A decade ago, a tragic shipwreck separated Fena Houtman from her childhood friend Yukimaru and took her father's life. Now, at age 23, she is trapped on an island and is doomed to spend the rest of her life selling herself to men. On the night she is to be forcibly wed to a client, Fena hatches a plan to escape from her employers, but two old acquaintances unexpectedly intervene and help her run away. The three make haste for the open sea and land upon Goblin Island—a mysterious place that a clan of fierce warriors call home. It is there that Fena learns that her father's ill-fated final journey at sea was in search of a place called "Eden," the location of something important that he had to protect. With nothing but a clear crystal as a clue, Fena is tasked with finding this place, as she is the only person who can do so. While still contemplating the search for what her father left behind, Fena reunites with Yukimaru, who encourages her to take up the quest. Now the captain of a seven-person crew, Fena must navigate the high seas in search of Eden. But as uncanny groups begin to target her, the perilous journey proves to be even more challenging than it previously seemed. [Written by MAL Rewrite]
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I had really high hopes for this anime. Based on the trailers and after watching the first few episodes, my initial scoring was a 9, maybe even a close 10. It's funny when you check the reviews that 90% of those which have only seen the first 6 episodes or less have given the series a very high score like me, while most of the people who finished also feel like Kaizoku Oujo being a huge letdown. The biggest reason I was so hyped for this anime is that it offered me the same nostalgic feelings I only felt when I was a little kid watchingcartoons almost two decades ago. Interesting and laid-back adventures with a funny and lovable cast, in a mostly episodic style season, where each episode begins a small adventure but it is also finished by the end (with of course a mandatory overarching story which progresses a little bit with each episode and culminates in an epic showdown at the season finale). Someone else in the reviews named this same feeling "old Disney series", and while not all of my memories are linked to Disney products, it's still an apt comparison. Well, the anime delivers fantastically on everything I just listed above - up until around episode 4-5. After that, it turns into a sort of melancholic soul-searching and poetic wannabe art piece which I wasn't really interested in. There were full episodes where the characters were doing nothing but talk to each other about their feelings! Seriously, during the last two episodes of the season I was so uninterested that I was checking stuff on my phone while listening to the endless inner monologues and dramatic voices of the show. This might be fine for a season 4 finale or something like that, but after like two separate adventures I still can't care deeply enough of the characters for the show to be able dramatize them deeply. At the same time I'm told this was supposed to be a 24 episode season instead of it being halved, so that might have given more depth to the characters for me to care about them. My other issue is the hurried mess of culture mesh they performed. On paper, mixing pirate adventures with ninja warriors and the legend of the Maid of Orleans sounds like a neat idea, right? Well, it had potential. Unfortunately it was very much wasted. Mostly the whole pirate storyline, which I was the most interested in. The way they combined these elements make it look like the story was written by a 8 year old who just piled on every cool stuff he knew about (ninjas and pirate yeeeaaah!). They do not clash or build on each other and no potential synergy is explored from the different genres. The visuals and the sound were quite well done, which still cannot save this series from being a disappointing, forgettable drop.
I was enjoying this anime quite a lot. It reminded me of Pirates of the Caribbean and other similar Disney movies. Adventurous show with upbeat cast and hint of darkness laying underneath the plot. Closer we got towards the end it was becoming more and more clear that this show will crumble under its own weight. Storylines had to be dropped and characters were abandoned. Promise of an arc with Shitan or some sort of development for Fena were not fulfilled. Instead Shitan and rest of the crew ended up with only surface level characterisation no more important than Abel's generic soldiers. Nobody couldeven be bothered to mention the banishment from the island ever again. I guess they were just allowed to go back in and those concequences for their actions were non-existant. So we got all this wonderful character potiential out of the way....what replaced it in the climax of the story ? What replaced it was a philosophycal question as to whenever humanity deserves to keep on living. Are the sins which we are committing too much for our continuous existance ? Does the weight of love balance the weight of hatred ? Were all of those deaths caused by Fena's crew in order to protect her justified ? And if so does that mean that deaths which Abel caused were justified as well ? He did all of that out of love as well after all. The answer to all of those questions is.....I don't know. Neither does the story. We never get any anwers on the morality of our heroes. So no answers nor any conclusion to the stories of our characters. What was all of this for then ? This finale had little to no build up. It came, asked the question, did not bother to answer and left as quickly as it came. The main problem of Kaizoku Oujo is its lenght. It is way too short. I know Crunchyroll putted a lot of time and money into this show and that they tried quite a lot. Maybe they should have putted even more time and money into it. This show should have drastically change its own structure or have 24 episodes. Near the end characters talked about their journey as if it was much longer than it actually was. All of this is so strange considerig they spent ONE ENTIRE EPISODE near the climax just silently walking and building up the final reveal instead of developing characters....like....dude..... You don't have 24 episodes. Hurry it up.
