Forum - View topicBibliophile Princess (TV) (w/ index).
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 11452 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Bibliophile Princess (TV) Genres: drama, romance Theme: aristocracy, historical, josei Plot Summary: Lady Elianna Bernstein comes from a family of readers – and that might be putting it lightly. All she, her father, and her older brother really want to do is retreat to their family estate and read, but during her debutante season at court, Eli is proposed to by Prince Christopher, the heir to the throne. She's not keen on the idea of marrying him, but he offers her access to the royal archives, a repository of rare tomes, and tells her that her social duties will be limited if she accepts. Eli decides that this is worth being his show fiancée, because why else would he propose to a girl better known as “the library ghost.” It turns out that Chris definitely has his reasons. October 6, 2022 (Thusrdays; HIDIVE) ---------------------------------- EPISODE INDEX (Clicking on the episode will take you to my post that has a summary, comments, and screen-caps) Episode 01: Phony Fiancé Episode 02: One-Woman Show Episode 03: And So The Two... Episode 04: The Star Traveler Episode 05 Episode 06 Episode 07 Episode 08 Episode 09 Episode 10 Episode 11 Episode 12 Episode 13(?) Last edited by Tony K. on Thu Nov 03, 2022 1:20 am; edited 7 times in total |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 24231 |
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Another entry in the burgeoning "chicks who like to read" sub-genre. Doesn't seem like there will be much mecha or blood in this one. I may stick with it anyway...
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Yttrbio
 Posts: 3674 |
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It's still the first episode, dude, be patient. Some papercuts are deep. And an archive like that totally has room to open up and reveal BIBLIOSAUR IV.
I thought the dialog was performed far flatter than its text suggested. I sometimes think the "super-sarcastic" approach to shoujo protagonists can sometimes be grating, but at least lean into it a little bit when she rolls her eyes at the situation. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4161 |
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Episode 2: An attempt was made on Eli's life, Irene was doing what we all knew she was doing, her father was doing things we didn't know he was doing followed by Christopher's declaration that Eli will be his queen. So we're done then? No? No. Is this a reverse fixed harem, where the main couple is already set and they're just going to go through the reverse harem motions?
Or... is it more like he likes her but he's in love with Glen and Alexi is in love with Eli. Where does the uncle fit in here? I cannot shake the feeling that Eli is Christopher's beard, what is going on with this story? Where's the conflict? Shouldn't the resolution of episode 2 just stand for the ending of the whole series? In short, I love it. Very shojo but there's a nice amount of royal politics involved to make it pretty juicy. |
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 11452 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Episode 01: Phony Fiancé
Summary: Elianna is from a minor noble family famous for their love of books. One day, Prince Christopher proposes she become his fiancée because of her family’s political neutrality. She accepts, and four years later, Elianna has read nearly the entire royal archives, but begins to worry over the gossip of her fake engagement. Christopher returns, explaining his absence was to search for a very rare book she once asked him about, making her very happy. A week later, she sees Christopher and Lady Irene laughing together and realizes Christopher might be preparing to end their fake engagement and find a proper wife. ---------------------------------- Comments: Not a whole lot happening, here. It’s been a while since I’ve watched any kind of period piece drama. But the studio is Madhouse, so I’m automatically interested. I do like the Victorian-esque feel to the setting and wardrobe. I am curious, however, where the show will go. Right now, I’m feeling it’s gonna’ be more of a soap opera than anything else. Or, maybe some unrequited love builds up, but can’t be properly expressed because of politics. Maybe Christopher really doesn’t love Elianna, after all, and the marriage is simply for show. Will there be anything to Elianna as a character other than her love of reading? I mean, if all she does is read, she must’ve gone through a good deal of knowledge and history in those royal archives. Right? I also feel the tone of the series has a certain elegance to it. If it does turn out more soap opera-y, nobody feels too over-the-top melodramatic, yet. Although, I wouldn’t mind melodrama, either, if the narrative and dialogue were well-constructed (*glances admiringly at the Gankutsuou wallscroll on the other side of the room*). I’m like Jon Snow and know nothing of this franchise, so I guess it could go in a completely different direction than I think. But for a first episode, I like it. ---------------------------------- Caps:  
 
