Black Cat Cafe is located in the fifth ward of the Imperial Capital. Having lost their purpose after the war ended a few years prior, advanced mechanical dolls known as Automata have been restored and now work at the cafe wearing elegant kimonos. While they adjust to the peaceful world, events of the past continue to haunt the Automata, preventing them from letting go of the responsibility they once held.
Among the Automata working at Black Cat Cafe is the recently restored Haizakura, who has lost her memories during a reset. Her identity and role in this unfamiliar world are a mystery to her, but one thing is certain—she loves to sing. With never-ending curiosity and beautiful songs to guide them, Haizakura and the Automata search for their new purpose together, supporting each other no matter how rigorous that endeavor might be.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
VentusBrawler
At first glance at Prima Doll, one might see the 6.92 average rating and the cursed words “multimedia project” in the synopsis and instantly cross this show off of their potential Plan to Watch list. However, the fact that you are here means that despite of all that, you decided to also scroll down to the review section to get an idea of how the show was received. If this is you, then you’ve come to the right place. This review is here to give a spoiler free synopsis of what to expect from Prima Doll and explain how the average score and some ofthe unfavorable reviews don’t do the show justice. Let’s begin.
If I had to describe Prima Doll in one phrase, it’d probably be “moe Violet Evergarden”. If you haven’t watched Violet Evergarden, then definitely go watch that first, because while I do like Prima Doll a lot, Violet Evergarden sits comfortably in my top 5 anime. Both Prima Doll and Violet Evergarden have extremely similar settings of a post-war steampunk European continent and similar character dilemmas of people losing their purpose with the end of the war or being unable to adjust to the abrupt advent of peace. Just like Violet Evergarden, Prima Doll will also sucker punch you right in the feels throughout the entire show. Both shows are very good at creating these episodic scenarios that draw you into the character narratives and get you to empathize with their situation. Even the term “doll” is used prolifically in both shows, furthering the theme of these mannequins that were used as tools of war learning how to live their own lives.
I think it is quite obvious how the description of “moe” plays into the show, with the color schemed moe blob cute anime girls and all. Moe has always been a big point of contention in the anime community, but for the love of Madokami it’s 2022 already. Love it or hate it, moe will have a perpetual influence on anime and just because you don’t like moe doesn’t mean all moe anime are automatically trash. As a resident of the moe trash can myself, I appreciated the moe parts of the show. The slice of life elements served as both a good foil for the emotional high points of the show as well as furthering the overarching theme of learning to live a life without strife. If you are also a cultured moe enjoyer who likes shows such as K-On, GochiUsa, Yuru Yuri, Blend S, Hinako Note, and Comic Girls among many others, then this aspect of Prima Doll should be an easy sell for you. As for comparing Prima Doll to a recent show, it really had a lot of similarities to RPG Real Estate from last season while also outperforming that show in almost every aspect. I feel the tone shift from slice of life to emotional was far less jarring in Prima Doll than RPG Real Estate, and Prima Doll’s character interactions were also more genuine and heartfelt as a whole. RPG Real Estate suffered from having a very weak connection between the overarching theme and what was usually occurring on screen; Prima Doll more deliberately built up its overarching theme throughout the show, making the narrative feel more natural because it was paced better.