A promising pirate tale made laughable by contrived storytelling and convoluted fantasy elements. Fena: Pirate Princess is a somewhat misleading title. Fena is a princess, but not a pirate. There’s more emphasis on romance and drama than swashbuckling sword fights or buried treasure. Imagine if Princess Peach went on a globetrotting adventure—a damsel to constantly get kidnapped by one-dimensional villains and a MacGuffin to steer the plot. Except, Fena lacks the charm of your imagination. Her ditzy and energetic personality loses charm quickly; Especially because she’s intentionally annoying. A running gag is that she talks too much, which never becomes funny. The swaths of men whovie for her affection, or to simply spend a night with her, do so because she is irresistibly attractive (so we are told). She’s blond, blue-eyed, and very white—which characters repeatedly imply (and sometimes say outright) equals purity. Aside from being the perfect specimen of beauty, her personality is skin deep. She’s a blank slate ‘chosen one’ for the viewer to project onto. What she has been ‘chosen’ for is rather ambiguous. The so-called pirates, both good and evil, believe she possesses an intangible key. The key to a mysterious place called Eden. That name may make you wonder if Pirate Princess is a biblical metaphor. But the surprising direction the story goes will make you question if the writers have ever picked up a Bible. When Fena is held up by bandits, she prays for someone to save her, and a man shows up and saves her. Again, she begs to be saved, and she is. She isn’t capable of taking care of herself. Luckily, she is shrouded in plot armor. All she has to do is be a damsel in distress. Her only other usage is leading the way to Eden with magical contrived abilities. When her escorts are lost, she switches to an alter ego and knows exactly what to do. Dream sequences and flashbacks hint she has deeper motivations in suppressed memories, and the build-up is consistently intriguing. On the other hand, the pay-off to her character arc is a massive dud. Abel Bluefield is the anime’s central antagonist, who at the start, replaces the would-be villain that planned to marry Fena. He gave the suitor, a womanizer, an ultimatum, to capture Fena or die. Abel inevitably takes the reigns as the true villain accompanied by his disorganized pirate henchmen. The times they chase after Fena and co. are when the series takes itself less seriously, and it's earnestly a blast, but that does not last. The lead swashbuckler, a red-haired busty pirate, comes onto Abel, to remind you this isn't a kids' show. As the series progresses, Abel becomes increasingly fascistic and joins together with nameless European soldiers. Yukimaru is the love interest and childhood friend of our titular heroine. A skilled fighter with a subdued personality that makes up for her boisterous behavior. Their relationship consists of her blushing at the thought of romance and him being oblivious to anything related to love. What 20-year-old guy doesn’t know what sex is? It takes more than blushing and awkward pauses to convince an audience that two characters are in love. Those are just some of the many failed attempts at comedy; that usually get dispensed by a comic relief character. Either the jokes are incomprehensible, or there was no punchline because they never made me laugh once, well, intentionally. The melodramatic lectures from Yukimaru and Shitan were more effective at inducing laughter than being taken seriously. When Fena starts singing like a Disney princess and Yukimaru instantly knows the lyrics by heart, you have to wonder if the writers intended it to be taken seriously. Compared to Fena and Yukimaru, how do the rest of the characters fare? They’re one-note. Their reason for accompanying them on the journey to Eden is out of obligation. We know their names, but not their motivations or their personalities beyond surface-level traits. The times the anime attempts to develop chemistry between the good guys come off as awkward. They're more believable as a group of actors who hate each other pretending to be friends than a team. The animation, sound, music are perfunctory. It is a predictable soundtrack, with a few insert songs that leave no impression. At least it is never distracting. Action-packed fight sequences once an episode spice up the adventuring and endless comic relief. There’s enough violence and death to keep you interested in between the long stretches of waiting for things to happen. A typical polished series for studio Production I.G. (Psycho-Pass, Haikyuu, Ancient Magus Bride). Visually it is one of their less impressive efforts, though the art and animation are more consistent than 90% of seasonal anime. But it’s not enough to sell a fundamentally flawed anime, particularly when it climaxes in a wet fart of an ending. Fena—AKA White Marginal/Pasty Girl: Snow White and the Pirates follows a monotonous pattern; kidnapping, false stakes, awkward romance, and heartfelt speeches that fall flat. In the third act, it takes a sharp turn into nonsensical fantasy territory. God, the afterlife, spirits, and a forced attempt at metacommentary on fairy tales. By the time the show has already crashed and burned, the final twist is so alienating that it leaves you numb.
You know the "three episode rule"? This show was a clear 10/10 at that point. Hell, I didn't even need three episodes, just a single scene from episode 1 of our goofy princess's "escape plans" or even a single frame of her angry expression was enough to win me over. It would have been a great show it it was actually about that goofy princess, or about travel and adventures, or about pirates vs. ninjas, or solving a legendary mystery, or any of the things the start of the show leads you to believe it is about. Instead, all those things turn out to be irrelevant,obviated by an absurd nonsense ending. It's impossible to explain or justify my disappointment with it without spoiling it, so I will just stop here. I guess different people can handle that to different extents - just like willing suspension of disbelief for ignoring plot holes and weaknesses in other shows, perhaps some people can also ignore a bad ending and still enjoy the trip to get to it. Sadly, I can only do that for unimportant element, but not for the thing that the whole show builds up towards and should be centered around. Thus my verdict remains - don't bother watching it if you are not willing to forgive a massive disappointment eventually.
