Scrapped Princess
27 November, 2010
After all this time, I finally remembered to watch Scrapped Princess. It was one of those early animes that I watched its opening theme and was taken in by the catchy opening tune that I decided to put this on my watch list. However as time goes by, I couldn’t find the appropriate time to watch and slowly it faded from my memory until recently. I thought the duration for Suzuka was bad, yeah, this is even worse.
A year 2003 production and set in the fantasy medieval-like land mix with a little sci-fi elements, the story is about a girl, Pacifica Casull, who is more popularly known as Scrapped Princess according to the 5111st Grendel Prophecy, the poison that will destroy and bring disaster to the world once she reached 16 years old. And she’s already 15 years old at the start of the anime. Oh boy. The world has got less than a year before apocalypse come. So it’s no wonder every desperate human fearing for their lives under the faith of Lord Mauser (wearing a white cloth with strange inscriptions covering their face. How the heck can they see? And no, they’re not Mickey Mouse followers) would want to kill her as soon as possible to ‘save’ their world. In the eyes of others, they may be considered selfish. But Pacifica isn’t alone. She has 2 step siblings, the sword master Shannon and powerful magic user Raquel to help protect her wherever they go from 1 village to another. This is going to be one heck of a big action adventure (some comedy of course) seeing almost the entire world is out for her head.
Like in episode 1, Pacifica and her siblings are travelling and ambushed by pheasant bandits of the Mauser faith. Thankfully they are easily taken down by Raquel’s magic and Shannon’s superb swordsmanship. Resting in the next village, Pacifica follows an aunty to a temple. But it’s a trap to lure her in as the priest tries to kill her. Fortunately Raquel barges in to not only zap the fatso but her powerful magic destroyed the temple too. See, if you chant your magic lines faster and shorter, your magic will also come faster, right? While camping outside, Pacifica talks to Shannon about who named her and how everything will be easier if she had just died. Suddenly a lone man, Christopher “Chris” Armalite from the 5th Royal Task Force and weapons specialist appears to kill Pacifica. Shannon and Chris clash swords but the latter withdraws after seeing he is outnumbered when Raquel appears. He asks Shannon why he protected something that will bring disaster to the world and that everyone will rejoice over her death. But Shannon replies that their parents gave her that name so that she can be loved by everyone and will continue to protect her.
In episode 2, the gang faces another band of bandit during their stop. A young knight-in-training and eldest son of a baron, Leopold “Leo” Scorpse appears to defend them but due to his bumbling, he crashes out of the picture. Our usual heroes easily take care of the bandits. Leo follows the gang and gets taken in by Pacifica’s beauty and dignity that he proposes to marry her! Hey, it’s better than wanting to kill her, right? Plus, he doesn’t believe in the Scrapped Princess thingy. They learn of his dream to be part of the kingdom’s elite knights, Amber Knights and wishes to see a legendary sub-commander Doyle Barrett who suddenly resigned 15 years ago and was rumoured to be cursed and made ill by Scrapped Princess. He wants to learn chivalry from him. While resting at a lake, a granny tries to warn Pacifica from afar a creature residing in it. Suddenly a giant frog appears. A mysterious girl, Zefiris appears saying that it’s a spirit taking some form. She uses her magic to turn it into a human form. Pacifica following her words, tells the spirit to rest and it soon disappears. Granny gives them directions to Doyle’s place. Leo, Pacifica and Shannon head there while Raquel watches the wagon. They meet Doyle but he is reluctant to teach Leo since he’s now a mere town doctor. Leo is persistent so Doyle tells him he will only understand if he kills. Besides, he believes that there is no absolute chivalry and justice in this world and tells him to go home. The trio return as granny cooks them a meal as thanks for calming the spirit. Granny says Doyle quit due to something sad that happened. He was in charge of ridding Scrapped Princess then but he found her more cute than detestable in contrary to the oracle’s words. Though he dropped her down the cliff, rumours have it she was rescued and survived till this day.
The gang encounter a roadblock by the Royal Guards in episode 3. Due to the guards recognizing Leo’s family emblem and Pacifica in a disguise, they made it through. They stay at an inn where Pacifica quickly makes friends with a gloomy-looking inn staff, Winia Chester. Since they’ve no money, they go do part time jobs like selling bread (Raquel is hot and attracting sales but Pacifica is scaring customers away because of her hideous mascot suit) while Shannon does chores at the inn. With Pacifica around, Winia seems to open up and smile, something she hasn’t done since her parents died. That evening, Zefiris warns Shannon of new assassins so they had no choice but to pack and leave though Pacifica wanted to stay longer. However Chris kidnaps Winia as bait to lure them out. Shannon decides to go alone to the mirror gorge to rescue her and though Pacifica wants to come, he tells her to stay put and make dinner for them. When Winia comes to, she learns about Pacifica as the Scrapped Princess when Chris tells her about St Grendel’s prophecy which is almost 100% correct and given once a year. When the queen gave birth to a boy and girl twins, the baby girl that emerged from the womb must be killed or else the world will be destroyed. 15 years have passed when the Royal Family found out she’s still alive.