The final part of the review will be dedicated to easing any remaining concerns about watching Prima Doll while concurrently refuting claims made against the show by some haters. The topic to address first is definitely the “multimedia project” aspect of the show. While I do understand why everyone hates multimedia projects because multimedia projects typically entail watching the anime, playing the mobile game that is most definitely going to be a gacha, buying merch, following the official twitter posts, and watching the official youtube channel to get the full “authentic” experience on the series. It’s essentially all one giant cash grab and a huge time sink that serves as an excuse for the anime being not very well produced because there’s also supposed to be the mobile game’s story, the character profile cards included with the albums you buy, and the bits of lore dropped from the official youtube channel that’s also supposed to supplement it. That generic umbrella of multimedia project is genuinely awful and I hate it too, but Prima Doll doesn’t fit under that. I was not shilled a mobile game when I finished the last episode in tears. All I saw was “Fin” and then the voice role credits started rolling as usual. There is an official youtube channel for prima doll, but outside of some 5 second clips of the VAs saying some cute stuff using a 3D avatar of their character, I didn’t dabble in it at all. There definitely are songs and albums available for purchase, but those are just for the fans that want to listen to more Chat-noir songs. You don’t tangibly lose out on any type of experience from not interacting with the other forms of Prima Doll media; I personally found that simply watching the anime by itself is a fulfilling standalone experience, so it makes no sense to hate on Prima Doll just for being a multimedia project. There isn’t some character that got their character development shafted on purpose because that’ll be covered in the upcoming mobile game, and the ending wasn’t some to be continued that’ll be picked up with the mobile game but only after you follow the twitter lore they drop over the course of 24 months. Prima Doll isn’t some incomplete halfass show that was only made to sell the mobile game, like Takt Op Destiny.
There are quite a lot of people saying that the ending of Prima Doll was rushed, but I can’t see what they’re talking about. Most people compared it to the likes of The Day I Became a God, which is also produced by Key and Visual Arts. While I haven’t watched that show, I can definitely point to another show done by Key which is Charlotte. Charlotte is infamous for absolute trash pacing for everything after episode 7, squeezing what a 12-episode season would barely be able to cover into the final episode. Prima Doll definitely did not have a Charlotte ending. I won’t get too much into it because having this be a spoiler free review is more important to me than refuting their claims in detail, but I thought Prima Doll’s ending was appropriately rewarding and moving for the amount of narrative buildup that was done with the storytelling.
The final thing I want to talk about with Prima Doll is the VAs. As a big Love Live fan, the first thing I noticed going into this show was Kusunoki Tomori (Setsuna Yuuki) as Karasuba and Kitou Akari (Kanata Konoe) as Retzel. If you’re a Genshin Impact player that plays with Japanese voiceover, then you’ll probably notice that Murase Ayumu doing Nagi in the show also does Venti, Kuno Misaki doing Chiyo in the show also does Klee, and Kitou Akari does Barbara. The VAs in Prima Doll are especially important due to the song segments of the show, as well as each main character singing the ED solo during their respective episode. All the VAs put in stellar work making the OP, ED, and all the insert songs all sound amazing while also bringing life to their characters. Playing Haizakura, Waki Azumi has had a plethora of experience singing theme songs for Blend S as Maika, Slime 300 as Flatorte, Noukin as Mile, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear as Fina, Senko-san as Senko, Ms. Vampire who lives nextdoor as Elly, and much more. Tomita Miyu’s noteable roles other than playing as Gekka include Iino from Kaguya-sama, Riko from Made in Abyss, Gabriel from Gabriel DropOut, and Kuina from Hinako Note among others. As Kitou Akari has had experience working together with Kusunoki Tomori for Nijigasaki concerts as well as Murase Ayumu and Kuno Misaki for Genshin, Waki Azumi and Tomita Miyu have also had very close roles together as a matter of fact, with Tomita Miyu being Fina’s younger sister Shuri in Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear as well as fellow vampires with Elly as Sophie in Ms. Vampire who lives nextdoor. Playing Houkiboushi, Nakashima Yuki definitely has had the fewest roles amongst all the other main members of the voice cast, but her roles as Lisa Imai in BanG Dream’s Roselia is a very engaging and demanding role that she has excelled in, not to mention has had lots of experience singing for. I want to specifically mention Kitou Akari again because I especially love her role as Chiyoda Momo in Machikado Mazoku. Kitou Akari-san is ridiculously talented for being able to pull off aloof and nonchalant characters like Chiyoda Momo as well as more breezy and witty characters like Retzel and Nijigasaki’s Kanata. Okay, rant over. Moral of the story: Prima Doll has an all-star lineup of voice talent. So when I hear haters say stuff about the voices being annoyingly squeaky, or the production forcing the voice talents to strain their voices to match the character, all I can do is scoff at their ignorance, and everyone else should brush off those baseless ramblings as well. It’s definitely one thing to have opinions of voice talents, but it’s another thing entirely to attack them for the roles they act out. I’ve seen some rude and undignified comments about Kuno Misaki’s role as Chiyo and I’m not going to stand for it. Her Chiyo voice is not some one-off fluke that was forced on the production side; she uses practically the same tone and pitch for Beni-enma in FGO and Klee in Genshin. The roles that Kuno Misaki chooses to play and the voices she uses to get into character are her WORK and her TALENT. People that want to attack that based on their own shit taste need to shut the fuck up.