Spoiler Warning: We finally got a new pirate anime that isn't One Piece. No offense to that franchise though, it's still a masterpiece. After the success of anime originals, Fena: Pirate Princess delivered a decent story with incredible animation for a Crunchyroll original series. Along with the various similarities to other forms of media, this original can have its mishaps along the way, which were notable, but I didn't have a problem with it. Besides all the flaws this anime had, it also has its moments that were stunning to watch. With that, here are the pros and cons of Fena: Pirate Princess. The plot itself focusedon pirates in the show's beginning, but it soon adds other aspects that may be confusing to follow, such as samurai. However, it was able to mash those two together perfectly to create a colorful cast of characters that I enjoyed watching. The pacing for the anime was decent, as it was somewhat slow, but it evenly paced the first half of the series without any significant complications. However, towards the story's climax, it was rushed to reach the destined goal, which made sense since it's a one cour series, but it could've been better they didn't do a good job executing it. The only thing that I disliked was the ending. The fact that the ending explained how all the events of the anime and its choices weren't made by the protagonist herself wasn't the best move. And in the end, it pulled the same fate for Fena as they did for "Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song," but worse. The consistency between the events in the series was not the greatest, but the romance was fun to watch between Fena and the main male character. The story was simple in the beginning. A princess escapes marriage to go on an adventure with her crew to recover her memories. Typical cliche pirate stuff, but when the main antagonist appears, it expands to interpersonal family problems. As the pacing was problematic, it focused more on Fena's past, which was great. Despite that, the anime gave little time for actual world-building, which would've been better since it's a pirate anime, but character development among central cast members earned my respect. For the climax of the story, the buildup towards the reveal of Eden was well done, and I commend the anime for making it and the other locations look amazing. Even though the story took place in the real world, the other areas like Eden would somewhat be out of place in the real world, but I honestly liked its inclusion in the story. The ending itself was complex and hard to understand. In terms of the romance, it was an emotional and bittersweet note to end. While the loss of the main character's memories is slowly becoming overused in other anime, they're still able to get most fans emotional after getting too attached to the main protagonist. In terms of character development, I enjoyed it, but in terms of actual travel, I wish there were a few more seasons to show off other areas, however, it's understandable why the anime's like that in the first place. The characters were the best part of the series, in my opinion. Although I wished Fena could've been useful as a fighter, I liked her importance as a figure to the events before the ending. However, her expanding on her role was a double-edged sword, as it gave her decent character development, but it questioned how forced her choices were, and never got to think for herself. Her overall goal to recover her memories was shortsighted, as the ending made all of her efforts for nothing. On a positive note, the central male, Yukimaru was fun to watch. No matter how cool his name is, I liked his portrayal as a male tsundere, acts tough, but deep inside, he's is a nice guy. Although I wish Fena and Yukimaru's romance was expanded on more, I still enjoyed their moments together, both funny and romantic at the same time. The rest of Fena's crew had incredible diversity in their characters, and the voice acting among them was also fun to watch as it gave the characters their sense of personality. The main antagonist turned out to be a tragic character as his moments were harsh, but he eventually got what he wanted, which I'm glad did that route for the villain, which rarely happens in other anime nowadays. However, one character wasn't the best, as his role was meaningless. He only showed importance until the end and didn't leave an impact on the other characters, so it would've been better if he wasn't there. I loved how the character design in this anime has a Disney-like feel towards it on a positive side. The animation is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen made by Production I.G, the same studio that animates Haikyuu. During the fight scenes, the movements were smooth, and it shows blood rather than censoring it, which I'm glad they didn't censor the blood. The areas such as Eden were beautiful to watch almost in a realistic manner. Combined with the character design, the visuals made this anime incredibly beautiful, and I was amazed at how much detail they put into this series. Despite the rough story, the animation made up for it, and I'm glad that actual effort was put into it instead of rushing it. The music was nothing more than stunning, especially the opening and the ending. In terms of the music quality, the beginning song is sung by JUNNA. The same singer behind the opening song for The Ancient Magus Bride. She sounds incredible as she gave the opening song a sense of adventure for Fena's crew while maintaining a natural beauty to the instruments played for it. The ending itself has an incredible buildup to it. At first, it sounds bittersweet, but towards its climax, its tone changes for more hope for Fena, which they executed that aspect perfectly. On a separate note, the song Fena sang in the anime has great importance. I thought it was just a random song, but its significance to the story is my favorite part of anime that uses music as an aspect, and I loved it so much. Overall, the animation and music were my favorite parts of the entire original series. Overall, the story was good, but at the same time, it wasn't perfect. If the choices in the anime were made better, then Fena: Pirate Princess would've been as great as Odd Taxi and Vivy. However, the anime was able to make up for the story with great characters, beautiful animation, and an incredible soundtrack. Crunchyroll originals can be hit-or-miss, but I feel like this was their best one yet. It was funny because it accomplished its goals before One Piece, but it showed me there is hope for pirate anime just as good as Fena. Crunchyroll, you outdid yourselves with this anime. I'm glad you gave me another pirate anime to watch.
This was certainly one of the best anime with a romance and adventure theme that I've ever had the opportunity to watch! At first I didn't care for anything, but as the work progressed I became very attached and enchanted by the characters, the two protagonists are sensational and even the antagonist had her perfect ending! The art is beautiful, that whole universe was beautiful, the mix of stories, stories, it had everything! The soundtrack was certainly one of the best I've ever heard and was one of the main reasons for me to burst into tears in those last two episodes, the dubbing was incredibleand fascinating, I don't have any negative points to mention, only positive ones! If you haven't watched it yet or are afraid to watch it, you might as well fall in love!! 1000000/10.