Shannon arrives in episode 4 and another sword fight ensues. Chris is upset that Shannon is protecting something that will destroy the world but Winia feels he is envious that Shannon is able to protect something. In the end Shannon wins but let Chris live. An Apostle of Lord Mauser, Galil of the Purgers and a Peacemaker, decide to personally kill Scrapped Princess after witnessing Chris’ failure. Winia and Shannon return to the rest but Winia remains gloomy. Chris returns to his comrades to report his loss when Major Sturm arrives to inform them about their change in plans as the church has sent Purgers not only to kill Scrapped Princess but the entire village as well. The Royal Force are to withdraw all actions towards Scrapped Princess and just observe. Next morning as the Casull siblings leave, they’re being attacked by the Royal Force but Chris tells them to back down. He also informs the town is in danger. It seems Galil’s blob is absorbing the townspeople. The gang return to fight it off when Galil hypnotizes everyone to kill Pacifica. Feeling afraid, she lets loose a fearful scream that unleashes a powerful inner force and frees everyone from the spell. The blob continues to absorb everyone so Pacifica is overcome with guilt and even tells it to kill her since she’s the source of the problem. That’s when her inner force stops the blob and allows Raquel and Shannon to destroy its core and return order to the town. Before they leave, Winia thanks them and wishes they come visit her next time (citing unpaid inn bills). Leo who is unaware of everything that has happened until now, sees them leaving. Where have you been boy?
Chris meets the Baroness Bylaha in episode 5. She wants him to investigate Grendel’s prophecy and the Scrapped Princess. She makes him her foster son so he can do his investigations smoother. He meets Forcis, the twin brother of Pacifica. The gang on their journey meets a minstrel, Kidaf Gylot AKA Silencer. Just to be safe, they ignore his wish to play them a song. During their rest, they sense him nearby so Shannon goes to confront him. He learns his mastering of the mute melody has him able to control poisonous Bugs. But it was a distraction since a Bug scratched Pacifica’s cheek and its lethal poison was enough to make her fall ill. Leo and Raquel go see Doyle for an antidote but they need to get special herbs from the Stronghold Cave, nest of the Bugs. They enter the cave and meet Kidaf who tells them the kingdom has but a huge bounty sum on Pacifica’s head. Doyle and Leo are shocked to learn Pacifica as the Scrapped Princess. Raquel’s magic defeats Kidaf. As she and Doyle hurry back to make the antidote (deadline before sunrise), Leo’s heart is confused while Pacifica’s condition worsens.
They made it in time in episode 6 so Pacifica is healed. Confused Leo meets Doyle on his way back to ask what he should do as a knight but he gave no straight answer but tells him if his sword is his justice, then cut off her head. While the siblings are travelling, Galil appears before them, hypnotizes Shannon and Raquel before taking them away with him. Pacifica goes in search for them but comes into Leo and Kidaf. Pacifica wants Kidaf to use his Bugs to find her siblings in exchange for an arm of hers. She tells Leo to cut it off. Initially in a dilemma, he refuses after thinking a sword isn’t for cutting people. Kidaf agrees to help search for them with no strings attached. Upon knowing Galil’s location, off Pacifica and Leo go. Seems Galil is confronted with Zefiris. He transforms into a large monster to blasts them. Shannon in a dream state, makes his resolve to protect Pacifica so Zefiris agrees to temporary be his D Knight and let him wield her. When he returns to reality, Galil is going to do another blast but Shannon’s sword unleashes a dragon aura and destroys Galil. In the aftermath Zefiris explains she’s the last Dragoon, a weapon sent from a faraway time to aid them in fighting against God. Though she hasn’t regained all her abilities yet and not perfect, but when he fights the remaining 3 Peacemakers and Lord Mauser, he can call upon her name so that she can be his blade and destroy the enemies. She’s been waiting 5000 years to aid him? Leo decides to part ways with the gang for fear he may become their enemy once he finds the true meaning of chivalry and justice.
