On a world far removed from the Earth, there is a certain kingdom that's brimming with smiles. Fate thrusts young Princess Yuki, filled with idealism, joy, and innocence, into a station in life for which her most endearing qualities are ill-matched. Her kingdom faces grave danger as the Empire threatens the realm's security. Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the conflict, an imperial soldier known as Stella Shining hides behind a facade. However, a time may come where her mask cracks, potentially costing her everything. Princess Yuki and Stella's paths will cross, and the fate of nations will follow.
(Source: Sentai Filmworks)
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Comentários
VentusBrawler
Egao no Daika is the most slept on show of the Winter 2019 anime season. This doesn't mean it's a masterpiece or anything, but I think this show has unjustly fallen under the radar of most of the anime community. This means it either has gone completely unnoticed by a majority of the anime community, and the few people that did watch it sell it far too short. I definitely believe this show should be given a chance by many anime viewers and I'm going to tell you why. Egao no Daika is set in the future on another planet, where the population of planetEarth has already ruined the environment and moved on to find another planet to inhabit. The story revolves around two girls, Princess Yuuki Soleil of the Soleil Kingdom and Stella of the Grandiga Empire. Yuuki and Stella, though they come from different backgrounds and answer to different governments, have more in common than just meets the eye. The story follows both of their perspectives throughout a war between the Kingdom of Soleil and the Grandiga Empire, which is one of the show's main plot points. I'm just going to leave the setting at that without spoiling much else, since it'll be better for you to watch for yourself.
What makes the show interesting is how the story unfolds very personally for each of the characters. Many times an episode may start with something that is out of context (and many times even out of chronological order), but the show drops enough clues for viewers to piece together the context, and doing so is often very rewarding in that it leads to organic character development for the cast. While the characters and the story writing aren't the best I've ever seen, they need to be given much more credit than what the ratings on MAL and what the anime community indicates.
The show's portrayal of war is also very intriguing since it shows off the ugliness of the front lines along with the challenges of making the big decisions in the safe (yet comparably stressful) command room. One of Egao no Daika's biggest strengths is opening up an intelligent discourse on the human condition. Especially when it comes to war, it often tries to digest thought-provoking topics when exploring the motivations of front line soldiers that are only pawns in the war, or when a leader needs to weigh their personal ideology against the greater good. The show often calls into question and really evaluates what the greater good should even entail. While Egao no Daika definitely doesn't have the philosophical clout that some other more well-known shows have, what it brings to the table isn't just ideological mumbo-jumbo that some people unfortunately misunderstood it as.
Overall, Egao no Daika is a character driven show that explores intricacies of the human condition using the setting of futuristic war. Futuristic war entails mechs and mecha fights, but you definitely don't need to be a hardcore mecha fan to enjoy the show. I think that at its core, Egao the Daika still tells a character driven narrative that touches over some philosophical questions. If you at all enjoy shows that have very human dialogue and characters or thought-provoking thematic elements, Egao no Daika should be right up your alley. The animation quality and some of the action sequences are already enough to carry the show as is, but the direction of the narrative and the thematic elements posed by the show definitely place it several tiers above your average seasonal rando show. As an anime original production with no source material, Egao no Daika deserves to be recognized for that.
P.S. If you've played Xenoblade Chronicles X, Egao no Daika's setting, characters, and thematic elements are all strikingly similar. Xenoblade Chronicles X is by the far the most slept on Xenoblade Chronicles game that falls under the radar of most of the Xenoblade community. Xenoblade Chronicles X is also my favorite Xenoblade, nay, favorite game of all time. Seeing the parallels between Egao no Daika and Xenoblade Chronicles X (both in their thematic elements and how they're getting largely ignored by their respective communities) is what gave birth to this particular review. I continue to defend Xenoblade Chronicles X from the haters that misunderstand it and didn't even play it, and I'll continue to advocate for Egao no Daika as one of the most underrated shows of the Winter 2019 anime season. Anything is possible with passion and will!
Stark700
To me, science fiction and is a genre that has been somewhat underappreciated in our generation. It feels like many shows are treated as ticking time bombs that starts off with promise but eventually degenerates into a dumpster fire. Egao no Daika (The Price of Smiles) is an anime project serving as a celebration of Tatsunoko Production’s 55th anniversary. To celebrate, I should say The Price of Smiles should try to stand out as a show of its own and not be a clone of other similar popular works. What do we really get? First impressions are important and with no doubt, war themes makes animpact. It also gives off a political war feel with the conflicting nations, ideal clashes, and world building. We meet Yuuki Soleil, the 12 year old princess of the Kingdom of Soleli. Having lost her parents at such a young age, the show puts her character into the shoes of a leader. Red flags show early on when I see Yuuki as a naïve child and incapable of leading her kingdom. It doesn’t take long to realize how oblivious she is to the state of war. This is a sharp contrast to Stella Shining, a fighter of the Imperial Army serving for the Grandiga Empire. As a war orphan, she exhibits quiet strength although is also known for her untimely smiles. The show chronicles both characters’ roles on opposite sides of the war.