TL;DR: The ending of this show is a really, really weird bit of writing. Kind of spoiled the whole thing for me. It starts well and I loved the dynamic between the crew members. The little bit of mystery to start with worked well and felt like it was building to a larger story. It's bizarre in retrospect how all the motivations that felt complex at the start end up feeling so simple and uninspired by the end. The story really starts to weaken with the more supernatural stuff that gets hinted at and then shown more and more. The main character loses all personality with their"chosen one" trope kicking in. By extension, the cast around them become more boring as well as they just sort of follow her around. I feel the ending has two major issues. The first is that the characters really just had no say in what was going on at all. They get forced into some contrived nonsense and just have to go along with it. The end. It felt really weird. They were made totally irrelevant and almost none of them were even present for what was supposed to be the big payoff. The second is that the insane decision they get forced into is just so out of place with the rest of the story and just doesn't really even seem to make sense. The main character is given two options, goes for the obvious one and then gets screwed over as a result. Any emotional investment went out the window as I wondered where the hell this jarring development had suddenly sprung from.
*SPOILER* I I I I I If you don't want to see any *SPOILERS!*, Skip this please! You have been warned: Imagine you see a group doing their adventure, you see them develope and encounter dangers and in the end it all doesn't matter because the protagonist gains the power to rewrite the course of history, bringing people back to life and defeating the meaning of the story. This anime had potential in the beginning but the last 2 episodes destroyed everything because the protagonist gains godly powers and is able to change everything. Sorry the Review needs to be longer, even though it needen't be because there isn't anything left to say, sohere are some random words: Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts. Separated they live in Bookmarksgrove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large language ocean. A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary regelialia. It is a paradisematic country, in which roasted parts of sentences fly into your mouth. Even the all-powerful Pointing has no control about the blind texts it is an almost unorthographic life One day however a small line of blind text by the name of Lorem Ipsum decided to leave for the far World of Grammar. The Big Oxmox advised her not to do so, because there were thousands of bad Commas, wild Question Marks and devious Semikoli, but the Little Blind Text didn’t listen. She packed her seven versalia, put her initial into the belt and made herself on the way. When she reached the first hills of the Italic Mountains, she had a last view back on the skyline of her hometown Bookmarksgrove, the headline of Alphabet Village and the subline of her own road, the Line Lane.
Dear lord, you have no idea how much I wanted to like this show. I really wanted to like this. I really did. More so than Demon Slayer, even. When Crunchyroll decided they wanted to try their hand at producing their own anime, a lot of people had mixed emotions, excitement and trepidation. Unfortunately, the latter wound up being more justified, as the majority of Crunchyroll's self-produced anime usually wound up being either mediocre (Tower of God and God of High School) or outright bad (Gibiate and Ex-Arm). The only one I was even remotely looking forward to was Fena: Pirate Princess, which promised tobe a rip-roaring adventure series in the vein of stuff like Future Boy Conan and Mysterious Cities of Gold. So you'd think after the disasters that were their previous shows, that Crunchyroll would finally step up and make something that would actually be genuinely good, right? Well...at first, Fena seemed like it would go that way, but...it crashed and burned at the end. Not nearly as bad as, say, Wonder Egg Priority, but seriously, Fena: Pirate Princess as a whole is a massive disappointment on every level. As a young girl, Fena Houtman was forced to watch as her family was slaughtered before her eyes. A friend of hers, Yukimaru, only managed to save her by sending her out to sea before her family's killers could pursue her. She winds up on an island called Shangri-La, and is forced to live in a brothel. The only thing she really remembers is her father's message: "Go to Eden." Years later, she's still there, and is considered at the age where she is expected to partake in sex work against her will. When an attempt to escape goes awry, a band of pirates manages to take her away from Shangri-La, Yukimaru being one of them. But her father's final message is still a mystery to her, and she and the pirates decide to try and find Eden in order to piece together Fena's lost memories and unlock the many secrets surrounding her life. I wanted to be much more generous, especially with my rating for it, but the more I watched it and got closer to the finale, the more I began to realize that Fena, as a show, has really stupid writing. For one, it always seems to jump from one plot point to another without really bothering to either flesh them out or follow up on it. Fena's older retainers are taken hostage? Don't pay attention to them, we've got to find out who commissioned Fena's crystal! We find out who made the crystal? Oh, pish posh! We've got to find the coordinates for El Dorado! Wait, what's El Dorado? Who gives a shit! We need to have Fena be kidnapped by a group of female pirates and their crazy boss! A character's been sent to go after our group because they went against their main mission? Nope, we don't give a shit! Yukimaru needs to save Fena! What's this thing you call character development? You need to care that these characters are going from place to place even though they're being given no time to show what they're like outside of trying to save the world! Do you see what the problem is here? With the show being only 12 episodes long, it's given literally no time to really flesh out all the ideas it has or even follow up on them. It's like ten different writers are being called to write the script, but they can't seem to decide which ideas they want to focus on, so they just throw them all into a blender without considering if the end result will even work or not. As a result, the characters only act based on what's convenient to advance the plot and make really bizarre leaps in logic. Add to that, the story is just full of underutilized ideas, Deus Ex Machinas, and inconsequential philosophical bullcrap that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. This is a pretty clear case of too many