Anime: Arete-hime

Set in a mesmerising medieval fantasy world, the story centres around Princess Arete, a young woman yearning to break free from her sheltered life in the castle. Her desires come to life when a mysterious sorcerer takes her to his magical kingdom. However, as Arete delves deeper into the sorcerer's true intentions, she begins to realiae that he is not the saviour he claims to be.

This anime delves into feminist themes, exploring the importance of independence and shedding light on the perils of blindly following authority. Through its clever subversion of traditional princess fairy tale tropes, Princess Arete delivers a compelling narrative that challenges conventions and provides a refreshing take on the subgenre.

One of the standout features of the movie is its stunning background art, which is rich in intricate details and exhibits a vivid colour palette. The meticulously crafted visuals create an immersive atmosphere, transporting viewers into a world of enchantment and wonder. Adding to the movie's allure is the beautiful soundtrack composed by Akira Senju, known for his exceptional work on Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

Princess Arete presents a mature storyline with a strong female lead, offering a refreshing and introspective take on the fairy tale genre. Arete shines as a character who defies the traditional princess archetype, showcasing her strength, resilience, and independence. It's a welcome departure from the conventional narratives and provides a compelling and empowering experience for viewers. The movie's exploration of these themes adds depth and substance to the fairy tale genre, making it a noteworthy and enjoyable watch.

Our story follows Princess Arete, who is confined in the castle tower under the instruction of her her father, the king. He demands that Arete should never have contact with the outside world until she meets a potential suitor for her to marry, and uses these suitors to bring him jewels and powerful magical items from a race of long-dead sorcerers in an attempt to win his admiration and the permission to betroth his daughter.

Because of this Princess Arete spends her days watching the world outside of her window. Arete sneaks outside to watch the common people live out their normal lives. One day, a sorcerer named Boax arrives in a fantastic flying machine and offers to take Arete as his wife, trying to transform her into a proper princess. As Arete sit locked in Boax’s dungeon, she soon realizes that there will be no rescue. If she wants to get free, she must discover how to break his spell and escape on her own.

Princess Arete is a lot more progressive than a lot of traditional animated princess movies, such as some of Disney’s filmography. There is no traditional prince coming to save the day, and no real heroics. Arete is the one saving herself, trying hard to figure out how to get out of the situation she is stuck in. It feels like a mix of the traditional Disney princess film and a lot of Studio Ghibli’s films, where our main female character can hold her own, but just on a smaller more minimalist scale.

The whole movie is beautifully put together. The art style, while more muted, looks fantastic, with it’s older European influence. The one thing that really stands out is the gorgeous soundtrack done by Oonuki Taeko and the late Origa.

My only real complaint about Princess Arete is the lull in the middle of the film. After all of the plot points and characters are set up, the middle of the movie spends it’s time not doing much, and it feels like both me and the characters in the movie are just waiting for the inevitable things to happen near the ending of the movie. While it’s slower paced, I can easily see a younger audience maybe getting bored with it depending on their sensibilities.

There isn’t much to say about this film with outright spoiling it, so I’m just going to use this last little bit to tell you that you should check out Princess Arete.

OVERALL: 9.5/10
I found this film extremely enjoyable and appealing. The slow pace is definitely something you have to let yourself sink into, but once you get over the fact that it's not trying to pull you in and instead forces you to do a bit of active watching/thinking, it's really engrossing.

Unlike so many others, it's not trying to be a Ghibli film. in fact, I think it's trying to be something other than Ghibli, like Palme no Ki or even Ghost in the Shell. There's no trace of the typical anime "love conquers all" anywhere in the film. The focus is on human potential and capability. It's a nice change from the usual themes, and actually made me cry the first time I saw it. And the second.

ART and ANIMATION: 9/10
I'm not the best judge of visual things, but there were moments in the film that could have been better visually. However, I'm not sure if they were deliberate wobbles or simply lack of time/funding.

SOUND: 10/10
I particularly loved the soundtrack, which fits the film's pacing and simplicity perfectly. Senju Akira is an underappreciated composer, and wonderfully modest unlike some other pop star composers who are currently in vogue in the anime scene. The quiet strings and Russian vocals, particularly throughout the montage sequences, are absolutely appropriate to conveying the long passages of time while engaging the listener's emotions.

STORY: 9/10
The film's major weakness is, as so many complain, the slow pacing. But there's a point to it, a reason! If the film moved along clickety-clack, if we didn't have that wonderful montage of Arete and Box each spending time in their own heads, the climax wouldn't have anywhere near the same impact.

