2020 Reflection: Shamanic Princess

 

Shamanic Princess was written in June 1996 by Mami Watanabe, Mitsuru Hongo, and Hiroyuki Nishimura. The series for the majority of it focuses on Tiara, a magical girl agent from the "Guardian World" who came to the Earth to retrieve a magical object of immense power and imporance called "The Throne of Yord" which provides power to Guardian World. Of all my favorite series this one is probably the most obscure, as well as likely the shortest being only six episodes long and most likely the darkest, both in aesthetics and themes. I view Shamanic Princess as a very early precursor to the so-called "dark magical girls" of the 2010s like Madoka Magicka and Yuki Yuna. I've heard some claim these are magical girl deconstructions however to me this seems an overly narrow view of what a magical girl series is; it's much closer in my view to two subgenres the way "super robot" and "real robot" are two subgenres of mecha.

3 Reasons I love it:

1: One of the great purposes of art in my opinion is being able to take intellectual ideas that maybe intriguing but hard to understand or abstract and embed them into narrative so they can more intuitively understood and be emotionally connected too. Shamanic Princess does this with the religious ideas of Gnosticism, a religious sect that claims the god that made the material universe was a malevolent lesser spiritual entity (called the Demiurge), that material existence is an entrapping illusion, and that enlightenment is transcending the material. It also does it with transdualism, the idea of things beyond outside binaries refuting dualism. These are really interesting ideas but by themselves they are a bit intellectually abstract. Shamanic Princess does an amazing job embeding these ideas into it's narrative, so the viewer can get a more intuitively sense of the ideas.

2: Shamanic Princess has an amazing minimalist elegance. Abilities and world building are never explained in an expository scene. These are shown visually through the events. Tiara for instance never stops to explain how her demon summoning works, we simply see her invoke and summon a demon and fuse with it for combat. The series is incredibly direct, lacking any fluff and gets to it's points very elegantly. Everything in SP has a sense of grace and purpose; while nothing is explained, it all feels so deliberate that it gives the impression that everything has meaning behind it. Characterization, character development, action, mystery and thematic importance all are integrated very well without anything feeling extraneous.

3: Speaking of characters, for a series that is only 6 episodes, the characters of Shamanic Princess are all surprsingly well developed, both having distinct personalities and development. Tiara and her ferret-like familiar Japolo make an endearing pair that we follow and every character manages to both fit their role without feeling like just a stereotype that is in the series for neccesity. Every single character has a case to be made for them, and fans, as well as detractors. The series stylistically avoids the usual moralistic take of Magical Girl series and almost every character is morally grey, if not a dark shade of grey. Tiara may be our protagonist but she comes from the dark "Guardian World" which holds different moral standards then us. Likewise even the villain of the piece, a representation of the Demiurge only acts on an eldritch and abstract moral code compared to us, rather then out of traditional malice. 

3 Flaws:

1: While this is a deliberate effect, the world of Shamanic Princess is a highly unpleasent world. It's aesthetic is consistently dark, and it's characters are often sinister or mysterious and ethereal. As such the world of Shamanic Princess feels cold and hostile. While some people are into this, this is not something that naturally appeals to me without other purpose. While I love to think about the world of Shamanic Princess, the world's intellectual attractiveness is rivaled by it's emotional repellence. 

2: There are points in SP where I feel the series is being deliberately confusing to preserve the mystery for longer. The series has an in media res start and after 4 eps, the last 2 eps actually take place before the first 4 eps. That's a relatively low example of this though because there is arguably reasons it's structured like that. However it doesn't help the overall problem where because the series doesn't explain anything, often enough when a character would actually explain something that it feels artifical. For instance Tiara will ask someone who they are and instead of just saying their identity they give a cryptic answer related to non-dualism. I get that it keeps it mysterious and it helps with the themes it's explaining but it feels unnatural and like the series is deliberately trying to be confusing.

3: So much of the series is left to the imagination that many things that are a few things are likely plot contrivances or plot holes, just hidden up by the fact that the series doesn't say. The biggest one imo is the fact that the Throne of Yord is so important that it literally maintains the existence of guardian world and yet Guardian World only sent Tiara and Japolo to retrieve it. Now it makes to send Tiara given she's apparently considered very strong in their world but sending just one person usually requires some explanation. The closest is that maybe they don't know where it is and are investigating different places, thought that opens other problems. There are definitely ways you can explain it; things like "if they send in too many agents, they will lose the element of stealth and Kagestu will flee with the Throne of Yord" but because the series is very devoted to not giving exposition, the kinds of things exposition normally explains just aren't explained.

Favorite Part:

So all of these blogs have spoilers but for this one ESPECIALLY, if you plan to watch this and haven't, this is gonna be a massive spoiler. So my favorite part is the climax of episode 4. Thoughout the series so far we have been shown constant non-dualism symbolism, imagery depicting how there are not actually 2 things but one thing seen from differnet perspectives. Tiara has been consistently trying to ask the Throne of Yord things like "who are you" and "is this reality or dream" and been met with ambigious non dual answers like "I am me" and that there is no difference between truth and false to him as the Demiurge. Tiara realizes that this was what Sara who is also Yord was trying to show her the entire time, that him fighting her and speaking to her as Yord and Sara was that they were not two people but one person, there is no duality between them, just a unity seen from different perspectives. Tiara then gains enlightenment, being one with Yord and Tiara-Yord slays the original "Yord", which was actually from the higher perspective Yord killing the perspective that it was alone by realizing it's own self-companionship. The moment is a complete brain twister and mind-bending in the best way, encouraging you to see the universe from different perspectives, from more cosmic and real perspectives. You realize how limited your thinking can be and what kinds of things you could understand if you only freed your mind from false dichotomy.