“She would be known through the ages as Murder Princess”

Falis, a bounty hunter and Alita, the princess of the Kingdom of Forland fall off a cliff and switch bodies. Yes, their souls find their ways to the wrong body. There is a myth that in situations that could result in death, one’s soul leaves the body, and sometimes when there are two people are close together their souls will end up in the wrong body. The Princess Alita realizes that no one will recognize her and acknowledge her as the princess. She makes a pact with Falis, saying that Falis saved her life and so she will give everything to Falis. Falis sees something in Alita and agrees to the terms, her vow to protect the kingdom.

Falis and her two friends follow Alita to the castle. Alita shows Falis how to be a princess, while combining the barbaric fighting tactics of the bounty hunter. Almost right off the bat the kingdom is under attack by the one who killed the father and king of Alita, a professor of the king that learned of an old technology that makes animatrons with exotic weapons, such as guns (the setting is in the middle ages). Falis is able to defeat these weapons, and even discovers that her friends are a form of the same technology, just one level higher, cyborgs.

Then, Alitas brother comes home and takes the throne. But, his intensions aren’t as dignified as you would think. He even banns the princess and Falis because they are starting to discover his intensions. They are chased out of the country, but not before Alita shows him who she really is, his sister (remember, she is in a different body). In the end, there is a battle to take back the kingdom and stop utter destruction.

This series is pretty coherent for a six episode series. Each episode leads to the next and doesn’t feel like it’s rushing to get to the end. It got a little mushy at times, but almost immediately after that it toughens up. The story was interesting and easy to grasp. The animation was nice and clean, it helped keep things smooth. There wasn’t much comedy involved in this anime, it’s mostly drama and action, which was kinda different for me, I am used to even the serious series to have lots of comedy. There is only one actual extra, commentary over episode 6. I like commentary from the voice actors and directors, it gives an insight into the world of voice acting and translating for Japanese to English. Over all, I liked Murder Princess, and wish there was more.

ComicsOnline gives Murder Princess, the Complete Series 4.5 out of 5 kingdoms at war.