Sturm reports to Baroness in episode 7 about Shannon and Galil’s fight. They also talk about the Third Princess of the Empire of Giat, Seness Lulu Giat and the crisis management organization she heads called Scarlet that has been doing suspicious things for the last 2 years. Baroness calls Chris and wants him to go to Grendel for the next prophecy. She also gives him a letter of thanks from Winia. I guess she has nothing better to do than to watch any romance development of her stepson. Like Chris cares anyway. The siblings take refuge in an abandoned house outside town. Shannon goes shopping and it seems a young girl, Sim followed him back. She takes a liking for him and sticks with him. Pacifica’s body reactions are of course jealous. Since she has lost her memories, they allow Sim to stay with them for the time being. Can’t turn down a loli with sympathetic look in her eyes, eh? Chris meets Cardinal Garnest Hogue as they talk about the truth of the prophecy, in which it was inaccurate on 2 occasions. Hogue’s reply was that the priest may have misinterpreted it. Chris also mentions his encounter with the Scrapped Princess and her guardians and can’t believe she’s an evil being and questions God’s will and the mission of killing under the control of Purgers. Hogue doesn’t answer so Chris leaves. Hogue sees Steyr (a Peacemaker and Galil’s replacement) and is shocked to learn of Galil’s death since he believes Apostle of Gods can’t die. Hogue asks a nun’s opinion on God and her answer and belief in Him is unwavering because He is immortal. As Sim continues to get closer to Shannon and Raquel, Pacifica feels alienated. Zefiris appears before Pacifica and requests her assistance: To kill Sim.
Zefiris thinks Shannon and Raquel can’t do the job thus the reason why she wants Pacifica to do it in episode 8. And do it fast or her siblings will be killed. She disappears when Sim comes looking for her. In a dilemma, Shannon soon comes in so Pacifica tosses away, prompting Shannon to slap her. They argue and he’s disappointed in the way she viewed him. Next day, Shannon takes Sim to town to sell the wagon and 1 of their horses. On the way back, Shannon gets injured while saving Sim from being run over by a carriage. Pacifica blames Sim but Sim tries to make up by giving her earrings she bought. Pacifica and Shannon talk and reconcile. That night Sim goes missing so the girls go look for her. Zefiris appears before Shannon and tells him Sim’s true form is an artillery type Peacemaker, Cz. If she changed into her true form, they’ll all be killed immediately. She tells he was under Sim’s control and that she ordered Pacifica to kill her. Also, humans can’t go against Peacemakers but Pacifica is an exception. She can only use that ability if she experiences extreme fear or anger. Pacifica finds Sim and they both embrace and become friends. Steyr appears and explains stuff like Peacemakers come in pairs and Cz was Galil’s partner but he got too hasty and died thus she got uncompressed and thrown out into this world. Artillery types are hard to handle so they’re compressed and maintained in phase space. Steyr is here to retrieve Cz and forces her to change into her true form (an adult version). Shannon and Raquel arrive. Zefiris possesses Shannon to fight but Steyr doesn’t intend to do that and escapes with Cz. Next morning, the siblings leave as they talk about Sim. Pacifica felt she thought she had made a little sister and a chance to act like a big sister. Too late for that now.
On their journey in episode 9, the siblings meet and make friends with a Mauser church heretical procurator (hunting those who aren’t of Mauser Faith), Bergens. Well, he’s quite friendly and treats them to food. Not to mention he looks a little like their late dad (?!). He follows them on their journey as they discover a village hidden by magic. Seems the people of this village are anti-Mauser. Bergens is tied up and taken away while the siblings meet their leaders, Lenard and Elfitine. They are freed after Shannon burns the holy symbol of Mauser. However the siblings are being told of Elfitine’s other famous title: Scrapped Princess. Well, she does have blue eyes and blonde hair. After Raquel uses her magic to save the villagers from a construction catastrophe, they talk to a little girl Audrey who tells them that everyone here has no relatives and seek refuge here from the Mauser faith. They are believers of Lord Browning and they consider him their true God but one considered as a demon if you’re a Mauser believer. Audrey tells of the many miracles Elfitine did like healing and ability to see the future. The siblings are summoned to see Lenard. They talk about the source of magic stemming from Browning. Mauser is the devil who oppresses humanity and Browning a God who fought Him with 26 Dragoons. Lenard invites the trio to join them in changing the world into a correct one. Shannon remains suspicious of Lenard’s abilities and will not interrupt nor help in whatsoever of their plans. Lenard accepts that and allows them to be witnesses instead. Everyone gathers for a special ceremony headed by Lenard and Elfitine.
In episode 10, Pacifica runs off alone to find Bergens. Speaking of which, he has broken himself free and assimilate among the praying crowd in the ceremony. We see Lenard giving drugged drinks to some of the villagers (including Audrey) and putting them into a liquid capsule which powers a strange machine. Lenard commands the other villagers to pray and announces the plan to destroy the Holy Capital Grendel. Pacifica wanders to a hotspring area and sees Elfitine taking bath and joins her. They casually talk. When Elfitine mentions about seeing a dark future of this village and getting scared, she tells her about Lenard’s destruction plans though she believes in him because if not for him she and the other villagers will not be where they are today. Pacifica also tells her own story and her siblings are the only one who believed in her before parting. Shannon and Raquel enter the strange machine room. Raquel notes the minds of these people are amplifying the magic. Then Bergens come in. he consults Raquel about the possibility of Grendel being destroyed. She says a Super Range Strategic-class Assault Magic Spell is possible but notes this village can’t use such large scale magic.
