Bandai has released the first of six DVDs containing the 2003 TV series Scrapped Princess.  An interesting series with action, humor, mystery, and a little bit of drama, this looks like it will be a series worth watching.
 
Fifteen years ago the revelation of St. Grendel predicted that a princess had been born who would destroy the world when she reached 16 years of age.  "She will be give rise to mountains of corpses and rivers of blood...she will be the poison that will destroy this world." St. Grendel's predictions had always come true, so her parents, the king and queen, ordered her put to death.  The only problem is that she wasn't.

Now Pacifica Cassul is 15, and running for her life.  She is the person that everyone thinks is the 'Scrapped Princess' of the prophecy.  Living out of a horse drawn wagon, Pacifica travels from place to place with her adopted brother, Shannon, and sister, Raquel, trying to stay one step ahead of those who are trying to kill her.  The only problem is, everyone is trying to kill her.  And even if she lives, what will happen when she has her next birthday?  Will she destroy the world?

This fantasy series has a lot going for it.  One of the things that I liked was that it doesn't spell everything out in the first episode.  As the series starts, Pacifica and her siblings are on the run, but you aren't sure why or from whom.  The prophecy is mentioned, but it takes a while for the story to explain just why everyone thinks Pacifica is the harbinger of doom.  I liked that a lot.  Too many shows lay all their cards on the table at the beginning, ruining any sense of mystery the show might have had.

The show has a lot of continuity, and isn't just an 'adventure of the week' show, though I'm sure there will be some episodes like that as the series goes on.  This first disc does a good job introducing the main and secondary characters, and showing their powers.  In the second episode, the Cassul siblings meet up with Leo, a young knight errant who is trying to earn his way into a prestigious cadre of knights.  When he first sees Pacifica, he falls in love and vows to marry her.  Leo acts as a comic relief for most of the episodes on this disc, but he also proves useful in a couple of instances.

We are also introduced to a young man named Chris.  He seems like a nice young man, but it turns out that he's an elite solider who has been charged with killing the Scrapped Princess.  There is a lot of ambiguity in his character, and though he's out to kill Pacifica, it is obvious that he has a lot of respect for her and especially her brother who is also a skilled swordsman.

There are a lot of aspects of this series that sets it above the average anime series, and the main one is the characterization.  Like Chirs, Pacifica herself is an interesting character that is well developed and not just another maiden in distress.  She acts very regal and is very demanding of her brother and sister, but you can tell that it's just a front.  She's been marked for death since she's been born, and that's not an easy thing to live with.  Though Pacifica isn't a great fighter like Shannon, nor a skilled magician like Raquel, as the series progresses things about her are revealed.

The real reason that I enjoyed this show is because it has a great mix of humor, fantasy, and a good amount of action.  The shows don't fall into a formula, and every show on this disc has some interesting revelation or surprise that really kept me wanting to see the next chapter.

Audio:

This disc has the original Japanese track and an English dub both in stereo.  There wasn't a lot of directionality to the mix, but being a dialog based show, I wasn't expecting many stereo effects.  Both tracks sounded adequate, with the background music being clear and clean.

Video:

The full frame video image looked good.  The image had a good amount of definition and detail, and the colors were accurately reproduced.  There was some minor digital defects, some shimmering lines in the background and a little aliasing, mainly.  A few areas had bad color gradients, where the colors didn't transfer smoothly from one shade to the next.  These weren't major problems though.  An adequate looking transfer.

Extras:

This disc didn't have any extras aside from a textless opening and some trailers.

Final Thoughts:

This is a fun and engaging series.  The mystery of Pacifica and if it is really her destiny to destroy the world in a year gets you hooked, but the strong and interesting characters are what make you skip past the ending credits to get to the next episode.  A fantasy show, it doesn't play like most of the other sword and sorcery anime shows, which is a very good thing.  With a good mixture of action, comedy and drama, this is a series that is highly recommended.