cooks spoiling the soup. As a result of this show's messy writing decisions, none of the characters are really all that interesting. The show tries to make us care for the band of pirates that Fena joins up with, but they're all so one-note and cliche that they feel more like props to move the story forward than three-dimensional people. We're never shown what their lives are like outside of the adventure they're on, save for a few short flashbacks that don't really do much of anything, and instead, the show makes the case that we, the audience, should care about them just because it says so, rather than, y'know, making the effort to make its own case for why we should. If you're going to make a rip-roaring adventure show, caring about the characters and their plight should be paramount, right?! Speaking of characters I can't bring myself to give a shit about, Yukimaru. Honestly, I never liked this guy. He always came off to me like an overly angsty emo edgelord who acts needlessly dickish towards Fena because the writers think it'll demean his masculinity if he doesn't. I honestly could not believe that this guy could ever have any friendly feelings towards Fena because of the way he treats her when he first appears. For one, he legitimately calls Fena a coward because she can't remember how to get to Eden, implying that she is somehow a bad person for her memories being blocked due to the trauma she experienced, even though there is absolutely nothing that says Fena did it out of malicious intent. The fuck?! Secondly, when Fena tries to learn how to use a weapon in order to help the pirates, Yukimaru shoots her down because he thinks she'll only cause trouble and says that she should just sit and do nothing. We're seriously supposed to like this guy?! Granted, the show seems to have realized how bad his first impression came across and tried to tone down his jackass behavior in the second half, thank God, but it still did nothing to really make me care about him as a person. Out of all the characters who never seemed to get any development at all, Tsubaki and the band of antagonistic female pirates are the more egregious examples, as we learn nothing about Tsubaki other than that he's often exasperated by everyone's antics, and...literally absolutely nothing about the female pirates. They just pursue the main group, kidnap Fena, with one lady being unnecessarily jealous of Fena for reasons that are literally out of her control, and getting killed when their ship gets hit with a cannon...and just randomly coming back to life in the final episode with literally no explanation for how they even survived. WHAT?! Hello, show?! You cannot have your characters go through a situation that is guaranteed to kill them, and then just randomly bring them back to life with zero explanation whatsoever!! Personally though, Fena herself, the main character, is yet another victim of the show's bad writing decisions. At first, it seemed like she was going to be a plucky girl who'd join up with the pirates and learn to be more self-sufficient, kind of like Yona from Yona of the Dawn, or Shirayuki from Snow White With the Red Hair. After all, who doesn't like watching a character grow from being weak and helpless to stronger and more proactive, even if she decides to learn fighting skills or more practical skills like medicine or strategy? But here's the thing: Fena is never allowed to do anything on her own throughout the entire show. All she ever does is get kidnapped or have the plot explained to her, and the show seems to go out of its way to make sure Fena herself is never allowed any agency or autonomy. That time she led the pirates into the cave where the coordinates to El Dorado/Eden were? Fena didn't find out on her own, it's because a magic voice told her where to go to find it! And Fena never actively seeks answers out on her own. It's either always in her repressed memories, or someone else just hands them to her, and she always gets dragged around by the other characters, so she's literally little more than a prop. To me, it just felt like Fena was just there to be a macguffin damsel in distress, which is really sad, because she actually does have a personality and a lot of potential as a character that goes completely unutilized! If the show wanted to, they didn't have to necessarily make her some action girl who kicks ass and takes names by killing people. She could have just as easily become their captain or maybe become a tactician and led the pirates through her own efforts. Instead, she's just pushed around and only made to act whenever the story calls for it, and...if you ask me, it kind of reeks of sexism here. And no, the dumbass revelation in the final two episodes absolutely does not justify this at all, no matter how much it tries to. In all honesty, the only good things Fena has going for it are the animation, done by Production IG, and to a lesser extent, the soundtrack. I say to a lesser extent because while I've always admired Yuki Kajiura's music, her work here doesn't sound as good as her previous stuff. It doesn't have a whole lot of oomph to it like her soundtracks for .Hack//Sign, Pandora Hearts, Madoka Magica, and Demon Slayer did, or even Sword Art Online, for that matter! Tl;dr, Fena is a show with a lot of potential that got squandered by trying to do way too much, and not enough with elements that could have worked had it actually gave a damn about them. Seriously, I could write a better version of this story! Fena is basically a knock-off of much better adventure shows, like Future Boy Conan, which was the first of its kind and laid the groundwork for the entire premise, and The Mysterious Cities of Gold, which is revered by all who saw it because of how much care and effort that was put into it, and is pretty much everything an adventure series should be. Fena tries to be like both shows, but completely lacking in the things that made the two I mentioned above so good, and there are reasons why those two anime are revered to this day. And yet, having said all that...out of all the shows Crunchyroll has made, I have to begrudgingly say that this is actually the best one they've made. Tower of God and God of High School are just compressed adaptations of longer Korean webtoons, Gibiate was just a complete mess of a show that suffered from a lot of the same problems Fena did, I haven't seen Tonikawa, Onyx Equinox, or Spider Isekai, and I don't think I need to mention what an absolute trainwreck Ex-Arm turned out to be. But all in all, Fena: Pirate Princess is just a cheap cash grab that tries to emulate previous adventure anime while failing to execute any of its ideas in any meaningful ways. I'm just glad to finally be done with this and move on to something else. I'm gonna wait for High Guardian Spice to come out and see how that fares now that it's finally going to be released.