 
 
 
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 11452 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Episode 02: One-Woman Show
Summary: Realizing she's in love, Elianna tries to confront Christopher, but finds him with Irene. Later, Irene fakes falling down the stairs claiming Elianna pushed her and that court musician Alan Ferrera was a witness. Christopher says Elianna couldn’t have pushed her while carrying Alexei’s paperwork, then arrests Irene and her father, Duke Palcas, for attempting to conspire against Elianna. Christopher publicly confirms Elianna is beloved by everyone in the kingdom and will one day be his Queen, putting an end to the rumours she is a fake fiancé. ---------------------------------- Comments: Okay, so this episode blew up my theory of this going the straight-up dainty melodrama route. Now we’ve got jealous people trying to secretly plan assassinations and getting rid of the future queen. And it even looks like Elianna’s reading was worth something, after all. It’s another weird coincidence that I watched 3 episodes from this season’s slate that all kinda’ thematically bled into each other: Urusei Yatsura might have a love triangle, which then showed up at the end Gundam Witch; and then G-Witch with its aristocratic politics and assassination attempt showed up in this. Upon doing some research, but not too much, about Book-hime (my personal nickname for the show, now), I discovered the franchise’s demographic is the josei crowd. I’m not too familiar with josei, outside of a very small number of titles that I could probably count with less than ten fingers, but I’ve always been curious to try and find more titles, and I think Book-hime just my be shaping up to cover that. Despite my coverage of many a shounen franchise, I do enjoy a good romance or drama every now and then, especially ones set as period pieces. Historical settings have a particular je ne sais quoi to them. I think it’s a combination of the aristocratic politics, the budding or fading romances, and the (usual) simplicity of the plot. I’ve been surprised by so many of this season’s titles, and the trend continues with Book-hime. Definitely looking forward to more of this one. ---------------------------------- Caps:  
 
 
 
 
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Spastic Minnow
Bargain Hunter Exempt from Grammar Rules  Posts: 4634 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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As I see it, (commented in the preview guide, but got no responses). I'm guessing the first three episodes are probably going to inform each other to create a true introduction.
The first episode shows us what Elianna thinks of herself, a useless cipher who spends her time doing nothing of note. The second "tells" us that this is not true and reveals a little of what her worth is. If you go back to the first episode, you'll find that the conversations people are having while she reads are some of the things that people say are what they received advice about from her. Then we get the first have of her reacting to the vase. So I'm guessing the third episode will "show" us more about Elianna's true worth, which she doesn't recognize in herself. In the same way we were shown her deducing that the vase was fake, we'll see more of the scenes in the first episode where she takes knowledge gleaned from her reading and applies it to the conversations she hears. |
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 11452 Location: Frisco, TX |
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That would actually be a really good progressive setup for her character. I felt like she was just a bump on a log in the first episode. And in episode two, it turns out she's actually pretty well-liked by everyone. I'm hoping episode three will really give her even more subtle exposition.
She reminds me a little of myself: likes to learn, is very observant, but isn't too outspoken in public. I'm only this outspoken on the Internet because I like anime and hope my analyses can get other people to enjoy what I enjoy. I don't necessarily care if they even reply back (unless they want to). If you get me talking in person, though, I'm pretty blunt and not bashful like her, at all. I'm also the kind of guy that if you want me to talk, ask me a question, and I'll answer back (with or without great detail, depending on the question). |
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Spastic Minnow
Bargain Hunter Exempt from Grammar Rules Posts: 4634 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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In the first episode, when they talked about the other girl being something like "more forward and active," I *may* have yelled at the screen "THEN MAKE HER THE MAIN CHARCTER!"
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Spastic Minnow
Bargain Hunter Exempt from Grammar Rules Posts: 4634 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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episode 3
My expectations were unfortunately let down a bit. Still relying on telling us what Elianna is capable of instead of showing us. They only expanded the tiniest bit on the vase thing but again mentioned stuff we really know no details about. |
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 11452 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Episode 03: And So The Two...
Summary: Elianna is made aware that her father and grandfather gave Christopher two requirements to marry her: gain the unanimous support of every Lord in the kingdom without mentioning the Bernstein family alias and to become more important to Elianna than books. Christopher recollects when was a child and vandalized several books with young Elianna not only scolding him, but also forcing him to apologize to the books. By the time they met again, Elianna had forgotten who Christopher was, and he had been spending the last four years earning her love and family’s approval. ---------------------------------- Comments: We get some actual backstory about Christopher and Eli, which I feel gives their relationship a lot more perspective, especially from Christopher's side. I'd like to see Eli's character develop a little more, but I like that this cleared Christopher of my initial suspicions in that his intentions were more political than romantic. I don't know about y'all, but I, personally, find intelligence to be an attractive trait. Chalk it up to me watching lots of Star Trek as a kid to keep my mind open, logical, and ever-expanding during my formative years, and then watching House M.D. in my 20s to make me cynical and perceptive to the amount of stupid people out there. Knowledge is not only power, it's also smexy. I feel this episode really hit the soap opera vibes hard, but in a good way. It seems like the romance is genuine: Christopher likes and respects Eli for her kindness and intellect, and she is totally smitten by his determination and forthrightness. I'm curious where the show will go, at this point. Assuming the love is real, what else is left? Will the show delve into politics? Are there any other jealous people that will try to plot and conspire against the lovers to split them up for their own gains? Heck, I'd even be okay with it going slice-of-life and just using random factoids of the kingdom to enrich the common sense knowledge of the viewer. Not sure if it's the art style, color palette, the fact that I very rarely watch this kind of stuff at all, or just that this is a nice break from all the shounen/seinen stuff I've been watching recently, but I like it. I think I'll make a list for more josei titles, once this season ends. ---------------------------------- Caps:  
 