CHARACTER: 10/10
Maybe it's because I grew up enjoying The Ordinary Princess by M.M. Kaye, which is a similar anti-fairy tale, as well as Patricia M. Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles and Diana Wynne Jones' novels, but I loved the characters in this film. I haven't read The Clever Princess on which the film is based, but have read about the book, which was a 1980s feminist response to all the sexist fairy tales out there. Arete is apparently less forthright in this film adaptation than in the book, and Box is given more of a reason to be the prick that he is, but I personally think the characters are great just as they are.

VALUE: 10/10
By focusing on human potential rather than on the power of love, nature vs man, the importance of friends, yadda yadda yadda, the film steps outside of the normal anime comfort zone. There is no "We can do it if we just stick together!" or "Just believe in yourself!" or "I like the world the way it is!" stuff going on. Arete asks, If the littlest apprentice boy can do something with his hands, can I, a princess, do so as well? And so she tries to find out. The film turns fairytales upside down and inside out, and forces the viewer (if s/he is patient and willing to do a little brain work) to reconsider long-held assumptions.

ENJOYMENT: 10/10
Do I even need to explain why I loved this film so much I've rewatched it six times at least and even sent a fan letter to the composer and have put the soundtrack on repeat for hours at a time?

It's a fantastic film. Give it a chance when you're willing to set aside your assumptions that watching a film always means it's going to entertain you rather than engross you.

Arete Hime initially seems like a typical modern iteration of a fairy tale, ala Disney, with a captive princess who desires to see the world and empathize with its denizens. Eventually, it shapes into a multi-segmented journey of self discovery more akin to "Siddhartha" than "Rapunzel."

When looking back at the entire Journey our main character, Arete undergoes, it is a bit epic. This in no way helps the fact that some stretches are completely starved for plot development, using the time instead to flash some scenic shots and play with a crap ton of Arete's monologues. Which brings me to one of the biggest problems with this film: it is dead focused on Arete. She will continuously feed you her dispositions and her albeit, genuinely pitiful perspective. She's a free bird trapped in a cage for most of the movie and she longs for human contact. That's the gist of basically every line she says, and she has many, many lines. While a philosophical and spiritual journey with a poorly paced, and overall uneventful plot may still be a decent read, it's not particularly satisfying as a film.

Arete is at once adorable and inspiring, in that fairy tale heroine manner, so all is not lost with this movie. Lectures on philosophy are one of my greatest peeves, and she throws a couple out there, but thankfully, most of her character development focuses on her perspective. Arete is not only starved of human contact, but also just the general gratification of being able to live. Her yearning for things so gosh darned basic, things as simple as friends or everyday emotions, illustrates the degree to which she is sheltered and makes her pitiful in a heart wrenching way. She's even more affecting because she doesn't just cry and accept the pity. Instead of lamenting her own misfortune (which she actually doesn't do, not even once), she always keeps her hope and her wits about her through tough situations to get the freedom which she so desires. Arete's mild mannerisms are a break from the utter exaggerations of most Anime characters, and is a benefit to her cause for sympathy. Emotional understatement is much more effective than rampant bawling. Her rounded personality makes her more complete, more nuanced. Her timid demeanor and slight build serve to highlight her internal fortitude. When all is said and done, Arete stands side by side with the best animated heroines targeted towards children in any feature, Japanese or otherwise.

It's too bad that Arete's character development didn't come with a richer plot, but at the very least, the focus she commands makes the blandness in the rest of the cast forgivable. Arete is a completely fleshed out, admirable yet pitiable, and altogether believable character who also happens to be adorable. Watching her adventure in Princess Arete is worth suffering the disjointed and hollow plot.

