Anime Hajime Review: Prism Ark

Series Synopsis

In a Europe-esk world there exists the kingdom of Windland. Many years ago, the country’s royal family was ambushed and has been missing ever since. From that fateful day, Windland has been locked in a devastating war with its neighbor, the Sablum Empire, to which it finds itself on the losing side. The last beacons of hope and pride for the nation are the young men and women of the Knight’s Academy.

Over the past few days, a rumor has begun to spread that could potentially turn the tide of war. Supposedly, a young warrior named Priecia (voiced by Yui Sakakibara) is Windland’s long lost princess. Weather that's true remains up for debate, but what’s undeniable is that Priecia is a genius with a sword and is sure to lead the army to many victories.

Stoically, Priecia prepares to enter the academy and prove herself to everyone. That instantly becomes a bit more difficult when on her first day she runs into Hyaweh (voiced by Tetsuya Kahihara), an extremely laid-back boy that doesn’t seem to care much about anything.

With these polar opposite personalities, the beginning of their relationship isn’t exactly cordial. Hyaweh continuously, but always unintentionally, gets under Priecia’s skin. Yet, while most people
wouldn't stand a chance against her, Hyaweh shows that he is easily on par with Priecia’s

swordsmanship.

With the war coming to a critical turning point, Priecia and Hyaweh begin to realize that when they combine their strengths, they become a nearly unstoppable pair.

Priecia

Series Positives

Alright, so hear me out on this. I am aware that Prism Ark is based on the erotic video game (eroge) of the same. To be more specific, this show is based on the game Prism Ark: Prism Heart...2. It’s based on a sequel to a game series where the original never got an anime version of its own, but some of the characters from that game do occasional appearances in this series.

Hyaweh

So knowing that the ultimate goal of the source material is to get its players to release, what can we honestly expect to come from this show? Not really the most settler vote of confidence.

Yet despite that, after the first few episodes, I was actually quite into it. The beginning of Prism Ark is surprisingly decent. The action is good, the characters are united, and things appear to be on a good trajectory. So yah I was hooked.

But what was especially shocking was that this series got me interested in a flashback story. That’s right, from out the gate we see precisely where this show is going to end up. Now to me this is one of the hardest storytelling methods to get right because it literally means taking out any hint of surprise. However Prism Ark kept me wondering how it got to that inevitable point the whole way through.

Now that I think about it, I should probably say this here so that it doesn’t appear to come out of nowhere later on. Prism Ark did manage to prevent spoiling it’s how-we-got-here story. But by doing so, it also serves as a brilliant example of exactly how to NOT F@#$ING DO IT!

Oh my crap, there is some s@#$ for me to say. But it will have to wait because there is something positive that I want to talk about first.

Hyaweh and Priecia

These two are the most fun of the show; when it’s just them. Basically when anything else is happening, any positivity they bring is nonexistent. When it’s only them though, which to be fair does occur generously, it’s alright.

Of course I’m referring to the romance that develops between the two. Sometimes I wish I could break this, but I am the biggest sap for this kind of crap. In Prism Ark, Hyaweh and Priecia’s relationship isn't remarkable, or even memorable. The things they say to each other and the things they do together are cheesy and generic, for the most part

Besides me being a huge chump, these two’s progression is done in such a way that I wish more anime did. They both go through the typical phase of denial, but that doesn’t last as long as other shows. About half way through the series, they do confront the issue, or at least Priecia did; Hyaweh does go on to putz about for a bit longer.

For characters to always be wondering if the other person likes them or not can so easily lead to frustrating high school anime bull s@#$. It’s nice to see a show avoid that. Oh don’t get me wrong, Prism Ark still has a ton of that high school anime bull s@#$, only for different reasons.

Unfortunately, even this side of the show beings to lose its luster the longer it goes on. As this series progresses, it quickly loses itself in nonsensicalness.

Series Negatives

I wasn’t lying when I said I liked the first few episodes of this show. They were legitimately good. But then this series simply stopped being that. Instead it decides to stop doing something worth watching and proceeds to do whatever the hell it wants.

We never return to the moment shown in the first episode. We never get to see what comes after that. That itself would be infuriating, but by the end of Prism Arc I didn’t care about anything that was happening. I don’t know how this show did this?

This series had me, I was hooked. Now I can’t give any less of a s@#$ about this story or these characters.

It Wants to be Everything

Prism Ark is a comedy, a romance, a magic story, a fantasy story, a sci-fi, a historical fiction, a suspense story, and f@#$ing everything else. There is no genre that this show doesn’t try to throw in. Do you want a little bit of slapstick; it’s here. Do you want a little bit of horror; I don’t how it did this, but it’s here. Do you want a little bit of war drama; yes that’s here too. For Christ sake, there’s a damn mech fight at the end; where the hell did that come from?

Mixing and matching genres is a good thing to do, but just having them is not the same. They don’t fit together in the story, they switch out at random, and the order that they are in doesn’t take into account the tone or mood. It’s a mess.

During the school’s culture festival (because that’s what it is, don’t try calling it something else) everyone’s being silly, having fun, and goofing off. Never mind the fact that only a few episodes earlier, the entire student body went on a battle training mission that turned into a for real surprise ambush that result in many casualties, including mostly likely deaths. Yah that’s not important, it’s in the past were moving on.

There’s a brief scene that hints at possible genetic modifications being done which leads to the massacre of orphans. That’s pretty heavy s@#$, but hey don’t mind that, isn’t it funny as everyone is comically beating each other to get a set of breast armor; because that’s more important right? Well it’s not because Hyaweh and friends also needed to find Priecia after she was almost assaulted by two drunk guys.

Pick something!

Hell Prism Ark is based on an erotic video game, and that’s maybe the one thing it really doesn’t do. Sure there are lots of panty shots, and one or two nude scenes, but I’ve seen way worse.

The cluster f@#$ this show becomes is a marvel onto itself.

Final Thoughts

Prism Ark starts off as if it is going to be something good and enjoyable. And then it quickly becomes anything but.

The two lead characters are okay I guess, but they aren’t even close to an adequate compensation for menagerie of bull crap that comes with them. The story stops making sense, it’s all over the place, it can’t hold a tone to save it’s life, there are way too many character’s (which is something I didn’t even go over), and there's nothing to get you coming back.

So please save yourself the trouble, and don’t even start it.

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