Back to User842713's Profile User842713's Profile

TLDR: A visually exquisite experience weight down by shallow characters and an unoriginal story.

The show shines a light on interesting societal and interpersonal dynamics, but refuses to engage the topics in any detail to the point that they feel like set dressing. The male MC, Kyros, is a lord who employs the most capable people regardless of ethnicity/ nationality. Some of the positive sides of this approach, like diversity in cuisine, clothing, care products and procedures, are showcased but none of the conflicts that would arise from different upbringings and culture values are seen at all. Kyros himself is an ethnic minority and seems to ... be the result of a untoward relationship between the previous count and a commoner, who is either vaguely middle eastern or possibly Romani inspired. Their relationship is spoken about for no more than five minutes. Similarly, the consequences of Kyros' racial and cultural background are explored through flashbacks that don't even amount to half an episode and they don't seem to affect the story in any way. He's portrayed as a capable businessman and count with one interest: his fiance.

The female MC, Marie, is the younger daughter of an incompetent baron. Her parents mistreat her because of an inherent physical characteristic. The specific characteristic does not matter, it could have easily been feet that are too large or oddly shaped elbows. The only people who seems to think of it as a negative trait are her parents. It does not affect how other characters treat her, although the show does try to portray the suffering she goes through as a result of her dysphoria.

The story boils down to "what if Disney's Cinderella kept going for another four hours". There is more to the story, as implied by the runtime, but none of it is particularly original. The story has two central points: the death of Marie's sister, Anastasia, and Marie's betrothal to the count as Anastasia's replacement. The first part of the story tries to deal with the latter, but the concept is swept under the rug in the first episode. The show instead attempt to portray Marie dealing with her sense of inadequacy. Unfortunately, the show dedicated too much screen time to this aspect of the story. The former is more or less ignored until it becomes relevant to the plot, which is also the first time Marie is portrayed grieving Anastasia's death in spite of her being one Marie's only friends.

While the medieval European setting isn't particularly creative, the environment designs are intricate and well made. The character designs are stellar. It's evident that a lot of effort was put into creating appropriate attire and hair styles for all the named characters. There isn't much action in this anime as such there is nothing in particular to say about the animation. It is serviceable.

The pacing is decent in spite of some parts of the story overstaying their welcome. I watched the episodes the week they aired and never felt like watching was a drag.