But did this show really capitalize on its sci-fi war story? To an extent, it definitely does as we we’ll quickly realize the reality of war. Smiles are shattered when Yuuki sees bodies hit the floor. Death is a harsh reality and it’s a hard truth to bear. Episode 2 is an easy example when Yuuki realizes the death of a close friend. And she finds out in the most gruesome way possible. Make no mistake. If there’s an episode that features extended focus on a character other than Yuuki or Stella, you should expect a death flag raised and set sail. That is to say, I do appreciate the show making time to gives some characters a chance to tell their story such as Joshua, Pierce, and Layla. The more important focus however falls under the main characters especially Stella and Yuuki.
From the very first moment I laid my eyes on Stella, I knew there was something unusual about her presence. The easiest way to say it is that she smiles a lot. In fact, she smiles under different circumstances that even includes on the front lines of war. During one particular episode, she shows an unstable side of herself after expressing a disturbing smile upon completing a mission. While a smile is often represented as an expression of joy and happiness, Stella’s smile instills an ominous feeling. It doesn’t also help that she is willing to kill children including Yuuki for her nation. Still, I do feel some sympathy for Stella after seeing her background story. Despite being an orphan, a family took her in and gave her love until they had a child of their own. From then on, her own world collapsed even more to the point where she abandoned her adoptive family. By the time we meet her in the present, she is considered “broken” as even stated by some of her comrades. However, the background storytelling about Yuuki is far less interesting, so much so that I don’t even feel it’s worth mentioning.
As a war driven show, there’s different elements that also includes politics. The Royal Order and Empire of Grandiga both adapts policies to maintain their existence. Even if needed to be, military dictatorship is used to maintain order. However, on the frontlines, there’s heavy emotions, bloodshed, and death. Stella’s squad undertakes the more direct frontline approach with their military expertise. Prominent members includes Lily, Gale, Huey, Pierce, and Break. The show explores some character relationship dynamics, most noticeably between Lily and Stella. For Stella herself, she may also be capable of expressing genuine smiles. In other words, while she can be a cold blooded person on the battlefield, she is still human and capable of showing human emotions. On the other hand, the more I watched more of this show, I felt distanced from Yuuki.
I’ll be honest. Yuuki is by far the WORST part of the show.
She is not intelligent as a leader, naïve as a child, and incapable of being a realist in this war conflict. I cannot take Yuuki seriously at all with her overly dramatic screams and personality. To make matters worse, she often doesn’t learn anything and has to have her advisors do the work for her. Now given her age, some could argue that she is too young yet to be a leader. Well, I say otherwise. She could take the better initiative and even support for her people. Instead, she gives the impression of a useless fool that others have to carry. Unlike Stella, her actions never speaks louder than her words and exposes the weakness of her character nearly every episode. By the time this show concluded, she became my very least favorite character. That being said though, Stella herself isn’t a very well written character either as she undergoes little development. Price of Smile seems to be more of an anime about showing rather than telling. The war speaks for itself and we can see the consequences of both sides. It’s not complicated to understand the story and to be honest, I don’t find it very well executed.
Created and produced by Tatsunoko Production, I could say this show is cool enough to be a science fiction war story. The mecha designs are distinctive enough to make an impact felt on the battleground. Meanwhile, characters on both sides are designed with military and political creativeness in mind. As one of the better executed part of the show, I would say the world building stands out for being able to craft these fictional worlds with complex systems and even technology. One of the key selling concept of the show is the smiles. The Price of Smiles, as they call it, is the title and we do get plentiful of that in different ways. On the other hand, I hate to bring this up again but Yuuki is really hard to take seriously when she shows emotions. It’s the typical scream of horror or anxiety you can picture from any war show.
The Price of Smiles. I don’t know if I should be smiling after completing this anime. It’s not too easy to recommend considering the length of its storytelling and lack of character development of the main leads. In truth, my feelings of this anime doesn’t change much from the first episode to the finale. It’s a mediocre mecha/sci-fi/war/drama story that did a lot of showing while failing to deliver a cast to remember.
CrimsonWanderer
Is war really justified? Does human greed make up for the big mistakes humanity has done? Isn't there anything else we can do to avoid a major conflict? Many anime out there has touched the war topic trying to send a message to the viewer with its themes, Mobile Suit Gundam 00 comes to my mind as an example of what Egao no Daika might have been if things where handled better. And while Egao no Daika isn't bad, it still struggles with its theme that makes it look cheesy and minimized, yet, the message its still there. Egao no Daika revolves around 2 different sides:Yuki Soleil's kingdom (which name I already forgot lol) and there's Stella's team, one of many squads of the army of Grandiga. The plot is pretty straight forward as it revolves about the kingdom of Grandiga who wants to get their hands on the new Chrars tech (or whatever that kind of mech is called) for themselves... I think. The reasons behind this are pretty vague as it is just there as a plot device, it isn't explored that much and it's there just for the sake to create a "war"
Yuki Soleil is a 12 year old girl who is a Princess which pretty much ignores war. Its was a matter of time until things didn't go her way, witnessing the crude reality of war after shit happened due to how oblivious she was. You can't really blame her as every single adult on this anime tried really hard to hide this reality from her, fooling her into thinking that everything is laughs and smiles and making dumb decisions that leads to her suffering. Yuki side of the story is pretty cheesy and childish, specially her idealistic world where there is no war, which is kinda impossible as we all know how human kind is after all.