When they reunite with Pacifica, they head to the machine room as Raquel notes the magic won’t reach Grendel but will cause an explosion here. They decide to find Lenard, who has fled with Elfitine. When they catch up, Lenard reveals his plan to destroy the villagers who praise Browning is to correct the world. Yup, a trap. Lenard is a heretical procurator bent with an ambition to be the next church head and the reporting of the destruction of anti-Mauser believers will be his big break. He takes Elfitine hostage but she is adamant to stay with the villagers. Shannon throws a rock to hit off his mask. Some ugly face he’s got. In his panic to hide it, he falls off the cliff but survives. Elfitine and the rest go back to the village as she admits that she is the fake Scrapped Princess and has been deceiving them. But the villagers forgive her as they free the drugged people. Elfitine plans to stay here with her people as the rest part. Bergens decides to go back to the capital and will not report this incident. He hints to Shannon that he knows Pacifica is the real Scrapped Princess and notes she is quite a good girl and to protect her well. He warns that there are many heretical procurators at Giat too. Baroness and Chris arrive at the castle of Queen Elmeyer, the mother of Scrapped Princess.
The siblings enter Giat in episode 11 but are ambushed but Seness and her guards. She knows all about them and has them follow her to her Scarlet fort, Skid. She separates Pacifica from the rest. Seness says she hates Pacifica and bombards her with lots of questions. She tells her she’s going to take Shannon and leave her in the care of her adjutant, Eirote Borchard. Eirote says how Pacifica and Seness are alike. That is, both born a princess, never loved and had people wanted to kill them. The difference is Seness’ siblings never protected her and wanted to kill her as they’re afraid she’d take over the throne since she excels in literary and military arts. Eirote says something about their true enemy not Mauser or Leinwan Kingdom, but something non-human that governs this world like the Peacemakers. Leo is seen escorting Winia to Sauer while Chris and Baroness meet Elmeyer and tell of their meeting with Scrapped Princess. Elmeyer is sad she can’t do anything for her but Chris says she’s a cheerful and open girl. Zefiris is doing her investigation and comes across the fort’s Vanguard, which turns out to be another Dragoon like her, Natalie. Something about transferring her personality to this Vanguard 5000 years ago after the war and was asleep most of the time (thus avoiding Peacemaker’s detection). Seness confronts Shannon and tells him straight he wants to make him hers (nothing romantic, mind you). That is, the power of his fully mobile Dragoon for world domination. They both have a sword fight and though she could also use magic, Shannon comes up tops. Seness and Eirote get a call that ‘she’ has been awaken. Pacifica is reunited with her siblings and they are being told Skid’s official name is Free Orbital Fortress Vanguard, a vehicle from the Genesis War. They enter to room and see Zefiris and Natalie.
As explained in episode 12, Natalie lost most of her abilities and transferred her body and mind into Skid. Steyr and her controlled army attack Skid so Seness and Eirote go counter attack but find it tough to handle since Steyr’s Rally Points (some flexible blob) is sucking and killing the guards and advancing deeper. The Dragoons explain further about Pacifica as the Providence Breaker and everything the siblings went through was planned by them. They’re not the only guardians and proceed to show others who carry the factors of guardian within them. Among the many people include Leo, Winia, Bergens, Elfitine, Kidaf and surprisingly their late parents. The Casull siblings seem to be their best chance against breaking Peacemakers’ plan who are using the Mauser church to interrupt their scheme (the killing of Scrapped Princess). As Seness’ troops are losing, Shannon tells her to call them back as he will go face Steyr with Zefiris. Unheeding Zefiris’ advice not to merge because he doesn’t trust her fully, Steyr’s appearance causes all those who look at her to fall under her control. Steyr’s attack is superior so Shannon-Zefiris make a retreat. Pacifica learns that as Providence Breaker, she is the only one who won’t listen to Peacemakers unlike everyone else who are born and implanted with this. They want to kill her since her specialty is contagious and that Peacemakers can’t attack her directly although her ability isn’t complete yet. So by using her as a rally point, they can gather a people of army and fight against them and start a revolution. Rally Points are killing more people so Pacifica gets scared and unleashes that power and free those affected around her. Steyr lets her guard down and this enabled Shannon to stab her from behind. Before he could finish her, Cz saves her. Before disappearing, she tells him that both sides will back down for now and wants them to come to the capital of Leinwan in 15 days so they can finish everything. They will kill 1000 people if they’re a day late. Rally Points disappear, Seness and her comrades pay their respects to the fallen and Pacifica is resolved to head to Leinwan’s capital.
