Inner palace hocus pocus.
I was initially excited about this because I generally love the genre of inner palace shenanigans. I recently read Dream of the Red Chamber, which was amazing, and also read a number of managa along these lines. The things I enjoy most about the genre are the betrayals and backstabbing as well as the general trashiness.
Sadly this anime did not live up to my expectations. It had some betrayals, but none of them were particularly interesting. All the characters were bland. And the trashy romance wasn’t there at all. One of the funniest scenes of the season was actually in an earlier episode, where I thought the prince was going in for a kiss. But instead he goes right past the heroine’s lips an falls down on the bed, fast asleep. That was the only time this anime made me smile.
It went with a mystery of the week format, which while admittedly this is not my favorite format, this show fared especially poorly through lack of interesting mysteries. I struggled to follow what was happening at all, and often the arcs were resolved by supernatural means which no one could have expected.
A very disappointing series.
- Storytelling – D – Could not bring me to care.
- Voice – C – Wanted to like the setting.
- Characters – D – Boring.
- Attention Grab – F – Struggled to finish.
- Production – D – Meh.
- Overall – D
Recommendations – Dream of the Red Chamber, Apothecary Diaries