As you can probably guess from the above summary, Puppet Princess is an odd and obscure little title that attempts to blend gruesome horrific violence, misplaced lowbrow slapstick and, yes, puppets into a wild and wacky 40 minute OVA that will leave the viewer helplessly confused and (hopefully) entertained. It is an adaptation of a one-shot manga by Kazuhiro Fujita, who later reused the puppet concept in his much-longer work Karakuri Circus. If nothing else, Puppet Princess has enough blood, boobs and unintentional comedy to keep the audience around long enough for them to at least consider giving it a proper watch.
Not to be confused with the similarly named Marl Oukoku no Ningyou-Hime (The Puppet Princess of Marl Kingdom) video game.
Puppet Princess provides examples of:
- Big Ol' Eyebrows: Manajiri has a rather impressive pair that are easily as long as his entire face. Rangiku herself also has her eyebrows drawn fairly large in some scenes.
- Black Comedy: The OVA is filled with it due to some questionable choices relating to the overall tone and dialogue. One minute some serious violence and misery is happening to helpless kids and the next the main characters are engaging in some goofy lighthearted banter. This causes several moments that are intended to be dramatic becoming unintentionally hysterical as a result.Manajiri: [sounds of wailing children echo in the background] Hell. It was hell inside that castle...! (casually) Oh well, I guess I will go with you tomorrow.
- Black Comedy Rape: As stated below, Manajiri almost forcing himself on Rangiku while she's bathing is played completely for laughs.
- Clock Punk: The puppets, made using European clockwork technology.
- Covered with Scars: Or scar in this case. While bathing Rangiku is revealed to have a massive scar running from her shoulders all the way down her back. She got it from her own father flaying her skin to make puppets.
- Evil Puppeteer: The Big Bad Lord Sadayoshi Karimata of course! Given the name and themes of the anime what else could he possibly be?
- Fanservice: Rangiku actually spends around 1/6 of the OVA naked according to Bennett's numbers, which he compares to outright Hentai levels of fanservice, despite the title being an Ecchi at best.
- Flaying Alive: A grim twist about halfway through the story reveals that the various puppets are all made with the harvested skin of young children, Rangiku included... which was inflicted on her by her own father no less!
- Gorn: It's an exploitative ninja anime filled with violence and nudity, what did you expect? Special mention goes to the guy who gets turned into a "human pez-despencer" and the infamous child flesh harvesting to make puppets.
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: Rangiku has no problem standing naked in front of Manajiri or even letting him fondle her naked body. She also seems to have no idea what rape is, which leaves Manajiri completely flabbergasted.Manajiri: You don't have the slightest idea what I came here to do, do you?!
Rangiku: No, I'm sorry, I don't. But whatever it is I'll do my best!
Manajiri: You're not making this easy for me ya know... - Mood Whiplash: Like you wouldn't believe. A nightmarish and violent scene of children being harvested for their skin to make puppets is immediately followed up by a goofy fanservice scene of Manajiri sexually harassing Rangiku during her bath. It's like the production crew tried to make two completely different movies and then hacked them up and glued them back together into a single frankensteined OVA.
- Nightmare Face: This OVA has a really unnerving habit of using extreme close ups of the character's faces while they make the most hideous and distorted expressions imaginable. The fact that these are often followed up with brutal violence or lighthearted dialogue only makes it all the more surreal and terrifying.
- Outdoor Bath Peeping: Near the halfway mark of the OVA Manajiri approaches Rangiku while she's bathing alone. He then tries to force himself on her only to back off almost immediately thanks to a combination of her innocent and oblivious nature and her tragic backstory.
- Powered by a Forsaken Child: During the above mentioned bath scene Rangiku finally reveals the dark secret of how the killer puppets are created. Specifically, they're all made from flesh ripped off the bodies of still living children! This includes poor Rangiku herself, who had a large strip of skin torn from her back by her own father!
- Razor Floss: The strings that Rangiku uses to control her puppet are extremely fine, to the point that they're invisible to the naked eye.
- Sengoku Period: The backdrop of this OVA, with feudal lords constantly warring against each other and looking for new weapons to gain an edge in battle (said weapons in this case being Lord Fumiwatari's karakuri puppets).
- Squishy Wizard: The reason why Rangiku wants Manajiri to help her; since she uses both her hands and feet to control her puppet, she's unable to defend herself while doing so.
- World of Ham: See Nightmare Face above.
- Would Hurt a Child: All together now: CHILD. SKIN. HARVESTING. Used to make freaking puppets, no less!