Zefiris wakes up from a dream being separated by her previous master Beckenham in episode 13. Looks a lot like Shannon if you ask me. As Skid is making its way to Sauer, the siblings learn about history how mankind fought what is known to the Mauser faith as God and lost. The reason why they’re trapped and sealed in this world and constantly under observation of Peacemakers for 5000 years. Through the years, mankind wasn’t allowed to develop their civilization and gradually forgot that they’re being imprisoned. A small number of humans on the outside plan to free mankind. Dragoons were created to aid factors to defeat them and using precise human DNA calculations to scatter the factors which bore fruit now. In short, Pacifica is mankind’s trump card to defeat Peacemakers with her Providence Breaker. Skid suddenly stops moving. The Dragoons feel Pacifica’s Providence isn’t ready yet though they know and will allow thousands of innocent people to die. Seness decides to cut connections to Skid’s power and reconnect it manually. As Seness and the siblings head deeper into Skid, they learn more about Browning who devised a plan by placing a machine that aided the mind and body of the best seer at the time, Celia, in this Free Orbital Fortress to counter attack the alien’s attacks. Her predictions were accurate and attacks successful but Celia betrayed mankind. The gang are suddenly separated from each other. Pacifica sees Zefiris as she’s in a dilemma and asks the former what to do.
The king is desperate after learning Scrapped Princess is still alive in episode 14 and will do whatever it takes to hasten her death. Baroness and the other Royal Force members are in discussion about Scrapped Princess’ contact with Giat and the possibility of conspiring to attack them. Furthermore, a disturbing vision from Jill reveals that the Royal Force may use ‘that’ banned magic. That Super Range thingy. Zefiris tells Pacifica her past how those aliens from outer space has been battling mankind for some time and the creation of Dragoons with God-like powers to aid them, thus their name Last Beasts. But there was some AI flaw which caused a majority of them to operate inefficiently in battle. They’re replaced with better versions called Valkyries but they betrayed mankind and contributed to their loss. They are what we know as Peacemakers. She also shows her the separation from Beckenham. Because Shannon doesn’t trust her anymore and that Pacifica treats her like her previous master, that’s why she asks for her opinion. She also says Natalie is brainwashing Shannon into an emotionless person. Seems he is seeing visions of the past whereby Pacifica was saved and brought into the hands of their late parents. Raquel and Seness manage to move Skid again. When they regroup, Pacifica is horrified to see Shannon brainwashed. He vows to protect her no matter what. But Pacifica isn’t going to leave him like that and the only way to return him back to normal is to enter his mind. Inside, we see Shannon living his happy days with little Pacifica so much so to a point he would even cut his parents and Raquel if they’d suggested stuff that separated them! The real Pacifica is disgusted with his lolicon behaviour and confronts him but gets stabbed! Not amused, Pacifica punches and slaps him several times to snap him out of the spell. Even Natalie is surprised it was undone so easily! As they continue to Leinwan, Zefiris apologizes to Pacifica for dragging the siblings into their fight.
Leinwan’s military General Peter-Stahl considers Skid an invasion in episode 15 and is going to use the prohibited Strategic-class Assault Magic, Ginnungagap. Baroness protests and suggests waiting to verify the truth but it doesn’t help since the kind is desperate in eliminating Scrapped Princess. Leo and Winia arrive and pass by Chris but the latter ignores Winia. Forcis tries to convince his dad but he’s still adamant to rid Scrapped Princess. The Peacemakers (including the fourth one introduced, Socom) use remote control to disable Skid defences and immobilize their movements. Shannon decides to fight them thinking that it will weaken their restrain and they’ll have a chance to move. Shannon merges with reluctant Zefiris who feels he hasn’t trust her fully yet. They transform into her true Dragoon form and battle Cz. While doing that, a black sphere (Ginnungagap) suddenly engulfs Skid. Reports that there are no survivors from Skid’s elimination but the destructive power is so great that the tsunami destroyed the coastal town. A guy named Fulle sees Pacifica standing on the shore. Though she is cheery, she seems to have amnesia and follows him in hopes she may meet those she know.
Peter is using defence as an excuse to attack Giat in episode 16 since Scrapped Princess’ death isn’t confirmed. Baroness is against it so Peter removes her from her position as Director or the task force and replaces her with Sturm. Cz follows Shannon everywhere he goes in the capital as precaution as Raquel stumbles upon Bergens who has been called back to the capital to look for Scrapped Princess. Pacifica is living a normal life with Fulle and under the name of Pamela (apparently the name of his beloved dead cat). Winia and Leo are shocked to see her. Even more, Pacifica goes to work part time at Kidaf’s theatre (now he’s a musician). Kidaf tells the duo about Pacifica’s amnesia, etc. He doesn’t want to tell her she’s the Scrapped Princess and thinks it’s a bad idea to have her walking around town filled with Royal Guards looking for her, thus he gave her this job. Another coincidental meeting at the ramen stall whereby Pacifica, Fulle, Leo, Raquel and Bergens meet (Lenard who is running the stall almost got recognizes but backed out quickly!). When they return to Fulle’s place, Fulle thinks it’s time for her to return to her family but Pacifica doesn’t want to go and wishes to stay with him. Raquel allows her to do so for the time being seeing how happy she is.