Professor Nagi Tooma fixes up the dolls and runs the Black Cat Café because he believes in the potential of the dolls to move the hearts of others by preserving the peace, rather than fighting the war. Prima Doll was an extremely enjoyable show for me that definitely moved my heart. While part of that might be because I reside in the moe trash can, the show also undeniably has an engaging narrative even without the moe. I think that if you can at least tolerate the moe and are looking for a heartwarming and character-driven emotional rollercoaster, then Prima Doll should be the next thing you watch. Thanks for reading.
KANLen09
"Metal statues which resemble living human girls. They understand the mind and have an inner voice." This is the tagline for Prima Doll, one of the more recent mixed-media projects to come out of the legendary VN studio that is Key/Visual Arts that has little to no Jun Maeda involvement with it, most certainly after the disastrous Kamisama ni Natta Hi that just broke the good streak like wildfire. But, even with or without Jun Maeda, Key itself as a name has already been driven to the ground and never been the same since the somewhat tumultuous premise of an outer-world space with Rewrite, and that'swhere Prima Doll comes in with one particular common novelty that I'll get into later in the review.
But first, let's not get too deep yet, and understand what Prima Doll is all about. It's basically mechanical dolls (known as Automata) that was created to be in aid to fight against a war, and that war has long since passed and gone for good (with remnants awaiting their time of resurgence). Beneath those cracks, however, is an army of Automata restored and repurposed for this somewhat out-of-place cafe called the Kurotantei a.k.a The Black Cat Café and relegated to wearing kimonos and serving duties just like your typical cafe, supposedly helping these Automata to let go of their past and embrace the new life they're called to do. Have some fun, sing, and serve people, that's the goal of the Black Cat Cafe with its owner Nagi Touma, who's an engineer whom knows his (or rather her) ways of restoring broken Automata and giving them a new sense of purpose, one reset and reprogram at a time.
And the Black Cat Cafe display no short of its CGDCT moments, which I'd argue that it while it doesn't proclaim itself as one, it helps to bring people into a post-war congruity back into the new normal. It's a see-saw case of "seeing is believing" that the overall impression can sweeten or sour the show's antics in the long run. And this aspect is where it makes AND breaks the experience of Prima Doll, as shown by the various Automata that got restored through Nagi's delicate engineering craftsmanship: the pink-haired Haizakura with an overwhelmingly positive spirit to sing her heart out; the black-haired Karasuba which has the potentials of a combat doll and a loyalty-based one at that; the white-haired Retzel who's more of a casual smug than anything; the blonde-haired Gekka whom is akin to a kid being transferred to foster families to only know of their real existence as not they are whom she thinks; and finally the blue-haired Houkiboshi, the "mother" caretaker status of the mechanical dolls. Together with Nagi and its helper the orange-haired kid Chiyo, their new livelihood days at The Black Cat Cafe shaping their new memories, certainly everything has it going for them in the new peacekeeping regime.