On the other side, we have Stella's Squad, which takes the spotlight of this anime imo, as it has the strongest emotions and the best episodes of this anime. Stella is a blue haired girl that will smile no matter what as she was told that smiling would lead her anywhere. Kinda hard to do as war is her job and there's only suffering coming from it.
I really like that we have both sides of the stories on this "war", making you sympathize with each side in order to understand their point of view. It helps a lot on understanding what this anime tries to achieve and how the characters feels about it. That said, the message behind the story might be childish, yet, thing should be more this way.
Characters on this anime are far from perfect but they are good enough to carry this show, specially Stella's faction as it holds the best moments on this show, for example Stella's past which was really sad and most of her motivations to keep on living.
Animation is okay although it suffers a bit on latter episodes, but nothing that can make it unwatchable. It is good enough to tell a story visually. Ost on the other hand really caught me by surprise as it is really good and well placed among scenes that requires it.
Despite its looks, this anime is really entertaining and as long as you don't expect some stellar story telling you will have a good time with this anime. Definitely not as bad as it seems, still better than Domestic na Kanojo tho.
JiangHaoyi1979
Ok. the setting was in some distant planet where mankind somehow developed the tech to terra form it some planet and from there they develop the technology to survive and thrive . But along the way, war ravages the entire planet between the Kingdom of Soleil and the Imperial Army of Grandiga, frankly when I watch this there were a couple of things that comes to my mind. First Star Wars, where we see Yuki being this Princess Leia and Joshua her Luke Sykwalker who suddenly has a death flag, 2nd Black Panter, the planet sit in a gold mine of a certainpower source called "Chrarslapis" that the civilization relies upon as if it which has some similarities with Black Panter's home called "Wakanda" where it relies upon the element "vibranium" for their technology and Dunkirk where the plot were divide between two main character Yuki Soleile of the Kingdom of Soleile and Stella Shinning of the Imperial Army of Grandiga, everything else, there is also that usual mech battles that we see in every anime that has such genre. So basically this is just one houch pouch of various plots from different western movies and TV series. Everything around this was focus on one character who whom somehow has the talent for strategies and planning but lacks the resolve and a pacifist who happens to be a rock in a hard place and Yes that would be Yuki herself were we the audience finds her irritating cu'z basically she's a kid who does a gown ups job , while Stella was this smiling girl who hides his emotion behind the smile , but the thing about her was that she is one character whom we the audience wanna see have a death flag, but in the end we never get it cu'z in the end she gets to agree with the wimpy princess about her plants to disable the chrars and put an end to the war . But you know just seeing Yuki being a defeatist was just an annoyance as if she one character that even them Japs would wanna hate for having such attitude, Stella on the other hand was someone whom we'd wish should have been fighting for the good guys and how she ends up being adopted by Grandiga parent when during the explosion she was held by her mom Layla was a big plot hole since it adds to the complication that she was not related to Layla , but then studio Tatsunoko Production has to do a flip flop making her Layla's long lost daughter in the very last episode when Layla saves her from falling debris......Now , since this is an original anime, it's very obvious that studio Tatsunoko Production and Episode Directors Suzuki, Toshimasa and Awai, Shigeki have to make things up, since they have no manga source to back up such production, so their only recourse was to make something that was set in war where the rock in a hard place of peace is just too annoying so how do I see this junk:
Story- Poor 3: Frankly dumping everything on Yuki and Stella was just a result of poor planning. also all the death flags were on the Soliel side and not much on the Grandiga side.
Art-Decent 4: No Fanservice .
Sound- Fair 6: No Comment here.
Character Pathetic 1: Cu's seeing Yuki being this rock in a hard place of a pacifist was just too annoying , it basically tells us audience that she the reason why you don't let a kid do a man's job.
Enjoyment- fair 6: Despite of it , knowing how things will end was still worth it....jaz a bit.