edit: I thought I should edit this review slightly, by making it more proper and readable, taking out more of my laid-back language.[br][br]~~~~~~~~~[br][br]Animation, Sound[br]The backgrounds were fantastic and well drawn. I loved the camera angles, the movements, the shifts. The biggest flaw however, were the character designs, which I absolutely hated. This gave a 2D and shallow impression. If you consider the depth of the characters however, this was probably suitable. [br][br]I quite enjoyed the soundtrack, especially the opening song. Though I don't particularly remember much, this would mean that the sounds or voices were fitting and good. [br][br]In this case, it seems that the flaws are easier to pick than the excellent points? [br][br]Story, Character[br]Considering that this is made by Studio 4C, it is not exactly the dementia material you would expect if their others work are anything to go by. If you have seen "Comedy" from the Grasshoppa series, then you may understand more of what to expect from Arete Hime. [br][br]This movie is a rather slow, somewhat long-winded, not particularly exciting, not adventurous at all, but still interesting enough that I (of all people) could sit through all one hour and forty-four minutes of it. That being said, I still don't know what was so gripping about it, because at first impression, it isn't. The twists and sarcasms are subtle, such that I never really noticed them throughout the movie. The storyline is played rather slow, scenes of people walking to and fro seem to take up the movie time rather than getting straight to the point.[br][br]The characters (as previously mentioned) lacked depth. There were not any growth or development, and certain characters only seemed to be there just to keep the movie slowly rolling. There was a minor development on the princess portrayed in this movie, however the lack of climax fails to emphasis this. [br][br]Its more positive point is that the movie does not follow a stereotypical storyline, which makes it enticing. In some ways, it is a play on a typical "damsel-in-distress" plot, but is not a love story nor an adventure. It also portrays an aspect of boredom, which I personally find interesting, and something you don't see often. [br][br]Overall, it is about life; something which I am not a particular big fan of. Often, not many movies can portray these kind of morals in good taste, and unfortunately, Arete Hime failed to do much of a fantastic job either.[br][br]Value, Enjoyment[br]This is somewhat difficult to juge. This is not exactly something I would recommend to watch. Maybe if you were bored? Cliche, I know, considering this movie is about boredom.

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Princess Arete is highly successful at confounding expectations. What appears as a classic fable becomes an engrossing drama. What now appears to be a drama becomes a slice of life tale. What looks like a slice of life tale suddenly turns into a fantasy/drama about the nature of life, and the human condition. Princess Arete’s originality makes these story shifts difficult, if not impossible to predict, which is one of this movies most enjoyable attributes.

Princess Arete not only looks fantastic, but also includes many realistic touches that are not related to the plot. For instance, when Arete re-enters her tower, the stone staircase is missing a step. How Arete deals with this dilemma and how it is animated proves that everyday challenges can be just as interesting as the epic ones.

The backgrounds are highly detailed and very pretty. There are long, sweeping fields, claustrophobic castle dungeons, and dark, forbidding night landscapes, all beautifully rendered and effortlessly inhabited by the characters.

The music in Princess Arete is very sparse, which helps keep the focus on the characters. The seiyuu (voice actors) do a good job, though the voice which stands out the most is the Sorcerers, with his ever-growing frustration shining through, thanks to Takeshi Koyama’s voice work. While equally as sparse as the music, the relatively few sound effects are of very high quality, sounding just right.

There are very few important characters in Arete, the main one being the Princess herself. She is a cute little thing, with boundless curiosity that gets her into a lot of trouble. The only other important character is the Sorcerer, who first appears at the halfway point of the movie. He’s a rather craggy old man, whose motives are not entirely clear until the very end. There are quite a few interesting side characters, such as Ample, the Sorcerer’s maid, and Grovel, a frog that the sorcerer made human, who has an amusing “croak” in his voice, and is constantly fearful of being turned back into a frog.

Because Princess Arete is, first and foremost, and adventurous slice of life story, it’s difficult to pinpoint what exactly made it so interesting and fun. I would have to say that the little moments are what really made it shine. I have a soft spot for movies and series that show me scenes of things I have not seen before, and Princess Arete has them in spades. Besides the scene with the broken stone steps, there is a scene of a glass blower making a vase, a scene of a medieval cloths maker making rose-colored die with his son, and many others. None of these scenes continue the plot, but they’re interesting enough to keep any fan of slice-of-life anime in rapt attention.

Slice of life anime often have very simple plot outlines, and Princess Arete is no exception. The unnamed kingdom that Princess Arete belongs to is holding treasure hunts to decide who is worthy to marry the Princess. Arete does not care for these hunts or the knights involved in them, preferring to sneak out into the city and see life as it’s lived. When she is finally caught, the King gives her away to a traveling sorcerer who claims he can tame. Instead of taking her as a proper bride, instead imprisons her in his castle.

What the sorcerer’s true motives are, and why he is treating the Princess so cruelly, while interesting, is not what makes Arete great. It’s the little moments with the glassmaker and, the quiet scene with the Sorceress who climbs up onto a chess table and slowly knocks each piece to the ground with her cane as she speaks. Explaining what makes a good slice-of-life anime is difficult, but you know it when you see it. Princess Arete is one of the greatest slice of life animes ever made, and a must see for any fan of the genre.