Cz tells Shannon the Peacemakers’ side of the story to keep mankind ‘sealed’ for their own good in episode 17. If he wants to make them the villains, he should blame Browning and those who lived 5000 years ago. Sturm relays orders from Peter to his Obstinate Arrow members (Chris and co) to drop all their current mission and focus on finding Scrapped Princess. They have 3 days to do it or else they’ll be disbanded. Seness and her crew are still alive back in Giat thanks to Natalie’s guidance. Though Skid has been destroyed. They are building some giant machine, Giga. Leo and Winia go see Fulle and Pacifica who are continuing to live their normal lives. The former duo tell the latter duo about Scrapped Princess in hopes of returning Pacifica’s memories but it was futile. Leo wishes to take Pacifica away from this place filled with soldiers searching for her but Fulle disagrees. Leo challenges him but was interrupted when Fulle’s friend, Slay from the military comes by to take Lace, Fulle’s codename, back to the military to prepare war on Giat. Fulle refuses, saying he has left the army and doesn’t intend to go back there. Slay is forceful but eventually gives up. When he leaves, he informs a colleague that Scrapped Princess is living with Fulle and wants an order to arrest her.
As Fulle returns to the gang in episode 18, he tells them to leave now because he knows they’ve been discovered. When Slay returns with reinforcements, the gang are already done. They take refuge at Kidaf’s theatre and contemplate where to go next. Kidaf suggests Grendel since it’s better to face the Purgers than the Royal Guards who have increased the intensity of the search. But they need to wear a disguise to get past the guards. Pacifica and Winia look okay in those dresses but Leo and Fulle cross-dressing? Ugly but it worked and they got out. At a safe distance, Fulle and Leo head back to steal horses. Taking them was easy but escaping is hard because the guards are on their tail. Fulle wants Leo to go ahead while he stays back to stall them. As much as he disagrees, Leo has to because no one else will protect Pacifica. Leo returns to Winia and Pacifica and the latter knows something is wrong though Leo says Fulle will catch up. Fulle takes on the guards but their numbers are increasing. At the end, Fulle has taken too much arrow shots and dies :'(. Shannon and Cz see Fulle’s dead corpse lying in the streets. The escaped trio patiently wait for Fulle to come. Pacifica thinks of going back but Leo with tears streaming down his face stops her. Suddenly they are surrounded by Chris and his Obstinate Arrow members.
The trio are captured in episode 19 as Pacifica is thrown into jail. Leo and Winia are soon released. Pacifica makes acquaintance with a prisoner in the next cell unknown to her, which turns out to be Elmeyer. She’s very weak and real messed up. Chris learns that Forcis will be sent away to the Holy Capital for his ‘safety’. Leo and Winia tell Raquel and Kidaf about Pacifica’s case but they can’t do anything about it now. Shannon and Cz are found by Sturm as he requests them to follow him to see Peter. Peter wants Shannon to cooperate with him to use Scrapped Princess as a negotiation tool to negotiate with the Peacemakers for ultimate world domination. Shannon isn’t happy with that idea of using Pacifica so Peter gives him time to think carefully. Pacifica and Elmeyer indirectly talk about Scrapped Princess. Elmeyer knows she won’t last long and wants Pacifica to pretend to be her daugther and call her “mother”. Pacifica starts panicking and screams just that but Elmeyer doesn’t respond.
Chris learns of Elmeyer’s death in episode 20 and Jill foresees the death of many people. Pacifica is taken to see the king. He is very fearful of her and wants her killed but Peter tells him they need her alive as a negotiation tool. As Bergens escort Forcis out of the capital, Shannon and Cz are brought in to see the king. Pacifica is brought into the room. Cz mind controls a guard to swiftly kill her but Steyr prevents her. She wants to hear things out first. Peter tells of his plan to rule the world without the Peacemakers’ interference and in exchange will control Scrapped Princess. Of course they reject his idea and mock him. She says she’s going to reset the world. They’re not destroying the world. Just trim it by 90%. Socom in his true form starts destroying the capital and wreck havoc. The guards start panicking so the king orders Pacifica’s death. Shannon goes to protect her. He doesn’t care if this world is worth saving or not because he considers protecting his sister to the end more important. Pacifica regains her memories. During the commotion to kill Pacifica, Sturm orders her not to be killed but to be taken away and imprisoned. Shannon goes after her but encounters Zefiris who says Relay Points are all over the capital and wants him to prioritize preventing more victims since she mentions Sturm was the calmest of the lot and ordered Pacifica not to be killed. Shannon now truly trusts her because she didn’t take away their freedom to believe or doubt. They transform into their Dragoon form. The Peacemakers are confident that they outnumber him but Seness and her Gigas appear to level the playing field.
