Suddenly, a new contender appears in the Spring 2006 anime lineup. Yes, Spring, not Summer. Hime-sama Gyoujin was a highly ignored anime from last season. I didn’t even know about this anime until I spotted it on the toshokan. I decided to check it out. Better late than never, right?
Hime-sama Goyoujin is about a really high-strung girl named Tsubaki Himeko. She fears many things: foreigners, her tennis playing senpai, foreigners… She seems to be the archetypical clumsy type, and one day runs into a pair of burglars. Inevitably, the bag switch plot device comes into play, and she gets the burglars’ bag!
Himeko is chased into the mountains by the foreign burglars (named Karen and Leslie) and finds out the bag contains a crown. Since everyone has a little cosplayer in them, Himeko tries the crown on. This gets the attention of Hina Ichigo clone, Nana. Nana happens to be a foreigner, so Himeko runs away from her, too. Leslie and Karen catch up to Himeko, and chase her back to town. Strangley enough, when Himeko finally gets to school, she has an royal welcoming. I guess that wearing a crown automatically makes you a princess…
So far, the plot isn’t really existent in this anime. I guess we’ll find out why the heck Himeko gets to be a princess, and why Nana is trying to get the crown back from her. Add some wacky burglars (who need a Meowth to complete the Team Rocket asthetic), and you’ve got yourself a guilt-free wacky comedy.
I noticed there were a ton of puns in this anime. I like puns, so I’ll probably like this anime a lot, too. The “pan-2” thing was kinda overdone, though. I also noticed that the main character’s name is “Himeko.” So I guess it’s like “Hime” which means princess, and “ko” which is a common girl’s name suffix. There’s also a billion other puns that I didn’t mention.
The character designs are fairly interesting. Himeko is cute in that plain sorta way, and Nana is cute in that Hina Ichigo kinda way (but less annoying!). Hopefully the resemblance to Team Rocket won’t ruin it for Leslie and Karen. The other minor characters seem well designed, too.
I like all the crazy expressions they use in the animation. Like when Himeko has to kiss the monkey to eat its banana (no, literally) and when Nana faces the pantsu-less Leslie. These are all priceless! Anime needs to have more of these wacky exaggerated facial expressions. And not just emo ones, either!
I also liked the strangely out of place scene with those foreign guys eating the peanut butter chocolate cake things. Totally random and awesome!
The OP is sung by the seiyuu for Himeko and Nana, and the ED is sung by Himeko. The OP is cute, but kinda too cheesy for me to enjoy a lot. The ED is actually really good. I must confess to listening to it more than once.
Download the OP: “Hyappatsu Hyakuchuu Toraburun♪” by Ryoko Shintani and Ui Miyazaki
Download the ED: “CANDY☆POP☆SWEET☆HEART” by Ryoko Shintani
I’m really surprised that no one picked this anime up until this week. It beats the crap out of a lot of other anime from this season. The plot may be non-existent, but Hime-sama Goyoujin is great for brainless wacky fun. Yu, please keep subbing this anime!
3 replies on “Hime-sama Goyoujin – Anime First Impressions”
Other fun stuff:
There’s Nana, of course, the ape’s name is Ba Nana (don’t think it’s ever said, but it’s in the OP), her friend’s name (the one with the cat puppet) is Sobana Nabana…
I liked the show, but had to drop it, but if it’s subbed now, it’s easier to watch. 🙂
Wow, another direct hit scored thanks to BasuGasuBakuhatsu. This was worth updating my codecs, crashing my computer doing so, and fixing it.
Throw in the fact that a few of my favorite seiyuu are voicing roles in the anime, and that the ones I’m not familiar with are doing a great job as of episode 1… something tells me I’m going to need to make some space on the hard drive for this series.
Gotta add this to the Best Anime of Spring 2006 checklist; it would have my vote.
This anime is the best!
It’s a shame it’s only 12 episodes long…