Fena Pirate Princess is extremely mediocre. It has some positive attributes, such as its good animation and short watch time, but is dragged down by (mostly) awful characters and a (mostly) predictable story. Animation- 8 The animation of this show is very smooth. I enjoyed the vibrant colors and the backgrounds were beautiful. There isn’t too much to say other than it is very good. It doesn’t stand out as one of the best, but it is very respectable and helped make the show more fun to watch. Characters- 3.5 To me, the most important part of any show is the characters, and unfortunately, Fena: Pirate Princess fallsway short. First I want to talk about Abel, who was my favorite character by far. The show was at its best when he was on screen, and he was given a complete side story, which was pretty good overall. Sure his obsession was a little weird, but he was a serious character which alone makes him better than the rest of the cast. Unfortunately for Abel, he is the only good character in this show. Then we have the “pirate” crew. I can group Tsubaki, The twins, Karin, and Makaba together. This is because they all have 3 things in common. They are extremely generic (and fill very common tropes). They are all extremely OP and would never lose a fight vs any “normal” trained soldier (which is also generic). The last thing is that they are all (mostly) used for comic relief, which consists of them being very loud, crying a lot, and overreacting to every little thing (which is once again very generic). If you enjoy this type of humor, you will probably enjoy this show more than I did, because I did not like it all. Next we have Yukimaru and Shitan. Unlike the rest of the crew, I didn’t dislike these characters. I actually sorta liked Shitan and I would rank him as the 2nd best character of the show. He actually showed a little growth, had some backstory, and wasn’t used for comic relief. Then there’s Yukimaru who had potential but was really poorly written. Basically, the only thing he does is save Fena. Without him, Fena would be long dead so they had to add a character that would protect her constantly. He actually had some potential I think, but was just not a very enjoyable character. Finally, there is the main character, Fena. Fena is good at 2 things, putting herself in danger, and getting saved by others. The only reason she is alive is because of plot armor. If you can’t tell, I really didn’t enjoy Fena. She had a lot of potential but instead, she was arguably the worst character in the show. I didn’t even mention Grace O’Malley and her crew because they did very little for the story. I can’t even say anything about them, because we know nothing about them other than their crew is annoying and I’m glad they didn’t get more screen time. Story- 4.5 The story wasn’t bad, but it was (mostly) extremely predictable and allowed for (mostly) no consequences to be suffered. It forced the characters to act unnaturally to progress and felt very forced. That being said the twist was fine, the ending was alright and it could have been a lot worse. Overall the story felt fairly average. Also (minor spoilers), what happened to Kai (or whatever his name was). He doesn’t even have his name listed under characters, but the show set it up like he would have a big impact, and then never mentioned him again. That was odd… Music- 4.5 A lot like the story, the music was fine. I didn’t like the intro and outro and the music used during important scenes was mostly alright. Some were pretty good, some were pretty bad but overall it was very mediocre. Enjoyment- 5 I ended up watching it on 1.25x speed which definitely helped my enjoyment. It wasn’t very good, but it had some good moments, and Abel helped my enjoyment a lot. Overall- 5 This show was fine. Honestly, if the type of comic relief I mentioned above is something you enjoy, I’d recommend this show as you will probably enjoy it. Otherwise, I’d say it’s something I’d only watch if I was extremely bored or had a lot of free time, however, I would recommend watching on 1.25x speed.
The only thing that made me watch this was how the story was presented to me: "A young child is traveling with her crew on a ship but it sinks in a battle. Years pass and she's trapped in an island and to survive she has no other option but to be a prostitute. One day she's sold to a man and she decides to make a run for it and is aided by two of her old crewmembers! And so it begins her pirate adventures!" From this description, I assumed I'd get a pirate-themed story and a very serious, dark one because of all therape themes that's clearly stated in the first few lines. Is that what we got? Absolutely not! I feel all the potential this premise had went down the drain. Visuals: 1) not my cup of tea, particularly the noses 2) action scenes are beautifully animated 3) animation and dialog are sometimes out of sync Audio: 1) dislike the soundtrack 2) voice acting legends together with inexperienced seiyuus but everyone gave a solid performance 3) terrible casting choice for Otto. The legendary Hiroaki Hirata doesn't fit Otto at all Story and characters: 1) the premise required a more serious tone instead of trying to crack a joke every 5 seconds. Like, someone almost got raped half a second ago and no, it's not something to joke about 2) didn't find a single character to be captivating 3) terrible pacing 4) at first the story is about a victim of human trafficking escaping and become a pirate with her crew, then it shifts into this paranormal, fantasy kind of thing and then... no one knows what we're watching anymore 5) the ending feels very rushed and makes very little sense This gets a 4/10 from me. Total waste of premise and setting.
Struggled between a 5 and 6 for this, but overall was pretty disappointed. For some reason, I'd started this with the expectation it would have some similarities to Yona of the Dawn, either in characters, story or execution. And it did originally give off that vibe, then went elsewhere, which isn't bad in itself... just, if you're starting it for that reason, find something else. I can admit, the first couple of episodes were really good. I'd go as far as to say the first half of the show was good. I binged it easy, but then started to slow down cause I had startedit whilst it was still airing and didn't want to watch it episode by episode, so waited. Maybe it's just because I'm on an anime burnout? I don't know, my interest of it started to drop. But, the good things about this anime are the soundtrack for one. I LOVE the sound and some of the visuals are stunning. One scene in particular gave me goosebumps (either the last episode or the episode before) in terms of meaning and visuals. The characters are super fun but they're nothing new. I think this is genuinely down to me having watched enough anime to notice the typical character tropes. And the FL and ML are not any different from many other action/romance anime. They're still fun though, so that's something. I particularly like one of the twins (deffo a personal thing) and Yukimaru did have some interesting character development. Not to mention his ears turning red is adorable lol. Fena was your classic "nice but not too nice" character. Tbf, she had an interesting relationship with Yukimaru. Not wholly original but not exactly copy and paste. The art style was pretty basic, icl. Nothing special. The story felt a little all over the place and I ended up liking Helena and Abel so much more than Yukimaru and Fena, which should say a lot. I even cried over them. Fena's story felt... cold. It was boring, kinda confusing and just felt like it was made up by a child. I didn't enjoy it. Some parts of the story, I did, but overall? No. Now, if they made an anime about Helena and Abel completely, THAT would've been interesting. With Fena in the background of course, but I'd personally like to see a story like that (open to recommendations <3) from the "villain's" POV. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this to anyone and after writing this review, I've decided that I'm changing my rating between a 4 and a 5.