Overall- Poor 3: When you get to the ending , you see how everything was rushed to the point of asking yourself "Jaz Like that?!" and you might wanna go to Japan and look for the crew who did this lousy anime to punch them in their faces.
ggultra2764
The Price of Smiles focuses on two young women living on a distant planet with both their kingdoms at war. The first, Yuki, is the princess of the kingdom of Soleil and national symbol following the loss of her parents, who has an idealistic belief in wanting the best for everyone while oblivious to the true reality of war. The second, Stella Shining, is a soldier within the Grandiga Army attempting to find purpose in her life after having been raised as an orphan and has difficulty expressing her true emotions to others due to her rough upbringing. To start things, I'll just say first impressionswith this series can be a bit misassuming. The first episode has you believe this may be a light-hearted mecha series with the typical story setup it establishes with Yuki's character and I've read that this has led some folks to not watch the series beyond this point as a result. The Price of Smiles isn't afraid to explore how harsh the realities of war can be. While the series explores how both kingdoms have justification to fight in their war, it shows both sides committing morally questionable acts to accomplish their goals and the series isn't afraid to kill off major characters to emphasize this. It also shows that having the more capable mecha within the series can mean squat as Grandiga's greater numbers for their armies are occasionally shown to overwhelm Soleil in spite of their superior technology. Plus, idealism isn't always a good thing to have in a brutal conflict such as war, which Yuki is painfully shown to realize throughout this anime's 12-episode run.
As far as the storytelling for the series goes, it has its ups and downs. Yuki and Stella serve as the focus characters for each side of the war to explore how their kingdoms are faring. The series does a solid job showing off the justifications both sides have in their conflict and that the characters focused on in both factions are not irredeemable. Stella's character focus was largely solid in exploring her rough upbringing and shown to undergo gradual development as she comes to develop bonds with her brigade members and finds purpose for herself. Yuki's character focus is more weaker as the series chooses to still have her stick to her idealist beliefs throughout the series in spite of the hardships of war she is confronted with and makes her feel quite out of place in the story that Price of Smiles is going for. The ending for the series also felt both a bit rushed and rather anti-climactic in how it addresses both a certain element of Stella's past and how the war gets ultimately resolved in spite of hints to this direction being alluded to. In addition, the series can get fairly heavy-handed in how it expresses its themes at points and this could potentially turn off viewers who hate this approach to storytelling.
In short, Price of Smiles offers a mostly solid, though somewhat flawed, series that takes some creative risks with bucking a number of the typical cliches of a mecha war series in exploring the realities of war and exploring how the focus characters withing both kingdoms cope with these realities. Personally, I felt Stella's developments with the series were better handled than Yuki's and I do realize this series is likely to not be everyone's cup of tea with the rather mediocre first episode and the heavy-handed approach to handling its themes. Still, I'd at least recommend sampling the first few episodes of the series to see if it's something you may have interest in watching the entirety of.
Papa_Pastry
Egao no Daika (The Price of Smiles) has to be one of my favorite anime of the winter 2019 season, not because it is a fantastic work with stunning visuals, a detail by detail plot and story, or flawless character creation and world building, but just because it's enjoyable, accurate to the subject, and there are clear developments that dont feel rushed along, as well, the name, The Price of Smiles, fits fantastically as the theme of the show. The story told is about war, and it keeps the theme well, it doesn't sugar coat death, reason, or emotion, war is war and i felt thatThe Price of Smiles did a good job at telling it as such, people die, friends die, family will die, none of it gets skipped over, it shows that even the strongest people on the outside are harboring the same or greater pain than those around them who are wearing their hearts on their sleeves, our examples being the two main protagonists Stella and Princess Yuuki, respectively. The story progresses well and it shows war as it is, it's a horrible thing to witness and especially being thrust into it out of not even knowing there was a war, it will shake a person, that person being Princess Yuuki.
Overall i never noticed the art making any significant dips in quality, it was well animated and the backgrounds were also done well, it wasn't anything fantastically stunning save for a few moments to give a greater impact to the scene or action, an example being the Last Episode with the literal world spanning rainbow, there were nice touches throughout but nothing too worth note and very few small quality dips. I will say that the CGI and movement of the Mechs didn't look out of place or take away from the show at all and i was happy to see that.
The sound design and music also catch no complaints but also no rewards from me, the effects weren't overdone (I'm looking at you, Fate/Apocrypha), but they provided what was needed, the BGM flowed nicely with the scenes it was placed in and the Voice acting was good, but again, nothing fantastic or particularly negative either, there were a few scenes where you could feel the emotion put through by the VA's which added well to the scenes or the story being told during the episode, the OP and ED were fairly good as well although i will admit i enjoyed the OP much more than the ED.
Where i did find most of my love for this show was in the characters, the supporting cast was written well in my eyes, with most having a back story, their own goals and lives they want to live, and motivations, only a few felt like they were fluff characters though they did help progress the story and other characters growth and motivations (Huey, although i dont like him at all, did this job well). Through our 2 Main Protagonists of Stella and Princess Yuuki we get to see two almost polar opposite people, Yuuki, who wears her heart on her sleeve, and Stella, who faces everything with a Smile, no matter what she feels inside, through multiple character interactions and plot progressions, Yuuki develops into someone who is actually fit to lead her country, make the hard decisions, and learn just how much it costs to be able to afford Peace and Happiness, which is where the name of the show fits in perfectly as the theme, it takes Death, War, and atrocity to reach Peace, even if it is all hidden behind a curtain, it still happens, even if it's being shunned when it gets brought to light, there is more behind the scenes than anyone truely knows besides the ones that are on the ground doing what needs to be done, Stella being our experience of that, she acts near autonomously, always with the same fake smile, she doesn't act on emotions even though she does feel them, she keeps them down deep and bottles in anything she feels so she can act as a soldier.