But as is Prima Doll's existence to justify its tagline, the "metal statues which resemble living human girls" and "understand the mind and have an inner voice", this is where its plot that's written by the serial novel authors Kai and Toya Akano really comes into play. The metal statues obviously signify the mechanical dolls a.k.a Automata which have a semblance to ordinary living human beings, girls for that matter which are raised under the environment that is unfamiliar to them that takes Nagi's toll to reset them, nothing is ever perfect, and some like Haizakura has memories of the war lingering in the back of their minds, though she tries her very best to put the past behind her, which is a good thing. This is where the understanding and inner voice rhetoric comes from and is basically their character development in the entire anime. And for better or worse, it looks and sounds like fuzzy balls trying to create the impression of a post-war situation where peace has finally come to drag its paces, until someone has to instigate the war again in their disbelief. Nevertheless, its justification of the CGDCT moments create both a good distraction and a newfound sense of purpose for these mechanical dolls, barring their manufacture within a class/generation of Automata that are designed like a rank-and-file system to take command and control of when things go south.
For that to match, I think that the character cast did their roles very well, and that's the performance of veteran Seiyuus to invoke both moments of sheer happiness to downright despair. The common novelty that I presurfaced in the beginning of the review is thanks to director Tensho, who last directed the 2016-2017 anime adaptation of one of Key's now-dated VN Rewrite, that at the time, was produced with 8bit. Now that he has his own studio in the form of Bibury Animation Studios, Tensho is able to truly make this show his very own, adding his stereotypical flare into the show. But as just it is with last season's Black Rock Shooter: Down Fall that garnered more negativity than positivity, and if you look close enough at the decisions made between both shows, I'd argue that both are one and done the exact same, where feelings and emotions completely overshadow the plot, and most certainly one of Key's mainstay tropes of "hitting hard and crying onion tears" where it matters the most. Otherwise, the production is fairly consistent for the most part, and while the OP is a nice melodrama of a song, the various EDs however, I get that notion that while they are nice character songs for the most part (composed by Jun Maeda himself), it felt lacking.
And I think that where the Achilles' Heel lies for Prima Doll is that it's trying way too hard to be a Key/Visual Arts title that sticks to its tried-and-true guns of methodological storytelling that has worked for years. That, with Tensho's directing (that honestly has gone from bad to worse), it makes you feel that the show desperately NEEDS to garner attention, and then forgetting to lay the rest of the foundation with that one permeating ability to buy into the hearts of the audience through the overflowing of emotions. It certainly worked before, but times have changed, and that formula does not work now. Getting sideswiped as a mixed-media project and with a director that seemingly know what's he's doing, it's a shame that it could've been better, but trying hard is never enough in this day and age. Simply put, Prima Doll has a hook, but it constantly misses the target and its objective so much that the evoking meaning of happiness turns into straight-up stupefying boredom.
Love it or hate it, make your choice. Prima Doll has Key's stereotypical emotions no doubt, but everything else was lackluster.
KayoNai_ULM
This anime is really nice. It starts off seeming like a nice slice-of-life anime, allowing you to get connected to the characters before plot gets in the way. The plot is incredible, with twists you can kinda see coming but you can't really be sure till you see it, giving you that nice feeling of being right. The characters also look and sound amazing, each character's personality is developed well, if the voice and body for each character was swapped to something completely new you could still tell just by their actions alone. The characters interact in a nice way, each one's personality seem tobe consistent, but not drawn to fit consistency. They're realistic in the way they aren't just about one thing and one thing alone, even if their personality usually tends to reflect that. Someone who can have their gaurd down most of the time can put it up, and the other way around, someone who's usually very vigilant can be vulnerable, but it's always in a way that makes sense. There aren't things that you're forced to believe or trust because it all works together in such a nice way.
GG-WP
When the show wanted to incorporate themes and concepts from multiple shows (Violet Evergarden, Vivy, and Sound of the Sky), but... ended up failing miserably. One of the could have been if the show had been properly executed. At the very least, the songs were enjoyable, and you could feel for the characters at times. Honestly, the story felt all over the place from the start, and at times felt rushed and forced, as did the drama, which ended up not adding much to the overall experience of the viewers and is the show's major flaw. The show had a very interesting premise and an essentiallynice start, albeit the story resembling that of shows like Vivy with the AIs, but referred to here in the show as the automata, and the conflict, and Violet Evergarden with the episodic sad encounters and emotional inducing factors from learning about the living dolls, their past traumatic experiences to their current role, and the occasional CGDCT from a supposedly dire and warlike environment like that of Sound of the Sky, though the CGDCT events do feel off at times. The latter half of the show is where the show started to fall off, where the story didn't really hook the viewers in the first place with the war and all, and as I previously stated, the ending felt rushed and very anticlimactic, to what was already a lackluster build up, severely hindering the enjoyment factor of most of the viewers. The show essentially played it safe rather than utilizing the darker side of its premise to create an essentially better story and hook, though the ending with Haizakura was bittersweet and managed to shed some tears from its viewers.
