Princess Jellyfish (2010) - Review
"Every girl is born a princess - some just forget is all."
While building out my Definitive Top 100 Greatest Anime of All Time List, I'll sometimes watch an anime that I really want to make the list - but unfortunately, just probably won't.
Princess Jellyfish is an 11 episode anime adaption that came out in 2010, animated by Brain's Base, and directed by Takahiro Omori, who's known for directing Natsume's Book of Friends, Baccano, and Durarara!!.
On the production side of things, there's a lot to love about Princess Jellyfish - the animation is stunning, the editing packs a lot of comedic punch, but above all else the colors are breathtaking. The Color Setter for the series was Ritsuko Utagawa, who's also done colors for productions like 91 Days, Gintama, and Baccano.
Princess Jellyfish is a story centered around the main character named Tsukimi Kurashita, who lives with 5 other women in a Shared House where No Men are Allowed. Each of the women are Otaku, and each have a very specific hyperfixation. Due to inherent insecurities about themselves, they often do not go out in public, cannot be around those they consider "The Stylish", and also cannot interact with men.
This comes into play when the main character is introduced to a man named Kuranosuke, who at the time of meeting, was wearing a dress, makeup, and wig, so that Tsukimi was under the impression that he was actually a woman. This is where the start of the anime's faults begin - this idea does present the idea of masculinity versus femininity, but it doesn't ever go any further than just presenting the idea.
The series has a lot of strong points, from the art direction, to the voice acting, to the editing, and especially the humor, but where the series falls flat is the lack of consistent and strong themes. Which would be okay if it were a series that didn't have anything to say - but the issue comes in when this series clearly has a lot to say, but no breathing room with which to say it.
It touched on a few themes that could have been really fascinating, from gender identity, to being comfortable in your own skin, to even sexism and SA, but it never dove any further. It felt like the story wanted to do so much more than it got to do, so everything it was able to do felt frustratingly shallow - including the ending itself, which was incredibly rushed and felt like a large portion of the story leading up to it was cut out.
Absolutely all of these complaints are PROBABLY due to the show not being able to continue adapting the rest of the manga, but this is purely a look at the anime as an anime, and not at the manga and what could have been.
While I love this setting, the characters, the dialogue, the humor - due to the frustratingly lack of strong themes, especially when the premise so eagerly invites those themes at every turn, this will unfortunately not make the cut of the Top 100 Greatest Anime of All Time.
My Current MAL Rating: 7/10
Top 100 Contender: No
