? Double standards galore in the world of animephiles. This didn’t seem much different from your average moe anime to me. Women’s mindless desires are just as honorable as those of men.
I enjoyed the simple exposition and clear introductions of the characters. The animation is not SHnY, but it did the job. And the guy who sang the song can actually sing, unlike the purveyors of many anime songs.
Anyway, I liked this a lot more than your average monster-of-the-week-with-magic-and-explosions show. Mileage varies.
October 4th, 2006 at 3:55 am
I am a lurking fan of your anime reviews, and this one only made me WANT to watch it. “Marginal Prince”? Bishounen breaking out into song?? Oh, yes! This must be that mythical beast I have been searching for: It is the anime to end all anime!
By the way, I especially liked your Noein reviews. Noein’s my hands-down favorite, but I did get a lot more out of it after reading your theories and opinions. So, thanks. ;)
October 4th, 2006 at 7:16 am
I hate shows about men’s mindless desires as much as I hate those about women’s ones…
October 6th, 2006 at 1:42 am
Sounds like half of most anime, only with boys instead of girls. The sex of the main characters never matters: it’s all shit. Yet, since men are unabashedly lamer than women, we get 6 million cute yuri anime of utter shit, versus their Marginal Princes and Meine Liebe.
October 7th, 2006 at 2:46 pm
“ED - Look Up Days (Michihiro Kuroda) - ride, silhouetted bishounen! Ride into your shoddily animated future!”
Ahahahahahaha. I nearly spit out my coffee reading this review. Really, your sarcasm as you tear into shows makes me almost want to watch them to see how bad it really is. :p
December 15th, 2006 at 12:01 pm
i was looking back at October to see what anime I ‘missed’ and was wondering why this hadn’t been subbed…now I know why, thanks, although i do want a cyborg rabbit called rabbit now.
December 24th, 2006 at 3:19 pm
[…] Also, I ended up inventing a very different translation of what they were saying…”in my miiiiiiiind”. Oh, and they have a butler called ‘Butler’, which I find highly amusing (thanks to Cinammon Ass and his review of episode one for that.) So why is this higher up the list? Entertainment value, and the fact that the bishies are relatively attractive. It still seems very silly nonsense for yaoi fangirls (and gay men?) and I’m left highly intrigued by the psychotic bunny ‘thing’… […]
March 11th, 2007 at 7:05 am
hey when are there going to be english subs u know were to get them huh..!!:):) hehee well anyway it kinda like gokuen heaven and la codra d’ore..:):)
laterz
April 27th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
Jajaja, your spanish is good! Here Marginal Prince means Principe Marginal or Principe Marginado, if you get thatwhen you are translating from english to spanish, you have to make lots of gramatical adaptation…
Well thanks for blog this series…
September 27th, 2007 at 1:41 am
Hey what the song called when joshua sings out side in the rain? email at at minisakura89@yahool.com
December 1st, 2007 at 7:37 am
the episodes tho may not have been good if you feel the same way about the jappansse language as i do beliveing it to be good to the ears i still like the songs they used if anyone has the mp3s or know where to get email me im talking about the songs the princes would breck into song and sing foolycooly_14@yahoo.com
November 6th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
i have to admit when i first saw it i was like “WHOA! SINGING!?!?!? AND WHERE THE HECK DID HIS SHIRT GO?!?!” and even though i didn’t understand every single word he sang it was sad and dramatically shouting “ZOMG DRAMA RAMA!”
i like your review can i add it on my blog on lj when i write stuff about what i think of the entire 13 episodes? email me @ akihiko_misaki@yahoo.com