The aerial battle begins in episode 21. More like a light show if you ask me. Chris and his team break into the castle to free Pacifica. Jill asks his rational of doing so. He replies after doing research on the prophecy, he began to question if Pacifica is the real threat to the world and the Peacemakers as the Gods they claimed to be. He is going to side with her on his own will. His team is with him. During their escape, they bump into Sturm. he says Peter has given orders for Pacifica’s death and allows Chris to get away. He is fully aware of the position he is in now. As Seness and her Gigas are taken down, the Peacemakers corner Shannon. The usual talk about his ideals and priorities. Since he’s still stubborn, they prepare to crush him. As Steyr is in the process of killing him, Seness and her Gigas kill Steyr (that easy?!). Socom and Cz decide to call off the reset process and retreat. In the aftermath, the Casull siblings are reunited. Shannon and Pacifica talk. She still feels guilty that she is a threat to the world so Shannon unsheathes his sword and asks her if she wants to live or die. If she wants to die, he can kill her right now. Or else he will protect her with all he’s got. I guess Shannon’s lecture of don’t listen to other people’s opinion and she only has the right to determine what she wants to do, Pacifica decides to live.
In episode 22, Socom sees the Mauser God, Celia, to request the use of First Class Divine Punishment Execution Form since Galil and Steyr are gone but she only allows the Second Class Form. Pacifica is camping in the forest with her siblings, Zefiris, Winia, Leo, Chris and Co (Seness and Eirote a distance away repairing their Gigas). Pacifica’s cooking is so horrible that they think their stomach will be destroyed before the world! All hail Winia the saviour! That night as she can’t sleep, a wooden block with an inscription fell out from her clothes. She starts crying uncontrollably though she doesn’t know why. Next day as Pacifica bathes at the river, she encounters Celia. She tells her how mankind long ago created ‘wings’ and flew to the stars. But God wasn’t happy since if mankind was left alone they would consume the stars since He viewed them akin to predatory birds. So He decided to preserve and cage them. But they rebelled and many died. Thus her reason she helped in caging them and took extra precautions to make them not realize that they’re being caged. She asks if she wants to ‘leave the cage and go outside’. After calling her Providence Breaker, Pacifica realized who she is and shouts for Shannon’s name. Raquel and Leo also come running but Celia has already disappeared. Not even Zefiris has seen her. Since Pacifica’s birthday is in 3 days time, Socom hands Hogue a task while Sturm and Slay move out their army to the Holy Capital.
The Royal Force has found the gang’s location in episode 23 but Chris’ team take care of them. Chris goes to see Forcis and the latter knows he was the one who let Pacifica escaped. Forcis is brought by Hogue to see a room filled with injured people supposedly to have suffered from God’s wrath. Many more have died. He wants Forcis to be an envoy for God to save the people. Pacifica has a chat with Shannon, then Winia and Seness who wish to visit her village one day. Bergens arrives to deliver a message. Seems Forcis requests to see his sister. Pacifica has her doubts but Chris tells her Forcis isn’t the kind of guy who would wage a war without any reason and has been worried about her all the while. Bergens give her time to think. Leo talks to Pacifica about his beliefs and chivalry and concludes that all he wants to do is protect her. Since he says it’s better to try and fail than to regret it later, Pacifica decides to go see Forcis. At a nearby church, Pacifica and Forcis meet for the first time. Though a little awkward, Pacifica manages to strike up a conversation. He apologizes for everything and the hardship she went through but she doesn’t mind because she has her guardians and friends around. With tears streaming down his eyes, Forcis once more apologizes and hugs her. He takes out his sword and stabs her back! Then shortly himself! As everyone is shocked to see the events unfolding, Peter orders his army to fire on the church. Raquel’s barrier protects them. As Pacifica and Forcis lay in their pool of blood and weakening, Zefiris thinks she is able to help Pacifica with her material intervention ability but Socom wouldn’t allow that. He orders Shannon to merge with his Dragoon and fight him or he’ll burn down the Holy Capital. Now that is one very angry Dragoon. Forcis says his rational for doing so was to protect his people and hopes they will forgive him.