Princess Yuuki, as much as i detest how she started as a character, develops very well, she learns, Although not quickly enough, that the perfect peace that she desires wont be achieved unless she learns how to make the hard decisions, "Even if it means everyone hates me," she keeps her motivation until the end, she wants as little people to need to die as possible, on both sides, she hates death, she's experienced far too much loss in her own life and does not want anyone else to have to experience it through violent means, this does get in the way of her making rational decisions when it comes time for her to lead, she acted on emotion too often which ended up with more lives lost than needed to be, however as time progresses she does learn The Price of Smiles and makes much better, more rational decisions to achieve her goal of ending the war as quickly as possible and with as few deaths as possible on both sides.
Stella Shining, was the perfect opposite to princess Yuuki, on the outside atleast, her character for the most part was developed when we meet her, she's The Smiling Soldier, anything that comes up she will face with a smile, even if it is fake and she's in agony mentally, however through the course of the anime she softens and takes down some of her own emotional walls, Stella, who tends to not act on emotion and thinks logically and weighs the consequences of her choices and her emotions, begins to act more on what she thinks is right and what should be done on the ground, instead of what her superiors are telling her to do, during the last few episodes this change takes place rapidly, delving into her backstory and her motivations and reasons to always be smiling, and during the last episode her shell finally cracks, the fake smile is replaced with a genuine feeling of happiness and the feeling that she's done what was right, even if it meant consequences to herself.
The Price of Smiles was a very enjoyable anime for me, one of the most that i enjoyed this entire Winter 2019 season, it wasn't for the reason of it being a perfect animation, or the story having no holes, or even the characters being flawless and interacting perfectly, it was just well done, everything meshed together well, the characters were placed where they belonged and interacted well with each other, and the plot progressed smoothly, it felt realistic, but kept its touch of fantasy.
All being said, in general the show was nothing to put on a pedestal, it was just very enjoyable and well produced and directed.
8/10, would hate Yuuki's decisions again.
Wastee
Up front Egao no Daika is nothing special. If you look at the raw of it, it's fairly entertaining but nothing special. The reason I love this anime though is the message behind it, the problems with war - how war is sometimes necessary but other times useless. This overall message presented throughout the show is really striking to me and is a topic that should be discussed more especially the realness it portrays with killing off some key characters. The name of this show translated truly reflects all of this...The Price of Smiles. I do wish it would not have been as rushed and we couldhave seen more action as for a mech I really enjoyed the battle scenes.
Jambatti
This is a great anime about mechas & war in general. One of the best actually. The creators of this show for some reason tried to market it as a some kind of Macross-like drama, while it is anything but. For the same reason the low overall score - mecha fans can't find this anime(or dismiss it as being different genre), and teary shoujo-drama fans are dissapointed that this show doesn't have (or barely have) what they were looking for. The story overall is interesting but it is not what makes this anime so great. It is the mecha fights & war story. The mecha fighting inthis anime is great for those reasons:
1) There is actual tactics being used & characters have to utilize their mecha functionality to win. No "love/friendship/loss" power spikes, no self-aware mechs, none of that. If you are outplayed, you die (or eject if lucky). No ammo = you die. Bad luck = you die. You break the line even for good reason - you, and possibly your squad die too.
2) There is no MC bias or something like that. Characters around main heroines die left and right, just as in real war. This makes this anime WAYYY more mature drama, than those teary ones where MC "saves the day & all his friends with the power of friendship". Here, no such powers. Only your mech and your piloting skills for everyone.
3) The sides are mostly evenly matched in the war, so we see losses & wins on both sides. Unlike for example Aldnoah: Zero , where MC's team almost always wins with no losses.It is interesting to see the war unfold.
Also, the characters are surprisingly mature & act rationally. There are some comedic reliefs - but even they are felt like a cracked dark joke by somebody who are due to charge enemy lines in 1 minute and have 99% chance of dying in that attack.
Do not want to spoil anything, but the ending is thought-provoking and while feels somewhat rushed leaves a very good overall memory.
Overall 10/10 - If you like mecha & also dislike the "power of friendship" and "MC always wins" tropes, this anime is a must watch.
FinalReality56
Egao no Daika is pretty falsely advertised, and I mean that in a good way. From the key visual, the first episode, and the OP, I'd thought that this would be a series with a hopeful, albeit somber tone, telling the story of two girls from opposing nations learning to put aside their differences to end a war with the power of friendship and all that goodness. What ensues is instead is a show with a consistently bleak and dismal outlook on war and it's consequences. There are no grand heroic actions, no hero in a super prototype to swoop in and mow down hordes ofenemies in the name of plot convenience. This is a show about two girls on opposite sides of a war, going through their own separate journeys.