If you're looking for a disney princess story written by someone who doesn't actually spend any time with women, then this is the story for you. STORY: 4 Between the wacked out geography - how, exactly, does a ninja family shipwreck in Europe? - the weird history twisting that adds nothing whatsoever other than to remind us that Japanese content has a love affair with Joan of Arc, this series just feels like they threw tropes at a wall and caught the one that fell. ART: 9 Honestly, the art ranges from gorgeous to glorious and the character designs are a cool mesh of true historic costuming and steampunkwith a twist, which is exactly what the characters and setting call for. The settings are so varied and creative, yet fit both the time period and the history revision concept. They're incredibly detailed and well thought out, particularly the ships, it's hard not to love them on sight. CHARACTER; 5 Ugh. It's blatanatly obvious whoever wrote poor Fena's character hasn't spent a lot of time with women. She's only traumatized when it make the men look like heroes. She's completely incapable of doing anything worthwhile to the plot unless she's basically magically hypnotized, which is horrifying. She knows medicine and healing but that only comes up to make the men look tough because they "don't need it", rendering her even more useless. I can't even argue she's a Mary Sue, because she's so utterly boring she almost might as well been replaced by a talking dog. The Ninjas, at least, are a collection of quirky - if painfully tropey - characters. The twins are just Japanese Weasleys. Karen is your usual mad inventor token female. Yukimaru is the stoic love interest who blushes on his ears, because he has to show emotion somewhere, I guess. Sadly, the entire ship full of actually powerful, cool women are pretty well reduced to villainous idiots. Ugh. SOUND: 7 They clearly spent a bit too much on impressively loud canon blasts, solid OP and ED songs, and a good acting cast. A shame, when the score is composed of far too much basic piano music and cheesy one-liners.
At first, the show had a strong start and seemed like it was going to tell a compelling and interesting mystery, romance, and adventure story. The more the plot unfolded the more interesting it became, especially when antagonists were introduced. However, the end of the story felt rushed and wasn't explained well. There wasn't enough backstory or development on the characters to understand their motivations and connection to the main character, except for Yukimaru, and the last episode was essentially an explanation dump that left more questions than answers. Overall, the anime should have had better pacing, more character development, and a better idea ofwhat it was trying to get across when it came to the ending - let alone what it was trying to say as a story.
Talk about a tone shift towards the end. I know people hate the comparison, but all I could think about while watching this show is how I could have been watching season 2 of Yona of the Dawn, only to remember that there is no season 2. I went into this show hoping it could at least give me something similar to enjoy and it honestly had that at first until the story took a dramatic turn and devolved into “Fena does amazing things because ancestors, please stand in awe” the series. By the end of the show, I honestly couldn’t remember most of the ninjapirates’ names. Most of their personalities were one-note and every single one of them, with the initial exception of Shitan, were there to bask in Fena’s presence. And I swear, this show just straight up forgot they had a dog. Like others have said, this show really needed 24-episodes. Some of the best material was in those earlier episodes when the characters were sailing the seas and had adventures in various ports. The ending, as rushed as it was, was somewhat open-ended with room for a season 2. As much as I didn’t enjoy this show, a season 2 would absolutely help these puddle-deep characters.
For something that had a unique and interesting premise, this severely did not deliver. Fena was a princess...a witch...a prostitute...a maiden... a pirate...pretty much anything you can think of, she was. Not only was this confusing for the audience, it was confusing for Fena. In one episode, she explained that she had all these coined names given to her, but despite that, she didn't know who she really was. And dejectedly, the ending didn't answer that for us. As a protagonist, because she was unaware of her own purpose in the world, she often relied on others to get where she needed to go. Evenwhen she had moments of "clarity," if you will, when she no longer doubted her choices, it seemed as though it was not really Fena making the decision, but rather an entity possessing/guiding her, if you will. Which, was somewhat confirmed in the end. And despite the fact that Fena was clearly on a journey of self-discovery, we, as the audience, aren't shown any of her character development. We don't know her as a person at the beginning, and we don't know by the end. The side characters were alright. They served their purpose of moving the story along, but many ended up being poorly executed, such as Abel. He had much potential, but his storyline made him irrelevant by his end. The love interest - Yukimaru, I liked well enough, but I didn't love him. The plot started off exciting. I enjoyed the first couple of episodes and couldn't wait to see how things would unfold. Sadly, this suffered the fate of too many storylines and resulted in a convoluted and unresolved mess. The end didn't explain anything to me. If anything, it only brought on more questions. I think they were trying too hard to be different, to be emotional, and bring on this "shock value," but it failed. This was very disappointing. It had a lot to offer and delivered none of it.