Shannon with Seness and her Gigas take on another aerial battle with Cz and Socom in episode 24. Raquel panics when Pacifica’s blood doesn’t stop and even pleads to Mauser to forgive and save her! Pacifica’s blood draws strange inscriptions on the ground and unleashes a mysterious power that throws the aerial combatants out of the sealed world and into space. The heroes kill Socom and Cz eventually. Pacifica wakes up next to Celia in a virtual reality place created in the empty space of the sealed world’s control system. Celia tells her how she was born to destroy her but it needed 16 years to develop her power which is activated when she dies. Though she was short by 10 hours. She also mentions the past of the war between humans and aliens that resulted in the death of many. Celia conspired with the aliens to stop the war and preserve nearly-extinct mankind to save her brother (Beckenham?) and sister (looks like Raquel?) but of course it was too late. Celia wants to know if this world should continue like this. Pacifica gives her honest opinion about walking her own path so Celia decides to free the world and bids Pacifica farewell. As Celia breaks the barrier and reveals the real sky, she tells the humans her final words. Put down their weapons and walk their own path of freedom and future together as there won’t be any more prophecies. Pacifica appears in the arms of Shannon. But naked? They start arguing (lolicon, closet pervert?) and things are certainly back to normal. The siblings have an emotional reunion and Forcis’ wounds have also healed so he lives too. In the aftermath, Winia and Chris seem to be a couple. Pacifica and her siblings are willing to miss Forcis’ coronation to help their horse in labour! Zefiris is also living with them as Pacifica notes how she’s glad to be Scrapped Princess because she gets to go places, experience things and meet new people. Leo once again proposes her to marry him but she slaps him! Never in a million years! Not giving up too, eh?
Let’s see, humans are allowed to live freely again, Pacifica is no longer the feared one and gets to continue her life and the aliens, oh heck, I don’t know if they have left the planet or the Milky Way. That’s got to be a happy ending, right? It’s just too bad that a lot of undesirable things happened for a very long time before it came down to this. But it was one heck of an adventure, doesn’t it? I was actually preparing myself for the worse that the world would be ‘saved’ with Pacifica’s death considering a few supporting characters like Fulle and Elmeyer died. Who am I kidding? The story is pretty okay with the plot and twist unravelling at a steady pace. Just that I find that the explanations for the plot, past and its many unique terms to be a little complicated since I’m one of those blur cases. Too much for me to handle. At least the revelations were spread out through the entire series which makes it ‘easier’ for me. Otherwise this could’ve been a fun filled adventure with some comedy and the other various colourful characters.
Pacifica may be tomboyish but her simple and happy ways was a facade to hide her self guilt in which she blamed herself for how the world turned out to be. Though at times her heart may waver, she stood strong till the end. Wouldn’t anybody who has been accused of bringing the world’s end feel so? Shannon and Raquel truly play big brother and sister for Pacifica even if they’re not truly blood related. They are each other’s pillar of strength. Shannon sure puts on his tough love for Pacifica but eventually in the end he is still human and a big brother and cries. Though there are some characters that I felt were like ‘excess baggage’ that didn’t do much at the end like Leo and Winia. That’s the problem when you have too many characters in a series even if they’re just supporting. I thought I’d see Leo in action and though he stays close to Pacifica to protect her, I felt he was just like tagging along. I suppose he has found his own true meaning of chivalry and justice. As for the Peacemakers, I couldn’t believe it that they died so easily. After making their menacing and tough presence, I thought it’s going to be a tough fight. Sure, we have some mediocre aerial battles with lasers shooting just about anywhere but when it’s time to kill them, it was so easily done.
On to the opening theme song that I fell in love when I first heard many years ago, entitled Little Wing by JAM Project featuring Masami Okui, all I can say that this is a very catchy and lively tune and one might mistaken this song to be a Scottish piece thanks to the bagpipes-like intro. However I find the ending theme to be a total turn off. I just didn’t like it. Sung by Yoko Ueno and Masumi Itou, it is called Daichi No La-Li-La. Probably it was the weird singing vocals. On a trivial note, later as I found out that many of the characters’ names are named after firearms or its manufacturers! Well, we don’t see guns in the series but what are they trying to imply here?! I guess if this wasn’t a world of sword and magic fantasy, it would be guns and rifles warfare. Another odd thing I find is the next episode preview. No, it’s not the contents of what Raquel narrates as it’s your real next episode preview and what is to be expected in the next instalment. But rather, Raquel was talking so fast like as though she has to squeeze all her words in a very limited time. Because of that, it sounded quite funny.
I’m sure this series has us think on lots of aspects. For instance, blind faith. Are we really to oppose the one and Almighty even if it is against our morals and beliefs? But sometimes having so doesn’t necessary mean to be walking with crutches. With such a strong belief and hope in one’s heart, it makes us go on when the going gets tough. Just because those at the top painted a rotten picture of someone, who are we to form stereotypic views on that person? You won’t know till you get to know that person better. Yeah, never judge a book by its cover. Like in the series, we see how many characters changed after meeting Pacifica like Chris and Seness. Even the Mauser God herself realized the err of her ways. Bergens, Sturm and Forcis weren’t such bad people as their profession or position would’ve suggested. A subtle message I think may be to tell us that humans in general are self destructive no matter if we are set free or caged. Can we do a compromise then? Although I don’t have blonde hair and blue eyes, but I think if this trend keeps up, a new threat will destroy the world. It’s called otakuism and it is slowly invading the world! Scrapped Otaku! Better then to seal oneself in your own ideal dream world, eh?
Chua Tek Ming~*Anime Power*~ !LiVe FoR AnImE, aNiMe FoR LiFe! 