The main casts, with their endearing personalities, decent character development, and good knowledge of their pasts, as well as the sounds, from the songs they sing to the OP and several ED versions, are essentially the show's winners. The art is paired with what the show was aiming for, so it is nice and meets the criteria. Aside from Chiyo, who actually helped elevate Haizakura's charms and helped set the tone and vibe the show was going for, and Profesor Touma with his knowledge on automata to learning about his past and his impact on the main casts of the show, the side casts are decent at best and not particularly noteworthy aside from the role they're tasked with. Personally, I believe that if the show had reduced the number of characters and focused on the premise of the show, or if there had been more episodes to work with and a different path for the show's middle and ending, it could have been a lot better, but it wasn't.
This show is for you if you like sad shows mixed with CGDCT to increase the cutesy and happiness factor. However, if you're looking for a deep, engaging, and well-executed story and aren't interested in inserting cute girls vibes into what is supposed to be a sad and depressing show, this isn't for you. To be honest, I was disappointed by what could have been the season's hidden gem.
shao12138
The show’s visual and design easily sustained a baseline of 9 with full potential to top a 10, but never in my life have I seen it lose all its score’s so fast through each episode. The bad: The biggest problem is by far the content. Shallow. Each character’s theme story feels shallow and unfulfilling, and even the main line story has no substance in it. The challenges and sad moment is over forcefully engineered, and each story is just as predictably boring as the next. The show also prides itself by being heavily music focused. The show seems to have forgotten the fact that the music needsto be actually good. Almost all the songs are forgettable and blend together, with the main reason being that it doesn’t fit the theme of the character. The only exception to this is Houkiboshi’s song, which was absolutely phenomenal, and perfected fitted her theme and encapsulated her story and the emotions of the soldiers in it.
Finally, the show wants to portray the grimness of war, so it prepares these menacing robotic war machines and… doesn’t use them? In pretty much any flashback or conflict, pretty much all the robots do is charge at people. The missile launcher and machine guns are I guess only for display, and the “chaotic battlefield” just feel like a street brawl with how little effort was put into crafting those scenes.
The mixed:
The personality of each character is very distinct, but not always memorable.
Half of the shows main cast (Gekka, Karasuba and Houkiboshi) just “was there” and didn’t feel like any interactions they had made any impact on the show.
Haizakura, our main lead, has a very vibrant and energetic personality. For the most part this is done quite well. The show makes it deliberate to over-demonstrate her cutesy “I’ll give it my best” effort, and that vibe is present in all her actions and interactions, but sometimes it feels repetitive and goes too far. Her personality and vibe is mostly enjoyable and well suited to her design, but I would say if this is toned down perhaps just half a notch, she still would have the same unique personality, but it would feel much less jarring.
On the other hand, the show desperately tries to push Chiyo into the role of the shows second main character and Haizakura’s best friend. Unfortunately, Chiyo brings nothing to the table and her personality consists of basically nothing. The show would have been better had she just not been a character.
The good:
You may have noticed there was someone I didn’t mention in the above section, and that is the actual best girl of the series: Retzel. Not only does she have top tier outwards design that instantly picks her out from the rest of the cast, her distinct two personalities (before and after her story), are both interest and portrayed splendidly. On top of this, her interactions with Haizakura, albeit very little, are the highlights of this show. She even had the most promising storyline, had it not been butchered for being rushed in one episode.