Egao no Daika (which I'll refer to as EnD from here on) is a show that somehow completely went under my radar when it aired in the Winter 2019 season. I try to keep an eye on every mecha anime that comes out, as it's such a rare genre to see nowadays, aside from your occasional new Gundam installment. EnD was the only new Mecha of it's season, yet somehow I completely missed it, and ended up picking it up out of curiosity during that weeklong break between the Spring and Summer 2019 seasons.
Now not only is there a lack of mecha anime coming out nowadays, most of it simply isn't all that great. I recently watched a few shows from this past decade, including Knights & Magic, Eureka Seven AO, Heavy Object, and Macross Delta, and the majority of them didn't give me any real reaction other than "yeah this might be kinda cool in Super Robot Wars." The first episode of EnD led me to believe that this would be another one of such animes.
I was wrong.
Our two main characters are Yuki and Stella, the former of which is the young princess of a kingdom, and the latter a regular soldier in the opposing empire. In the first episode we're introduced to Yuki, who is young, naive, and hopeful. As the series progresses, she becomes more hardened as she comes to grips with the reality of war. On the other side we have Stella, a soldier traumatized by her past, who unsettlingly wears a smile almost all the time.
Both characters aren’t exactly the most original archetypes, but the show does a good job of making the viewer empathize with them, and understand their hardships. It’s genuinely heartbreaking and disturbing to watch as Yuki’s hopeful outlooks on the conflict are shattered throughout the first few episodes. Stella’s outlook is reminiscent of Chirico’s in the first few episodes of VOTOMS. The two have stories mostly separate from one another, allowing for the viewer to witness two completely different and disconnected viewpoints of the same series of events. I will say however, that I found the episodes focusing on Stella much more compelling and interesting than the episodes focused on Yuki. There’s a large ensemble of side characters, but not many of them stand out too much. Gail and Lily were the most memorable side characters for Stella’s episodes, while Layla was the most interesting by far in Yuki’s.
Now let’s talk about the robots themselves. The mechs in this series are referred to as Theurgears, and they’re treated as just tools of war. Similar to VOTOMS or Gundam The 08th MS Team, the mechs are treated as just another weapon to be utilized on the battlefield. They’re uniform, mass produced, and basically used as a replacement for infantry on foot in large scale battles. EnD has often been compared to Code Geass due to it’s focus on political machinations, but you won’t see any of the overblown bombastic speeches or over the top ace custom machines that Geass is so well known for here. The CGI for the machines is decent, it’s not anything standout but it’s not terrible either.
All in all, EnD is a show I unexpectedly came to enjoy. Maybe having my expectations caused me to like it more than it deserves. To be honest, it’s not anything standout or new to the genre, but because of my own personal enjoyment of it, I’ve given it a higher rating. It probably could’ve helped for this show to have had a bit of a longer run, to give more screentime to the combat, and more characterization for the assorted side characters. While its no classic, I definitely enjoyed this much more than the majority of other mecha from this past decade that I’ve watched (the only exceptions being a few of Sunrise’s productions, Full Metal Panic IV, Suisei no Gargantia, and Rinne no Lagrange). This was one of the few animes I’ve watched recently to truly satisfy me with it’s ending, and leave me content to take a break from watching stuff for a while, rather than immediately picking up the next show.
jimfaindel
In the end, The cost of smiles left me wanting to see more. It almost feels like there is an entire half missing to this story, yet the ride to the end was one I quite enjoyed. I am not sure whether that story depicts more detailed mech battles and actually engages on the strategies the princess showed she could come up with at the start of the show, or maybe a more in-depth look at the psychology and morals of both cultures, their history and struggles, but if anything I have to commend the team behind this anime for managing to keep the story engagingdespite lacking these building blocks of most mecha and war stories.
I could see this series being many people's gateway into gundam and macross, or even stuff like patlabor and galactic heroes.
aberuwu
Egao no Daika might appear as another generic Mecha anime, and it very well might be; however, there is something charming about it. While the mecha fights aren't anything spectacular, and the story isn't anything ground breaking, I still found great enjoyment from seeing how the story unfolds from the perspective of princess Yuki from the Kingdom of Soleil and Stella Shining from the Imperial Army of Grandiga. Both of these characters are of equal importance in this anime so the screen time is split between them allowing you to see how the war between both factions is impacting both sides. I found bothprotagonists to be interesting and likable, most side characters are also pretty interesting and likable as well.
Visually speaking there really isn't anything special, although not a bad looking anime it really isn't the best either. The mecha fighting sequences are also normal, however not very memorable. Pretty basic stuff I would say.
As for sound design the opening theme for this anime is spectacular, I would be lying if I said that part of the fact that I also enjoyed this anime is because of it's opening.
Overall I would say that this anime is pretty good, if you're not into mecha anime you probably won't like this; but if you're like me and you're able to forgive it's short comings it's a really nice anime to watch on the side.
