In comments, Pixy mentioned that he'd given up on Petite Princess Yucie about half way through because he had played one of the "Princess Maker" games and could see all the borrowing. It's true that the series does borrow a lot from those games; that isn't accidental. Gainax owns both properties and the anime is based on the games.

But there's a lot in PPY that isn't in the games, and most of the straight borrowing is front-loaded. I had the idea of documenting in relatively non-spoilerish manner the series structure so as to show that. But just in case anyone doesn't want to see it, it goes below the fold.

So here's the 26 episodes of the series:

Ep 1: Yucie becomes a candidate
Ep 2: Ningenkai crystal flower (Glenda)
Ep 3: Part time job: bakery
Ep 4: Part time job: babysitting
Ep 5: Part time job: flower farm
Ep 6: Part time job: church (Arc)
Ep 7: Makai crystal flower (Glenda)
Ep 8: Part time job: modeling (Cocoloo)
Ep 9: Visitor's day (Elmina)
Ep 10: Part time job: library (Arc)
Ep 11: Beach (Arc)
Ep 12: Tenkai crystal flower (Elmina)
Ep 13: Part time job: magic shop (Glenda)
Ep 14: Preliminary test (Beth)
Ep 15: Part time job: orphanage
Ep 16: Harvest festival (Arc)
Ep 17: Yoseikai crystal flower (Beth)
EP 18: Save Balizan (Elmina)
Ep 19: Part time job: maid (Elmina)
EP 20: Castle Ball (Arc)
Ep 21: Idol performance (Beth)
Ep 22: Reikai crystal flower (Beth)
Ep 23: Battle (Beth)
Ep 24: Graduation (Arc)
Ep 25-26: series finale

The primary characters are Yucie (of course!), Cocoloo, and Glenda, and in the main their stories are told incrementally and are strongly woven together. So Cocoloo only gets one concentration episode and Glenda only gets three. Cocoloo and Glenda don't really have independent story arcs; their concentration episodes are more about character building.

There are five crystal flowers, one in each of the five realms, which must be recovered. (What they're for is finally revealed at the end.)

Arc is a rogue with blonde hair and green eyes. Soldiers are looking for him. At one point he claims to be named "Prince Arrow" but Yucie tells him to stop lying. (She knows he isn't the prince because she's actually met the prince, and he isn't anything like the same.) He's looking for someone, and keeps running into Yucie and the other candidates as he evades the authorities and proceeds with his search.

Elmina is the fourth candidate, princess of the Angels. She has issues relating to her father.

Ep 18 is part of the Elmina story, but it's mainly a concentration episode for the stewards. It also makes a contribution to the Beth story, it turns out.

Beth is the fifth candidate, the princess of the Fairy world. I'm not going to say anything about her story because it's a spoiler. (The "Idol" episode is critical to her story but mostly isn't about her.)

It's true that nine of episodes are based on part time jobs, and those are probably all taken from the games. The first three of those don't really contribute much to the long term story, except for general character building. But starting with ep 6, all of them are used as springboards to advance one or another stories. (Except episode 15, my least favorite in the series, and the only one I'd consider pure filler. It's also the most angsty. Ick.)

So there are a lot of things going on, and all the stories ultimately contribute to the ending.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in at 01:32 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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