Ginga Kikoutai: Majestic Prince - 11
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Majestic Prince keeps rolling out some minor surprises. Continuous proof of how much it has to offer, despite appearances.
Perhaps this series' greatest strength is the ability to keep surprising us. The first time that happened was around episodes 3-4, when the tone of Majestic Prince and ever since it has developed into a more complex anime. This week it went back to simpler roots, by giving us a Tamaki episode. A strange yet understandable move that was still surprising.
With an ensemble cast, it's important to give ample focus to all the characters. Not just the main ones, but the supporting characters as well and thus far Majestic Prince has done a good job. With Izuru still at the centre, the series has brought Kei and the others into the story and given them a role to fulfil. In Tamaki's case, that role was primarily comic relief and after this episode I don't see that changing. What this episode does however is establish her worth in Majestic Prince.
Comic relief characters often suffer from early typecasting and sometimes don't perform any duties or have any bearing on the plot outside of their set persona. Tamaki, along with Suruga, have been the jokes of the series because of their personalities hence leaving the serious business to be handled by Asagi, Izuru and Kei. Even so, that seems to be changing with the recent episodes.
Last week we learnt that the goofball section of Team Rabbits are outperforming the serious pilots, Kei and Asagi. Arguably last week's surprise revelation, was developed into something more than pointing the deficiency in the characters we expected to be doing well. And this week's episode, showed us that Tamaki means business even if she is part of the idiot duo.
Not all the focus was on her and it wasn't all that serious. We saw her being treated like a pet by one of the two ikemen working under Rin, which meant most of the time she acted like an excited puppy. That part of her carefree personality was still very much in tact, and that was reassuring. Yes she's proving to be better but a big selling point of Majestic Prince is the quirkiness of its characters, and Tamaki leads the pack when it comes to personality. Seeing her stay the same, gullible and horny girl is oddly reassuring.
Amidst all the Tamaki, Majestic Prince snuck in a nugget for future plot developments. I'm referring to Izuru's moment of doubt when it came to the dead enemy. A very typical sci-fi development - Suisei no Gargantia is going through something similar - and should be visited in future episodes. Right now it layed a foundation for future development and was as subtle as you get. A good way to get the ball rolling, which shows us how well-written the series can be.
Overall, a good fun episode. Based on what we've seen so far and the preview for next episode, Majestic Prince has its own formula for the story. A formula which makes things more predictable and the same time gives good reason to believe each character will get adequate coverage. Also, it suggests Majestic Prince will continue to have fun with the story and not become more serious than it is now.
Ginga Kikoutai: Majestic Prince Episode 12 Preview
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