DllMkrx
Generic Shounen-ish feels this time, embodied in female mc in a fantasy-sci-fi and military genre. Contains cliche moments where triggers are not pulled at crucial moments. Heck the only reason I finished till the end is cuz it's one of the very few sci-fi genre not focused much on mecha ace 1v1/showcase fights and has giant battleships that uses artillery weapons (fire sounds) instead of plasma/lasers. For story setting, it did well on portraying each sides (kinda the feels of there's no necessarily good or bad sides in war just bunch of jerks and terrible decisions Overall some may find it to their liking butto those who hates too much "let's pick flowers and sing kumbaya together" ideals, you might find yourself wanting to punch the characters on the screen. You will either find it not bad if you're still into typical fantasy/shounen-ish genre like Is it wrong to pick up girls in a Dungeon (sorry, was not able to find similar feels with female mc), or very terrible (reads as annoying) if your taste is contemporary fantasy like Kumo desu ga and Kuma Kuma (29-5-22)
dchang0
I watched it through to the end, which says a lot, but I have a few big complaints. The characters were extermely stereotypical/trope-y, and the overall moral of the story is utterly cliched. This is basically an eco-hardliner's propaganda piece dressed up as a beautiful story, similar to several of Miyazaki's films that have an anti-technology, anti-war, eco-friendly, romanticized "let's all live the simple life" utopia as if humans didn't fight devastating large-scale wars in pre-technology times. Still, the fact that I made it through to the end without dropping it is an endorsement, so I recommend this series overall. I just don't like the overall message.
Steaklassie
Spoiler free review Look I gave it a fair shoot from reading some other reviews how ever the ideals of the character are challenged a few times through out the anime however she was not pushed to a major breaking point. This lack of a breaking point made the protagonist feel lacking in any growth which had been occurring but very slightly. Then the ending felt convenient for the anime.The ending makes sense in the way the story is setup but this still felt boring say compared to the ending of code geass. Where I feel if the protagonist had this breaking point before the ending hadoccurred it would of made the story a lot better in my opinion.
sam19967
The Price is a bit of a Mess that lost all Potential Let's start with the good. The mecha combat scenes are (in 3D CG yes) really well done and they are quite nice scenes to watch as in they are well presented. This is for all the mecha combat scenes in the show making these scenes quite consistent (unlike the plot) throughout the show. While not all the characters are that good there are a few characters that are quite likeable making their story and struggle more relatable compared to other characters. While I don’t really like the plot the world background is quite goodas it depicts, the struggle for the general population to survive and the human cost of war is shown really strongly. While that is essence is only backdrop it feeds into the story and the characters in different ways.
Right the bad stuff now. The world setting is slightly confusing as it was a little unclear who side people where on (a bit of surprise for the last few episodes) meaning while you might be routing for a side take a closer look just to make sure who's side they are on. Further to that the whole main plot is confusing as it jumps around quite a bit without explaining anything with too many turns and twists (example in spoiler section) to create any consistency (which can work is shows like ‘The Idolmaster’ but not this). Overall it makes the show a bit difficult to follow and loses its audience. The problem is due to the inconsistency it draws all the attention to it and it becomes the main focus instead rather than the show itself. On top of that as events are spread out far from each other with long dialog section (where the show gets philosophical but not very well (compared to the world building) it’s a bit boring.
In Summary then, while ‘The Price of Smiles’ is deeply inconsistent, very difficult to follow, very surprising (in a bad way) and a little boring, it does have some good points with a okay story, good world building and a nice main focus character. But the best bit it manages to make what would have been a bad show into a fairly okay show by having really good parts that are really good and shows potential but the bad parts that spoil the whole show. I would recommend it if you just wanted something to watch not follow. ‘It’s not bad, but it’s not good either’.
GoodEscherichia
I started watching because the first episode is interesting, but then after few episodes it become flat and bit annoying towards the end because I waited one week for it and the storyline is about the same as before. The only thing I love about this anime is the opening song! Nevertheless, it was okay. I don't think I wasted my time watching it, but I did wasted my emotion for waiting for better episode every week. I would recommend it if you're bored and wanting to kill time, as you can just fast forward when you binge watch. But, if you want to watchan awesome robot battle, this is not for you.
Jael12
Bueno que podre decir la historia pintaba bien al principio pensé que la historia trataría de mostrar algo mas a lo code geas pero esta no fue así después de su capitulo 3 esta tuvo una gran decaída a lo que estaba enfocada dando muchas muertes innecesarias a la historia y el desarrollo de los personajes era muy tedioso y pensar que estas dos protagonistas tendrían un deseo tan codicioso y no mostrar después la verdadera cara de la moneda de lo que es la GUERRA y para terminar el final fue muy *INFANTIL* y así no debió terminar este anime que prometía masde lo que muchos tal vez esperaban.