The moe:
I will be honest. I joined this show 100% for the moe and would have been fine if this was all there is to it. Unfortunately when I watch a moe anime I don’t mean all I want is a moe characters and that’s it (if I wanted that I would just look at a picture). An anime can convey this aspect through story, dialogue, and interactions, almost all of which the show fails catastrophically. The lack of story is already mentioned above (not to mention they don’t really related to this aspect anyways). But 90% of the interaction and dialogue are flat or over-engineered to the point of being uncomfortable. The show doesn’t understand demonstrating moe through subtleness and tries too hard to push it into your face. The only place where this is done right is through Retzel. She demonstrates the perfect way to present a dynamic between her and the MC to show CGDCT whilst maintaining naturalness.
Now for what the show is really good at: the art-style. Whilst moe-through-subtleness was non-existent in other aspects, the artists (unfortunately not the animators. Whilst they did a fine job they didn’t amplify anything through their actions) was god-tier in encapsulating that feeling through their designs. Some signs that I have picked up include slightly fleshy/chubby (but in a very good way!) design around the face and joints, or pinkness on the fingertips. They go a long way to fully bring out the appeal in these characters, and these are the techniques I often see in other highly prominent works. Haizakura, Retzel and Haikagura all are examples of how outstanding this design philosophy has been applied. Gekka also to a lesser extent, and we don’t talk about Chiyo.
Conclusion:
I saw the visual. I saw the character. I was preparing myself for a 9-10 show as I thought to myself “there’s no way this can go that badly.” The show proved me wrong by doing everything incorrectly. The saving grace is that at least the show did didn’t actually turn it into unenjoyable, just unreasonably boring. Watching for the subpar moe that happened every so often, the show quickly lost its score to a 6-7, and I’m certain I only put it in this range and not much lower due to a unreasonable bias I have with a certain aspect in this show. Despite this, the show managed to spit in your face one last time with the ending, which confirmed a score of 6 for me.
The show felt perfect for me and had everything I wanted to see in an anime, until I actually watched it.
MaffuEXtension
dont judge only from cover is fit for this anime. Prima Doll is masterpiece underrated anime in this season, every episode is so many how meaning of life and how bad war is. The song and scene in prima doll make me happy and sad, those combination is good flavor for this anime. So if u doesnt watch primal doll u should watch it, is not waste your time you can look relationship haizakura and other work in kuroneko cafe with happiness and cuteness. all member kuroneko have back story and all story is so meaningful make you want cry . is my review for primadoll hehehe
darkcl0ud7
I think this is one of the best anime i have watched till now as sometime the witty way the character back story was conveyed is one of the examples, it's deep but not everyone can get that. I like to watched the anime which MCs are not mess and loud so this is the enjoyable anime for me, some of the characters could get more screen time. The nature of the anime is good and can sometimes relate to the viewers. If you are looking for the Slice of life genre, you should give it a go. I like the way the anime is presented. Althoughthe ending is a bit rushed, the rest of the anime is enjoyable.
Ace_Entertainers
Prima Doll was an anime I was looking forward to as a Key anime fan and have to say they still are masters of making sad scenes. The story and the world have flaws or stupid things which don't make sense but the anime still manages to make the episodes make you feel sad when it wants you to. The Ost is a big part of the reason it is able to do so. The ost was my favorite part of the show. The animation and background art is also good and beautiful respectively. The characters are all good and there is no one I hated. Theare cute and cool when the need to be.
This anime will not be liked by everyone but might be liked by fans Key anime or SOL anime. My score is: 7/10
MR_Faraway
aisu kuriimu kita no kuni kara oishisa wo todoke ni kita aisu kuriimu marui shiawase yoku hiete iru yo A good thing from this anime is this song, the character design (I like the artstyle) and the seiyuu they use. I watching this show till the end. But I don't like the phase of this anime has, its's to fast for me. And the story is to mid even for the SoL genre. I thinks there is only a few people will take liking for this show. the main character well....... SHE'S SO CUTE!!! The artstyle really fitting this anime. Well just watch it. Maybeit ill fit's you.
