The second volume of Scrapped Princess manages to avoid the sophomore slump that affects many anime series.  The plot moves along at a nice pace and continues to be entertaining while expanding the world that Pacifica and her siblings inhabit.

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, her sister, Raquel, and Leo a young knight wanna-be, 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?

In the first episode on this DVD Pacifica meets a powerful and unusual assassin, a troubadour.  Silencer, as he's know, has the ability to control ancient poisonous bugs with his unique instrument.  While fighting with Shannon, Silencer manages to send one of his bugs to attack the Scrapped Princess.  Leo defends her, but she still manages to get scratched by one of the bug's projectiles, putting her life at risk.  The only person in the area who can save her is Sir Doyle, the solider who was charged with killing Pacifica when she was a baby.  He's willing to help, but Silencer isn't about to let them get the herbs they need to save the girl.

Things get interesting in the next show when Shannon and Raquel are taken over by an alien being, the same being that attacked the town at the end of the last volume.  He's unbelievably strong, and can control any human that he wants.  While Leo and Pacifica search for the missing siblings, another mystical being, Zefiris, comes to their aide.  Zefiris has been waiting 5000 years for the chance to help the Scrapped Princess to battle God himself.

In the last half of the disc, the wagon that they've been using breaks down and the small group starts squatting in an abandoned house.  While Shannon goes into town for supplies, he encounters a little girl standing in the rain.  He gives her his umbrella, and she follows him home like a little puppy dog.  Shannon and Raquel both take a liking to girl, Sis, but Pacifica is a little leary of this odd girl who hardly talks.  Things get even more complicated when Zefiris contacts Pacific and tells her that she has to kill Sis or else her siblings will die.

I'm still very intrigued by this series. There is a lot of mystery in the show that works very well to keep viewers interested.  Every time something gets a little more clear, another question pops up.  In this volume for example it is revealed that the oridinal prophecy concerning the Scrapped Princess has been destroyed, along with all other contemporary accounts of the prediction.  Also, just who is Zefiris and who are the Peacemakers that are her mortal enemies?

The fact that the main character may end up destroying the world makes for some interesting reactions from the people in the story who discover who she really is.  With all of St. Grendel's predictions coming true (save for two out of over 5000), everyone honestly believes that the Scrapped Princess is evil and should die, but when they find out that their cute plucky friend is this monster, they don't know what the right thing to do is.

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 ending and some trailers.

Final Thoughts:

Scrapped Princess manages to avoid slowing down in this second disc, something that often happens with anime series.  There are new characters that get introduced, more mystery surrounding the Scrapped Princess, and a good amount of plot development.  The real reason that I enjoyed this show though 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.  Highly Recommended.