Altroam
Where to start. I suppose I have to start with just the basic premise of the show and then I can jump to the finer points outlined in the rating section. The basic premise as far as I could tell in the episodes I actually watched, and the little I overheard as I did more important things around the house, is about a planet that was long ago colonized by humans after leaving earth hundreds (An assumption of how long it was) of years ago. From the map in the Anime in the second episode, it can be assumed that this is taking place onthe same planet as well as the fact that the mecha they use cannot take off from the planet and no other method of travel to space was seen. From what little I could gather two nations that somehow popped up as separate entities are fighting it out for food I suppose. It alluded to a lack of food overall. Their fight and the show itself is surrounded by poor actions on both sides that show the horror of war.
The Story: Rated 1 of 10
The story itself is a colossal joke. Its portrayal of the horror of war is a travesty, I would know I am a soldier in the military and even I find the "shock and horror" of each episode to cliche and overbearing. Aside from that, I couldn't understand anything about the story as being something that actually makes sense. Supposedly they landed on this planet as a colony ship, alright I can get that, what I fail to understand is why the hell there are two nations? The basic premise of a colony ship is to land and create ONE unilaterally controlled colony, they don't even take any time to address why two nations exist. Even if they had, why arent there four or more notions around why do we only see the two? The next problem I saw was the basic drive the Empire had to attack, food. Mind you it is a necessity to live and easily a thing to war over, but holy shit, how is it they didn't just come to a trade agreement, the princess in the first episode was about to hand them a massive amount of food for free to show goodwill! Another thing I couldn't understand, why is the Princess and the Soldier from the empire so forgiving? She literally saw her childhood friend, someone I got the feeling she loved deeply, dead in his hospital bed. She is young! and Naive, she should have flown off the handle and ordered the complete destruction of the Empire in every form, and never would have backed down from the order.
More than that is my general confusion at the lack of any information that we can't just assume. They leave any semblance of world-building in the garbage and blatantly laugh in the faces of any watching. I literally made this account today to leave this review. It fails to go into any detail the cause for the war sans the basic assumption of food, which was touched on as being something that was getting harder and harder to grow. They don't give any time to explain anything at all using the generic action sequence in the first episode and shocking the audience with death to keep us confused but invested so as to see what happens later. The use a common trope in writing to keep us from getting the answer right away by jumping to a different point of view (The Empires side) and use a hook from that side to once again keep us generally interested, this is a system they use back and forth until the ending. It's a poor way to keep people involved in each episode and keep them watching and as a story element is degrading to the story overall, not that there is much good to the story as it is.
The Art: Rated 8 of 10
I'll admit the art is fairly well done, as with most anime now you don't find poor artistic design or color schemes. I will however say I have seen anime with better art overall and aside from this small notation, I don't really have much more to say.
The Sound: Rated 7 of 10
I would repaste my section for art but I do have more to say on this. This loses a point as certain aspects of the sound are used to assist the viewer in seeing the shock of war and it uses too much screaming and yelling to do so, I understand intensity in the scene is important but there is a moment where you lose the viewers interest by over saturating the episode with that kind of general sound usage.
The Characters: Rated 3 of 10
The characters are horrific. The Princess herself is bubbly at first and while it's mildly adorable at first it gets grating and annoying to deal with as the series goes on. She seems to get over the death of a loved one far too quickly into the war, and seemingly just outright understands the soldier on the other side's point of view too easily. She decides that the war can be forgiven as though that is supposed to excuse the decisions the other side made in start8ing the conflict, to begin with. It actually made me even more confused as to how she can jump from emotion to emotion so easily, it's an emotional rollercoaster that gives me a headache and gave me one in the series.
The soldiers blew me away as she was far to happen in combat. Don't misunderstand, soldiers go into combat zones and joke around and have a good time, but in the thick of combat it's serious and effective, after your back at base jokes and good times all around but you don't smile creepily during and engagement, one of the other characters even commented on this in the second episode and I agreed with the man, it's weird to see. Soldiers can have fun, but not in situations that demand you keep series and be attentive. She had just taken a town and now they stand around and she smiles all relaxed, lady there could be a combat team that held out right around the corner ready to pop your head off, can you keep your eyes peeled?
The Dead Guard (Princess Love interest?) lost all my respect. The man seemed to be single-minded on his parent's wishes, and only around the show some token effort on the part of the writers to give a history on the princess side that is supposed to make us support them. It actually confused me why he was even named in the first place as he could have been any of the throwaway soldiers on the battlefield itself and no one really would have noticed.
Enjoyment: Rated 4 of 10
When I get down to it I found so many better anime to watch and I let it all go in order to watch said anime, but while I definitely wouldn't recommend this anime it wasn't horrible in every sense, the greater art, and fairly good sound can keep you compelled if you are looking for good action sequences. so I enjoyed those portions, Every moment storytelling came along I lost interest overall. It only rated so high due to these factors.
Overall: Rated 5 of 10
It's not god awful, but it isn't anything to write home about, at the end of the day as an action show to see cool shiny explosions and mecha's battling it out, it was pretty good, but it isn't anything that should compel someone that wants a story. I've lost interest in this review so I'll cut it here and say this. Watch it yourself to see what I mean, Take everything I say with a grain of salt as everyone has their own preference, and never at least try an anime once, I learned where my preference lies from that last rule alone.