Story: 4/10 I think the show was real good till the last ep. I was very curious to see the truth of Fena. The show started off feeling like a Disney type of Princess movie deal. We are in an alt world with pirates on wooden boats, however, the Goblin Knights utilize more mechanical equipment and have a submarine. I was fine with that aspect, not gonna lie. Then, we see Fena locating information about herself and the Navy and pirates going after her. Very formulaic. Then we see more mysteries involving her see through slab of rock, Joan of Arc comes into play, and somethingdealing with the Goblin Knights seeking a sword. Everything culminates to finding Eden, an island that Literally emerges from the sea which was pretty dope. Fena and crew investigate the island and find old architecture. Amidst the caves, is loads of treasure. Again, something very typical but nice. And the Navy is closing in on them. Then we see a most beautiful dance from Fena on a weird floor that turns into a stairway. We then have a duel between Yukimura and the Navy dude, Abel. We see his history as well as Helena, Fenas mother. Abel perishes in battle and Yukimura is left wounded and we come down to Fena. THEN THE LAST EPISODE FUCKING APPEARS. All this treasure hunting, and chasing around leads to this ep. To the point where Fena is supposedly one of the MAIDENS who must decide the Fate of Humanity. She must choose to destroy it now and experience rebirth or let humanity continue and experience extinction later on. ANd the people that give her the choices are the typical ones manifesting as other characters, her father and this guy Cody who we barely learn much about either. These individuals seek to hear Fenas choice. Their goal is to increase the possiblities of certain futures. If she chooses to let humanity continue, the Goblin Knights face the possiblity of death in a violent way. IF she chooses rebirth, everyone dies and randoms pure souls are reborn on the NOAHS ARK which is present behind her all destroyed, to repopulate the world again. And the Maiden will be reborn with her loved one at her side. No matter her choice, her memories will be lost to ensure she still carries her bloodline else she wouldnt if she knew the choice she made. Her and Yukimura have a tense moment as he cries out for her to not go away. And then she appears next to him with all her memories gone. It ends with people whom we thought were dead still alive, an allusion to lovers dead possibly rebirthed, Goblin Knights revisiting all the locations they been on and potentially reviving Fenas memories. We also hear Yukimura say "I love you" to Fena. I felt the pacing of the show was bad near the end. Too many questions were brought near the end such as who is trying to continue the bloodline, why did Fena have to even save the world, and why is the show called "Fena:Pirate Princess" when there did not feel like any pirating going on. It just left me unsatisfied. Art: 8/10 The art itself is very polished. Character designs are nice and clean. Later, on it seems there is an inconsistency pertaining to blood. At one point, when people are slashed in midst of battle, it glistens and is bright red. Other times, blood in the same situation is just normal dark blood. Maybe this is to show effect for certain moments but it felt inconsistent. Sound: 10/10 I do not know what to say. The music really hooked me. The OP/ED were all banger songs. I loved the OST of Fena. It really enchanted me Character: 6/10 Aside from Fena, Yukimura, and Abel, every other character was one dimensional. That might make or break it for some people. I would have liked if there was more development on the goblin knights but I still liked their personalities. I just liked Fena desire to change. In some eps, we see her wanting to find ways to help be a benefit to the Knights. She is characterized as someone who is beautiful and whom everyone flocks to which I agree. We see her and Yukimura stories intertwine. Abel backstory was kinda sad is all i can say. I think he was very much fixated on his lost love and couldnt get over it which was nice. Enjoyment: 7/10 The show was nice. I was curious to see where the story would lead Overall: 7/10 The show itself has wonderful art as well as an epic soundtrack. The whole show was on the formulaic side which can make or break for some people. The characters could have been fleshed out more but they were fine. I think the story was fine until the last ep with her being the center of Humanitys destruction. There was no build up to it and seemed out of place. I think more episodes would have been needed.
There are plenty of reviews but I wish to add to them regardless because I believe this show requires more recognition than it has gotten. *Non-Spoiler Review* Story - 7 The story is good, but nothing mind-blowing. I will say it is a satisfying story, however. In that it had me hooked and I enjoyed the whole thing, even with a satisfying ending. But it isn't above & beyond. So I'm giving this a 7. There were also elements to this story I never expected to pop up, and it was honestly a good surprise to enjoy. Art & Characters - 10 This is a high score,yes, but it's because I genuinely love the animation, art, and the character design (both visually and story-wise). There are some troupes here and there, but mostly I felt the choice in character personalities and the various animation decisions for those characters in key moments really pulled everything together. I'm a sucker for good characters, especially supporting cast. So these two points really did make me quite happy! There isn't a lot of character progression in anyone but the main characters, but it's also to be expected from a short series such as this. Sound, Enjoyment, and Overall: 8 In my own personal spreadsheet I have this at a 9, but I do recognize it might not be THAT good and I may be a bit biased. So I think 8 is a very fair score when looking at overall enjoyment, quality, design, ect. This show very much delighted me and had me hooked (I ended up watching it all in one day. Oops!) I'm not sure what is left to say but that I enjoyed it quite a lot and was surprised by how good it ended up being. Hope this helps, and I hope folks out there give it a shot. Cheers!
SOME SPOILERS I genuinely don't feel like typing out how this show completely fell apart in the latter half. Most of my complaints come from Fena. The main character, the star of the show, is the girl with the plan. Oh wait..., she's annoying. Also, the title of the show is kind of a lie. The show is about pirates but all Fena does is be there to be with Yukimaru. She also doesn't;t do much pirate stuff. She just hangs with pirates. Long story short the last two episodes though animated pretty well. were just dumb, especially the part where Fena loses her memory because of theplot. All to just shit on the main ship (get it) of the show by cutting the kiss at the end. I stayed up until 12 to watch this on Toonami. I want my sleep schedule back dammit! Final rating 5/10