 
 
 
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 11452 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Episode: 04 The Star Traveler
Summary: Christopher and Elianna decide to leave the royal grounds and visit town to see the Star of Sissel, who are traveling scholars with foreign books. But while out and about, they witness two boys stealing a book, one of which mistakes Christopher as his father, and the other claiming he was ordered to steal the book by a Bernstein noble. ---------------------------------- Comments: We finally get to see what's outside the castle and what kind of non-noble people are out there. And as expected, there’s a lot of apprehension from Paolo, who seems to really have something against nobles. Thinking about the previous episode and the one key moment in this one where Eli wonders why she can't remember certain events from her childhood, even though her family is notorious for having good memory and vast knowledge, I'm wondering if Christopher is actually a fake prince or some kind of double for the real one. I'm suddenly thinking of Kingdom and (The) Prestige (2005). Maybe the real Christopher died at some point, and this second one, who I'll refer to as C2, was recruited and groomed as a kind of placeholder to act like the prince until politics and marriage help solidify whatever power struggle might be going on behind the scenes? If that's the case, the show could take a dramatic turn and be not as lovey-dovey as it seems. And the key piece to resolving that chaos will probably be Eli's kindness. I can see this being "heavy" in the drama department, but still, somehow, cutesy, which I suppose is a thing with josei. ---------------------------------- Caps:  
 
 
 
 
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 11452 Location: Frisco, TX |
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[Reserved for ep. 5]
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Spastic Minnow
Bargain Hunter Exempt from Grammar Rules Posts: 4634 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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Just watched episode 10... I guess I'll tough it out for the rest.
It's really too bad how much wasted potential this series has had. From Rebecca's reviews, it seems this is not the best representation of the novels and every time I think that SURELY, Eli is going to show some agency and show off the wit and wisdom she's supposed to have, she just whimpers and gasps and lets others roll over her as she doubts the prince and her ability to... breath. All she can get angry about is book mutilation... which is almost a joke in the vast difference of passion she shows. |
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 11452 Location: Frisco, TX |
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[Reserved for ep. 6]
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