Nina the Starry Bride

Episode 12

Dear Nina the Starry Bride,

I am, generally, a very reasonable viewer. I am willing to give adaptations wiggle room to reconfigure a story to fit the medium better, and I know that what works in the source manga may not be best for the anime version. But I have a very important question for you: why, for the love of all that's holy, would you tease the appearance of Sol and then…not include him? Are there plans for a second season, unannounced as I'm writing this? Is this a case of “Read the manga, kids!”? It's not even like he's my favorite character, but I find myself unreasonably irritated by featuring him prominently in the ending theme and then leaving him out.

Any information on this topic would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely, Rebecca

So, remember last week when I wondered how this series would pull off anything resembling an ending? Well, now we know: it never planned to. To a degree, that makes sense – as a story, the original manga this is based on doesn't really have clear stopping points. It's an ongoing narrative with arcs, but they all move organically from one to the other, making it a challenge to adapt. Perhaps, seen from that perspective, it's better that the anime didn't really try to pretend that it was anything but a partial presentation of Rikachi's series. And as bait to keep people invested, whether that's because of hopes of a second season or to sell more manga volumes, this does end in a place that works: Nina is blamed for the poisoning attempt on Sett's life, Sett is enraged, seemingly undoing all the growth he experienced, and Azure has dodged an assassination attempt and is now hell-bent on finding Nina and saving her. There are a lot of interesting irons in the fire to keep viewer interest piqued.

But it's almost too much for an inconclusive ending. The reveal of Hikami's true gender and identity gets lost in the shuffle, as does Anne's words getting Yor banished alongside Nina. Both are arguably critical points: Hikami has been masquerading this entire time, working not for Nina or Az, but for the former king, whose motives are murky. And Yor is a prince of Galgada, so his blame and banishment ought to be given more fanfare than his shocked look. This is a major moment in the fight for the Galgadan crown – Sett is presumed out of the running, the princess of Fortna is blamed for his poisoning, and Toat is very obviously behind all of it. But King Noa appears more frustrated than anything, and her actions don't make a lot of sense. For being the (wo)man behind the curtain, she mostly feels like a nothing character, either unsure of her crown or not doing a ton of thinking about the future despite attempts to appear that way.

Is this a fault of an overstuffed ending? I think so, and that's been a problem for this series right along. Attempts to condense the events of the source material have left Nina feeling whinier than she ought to, robbed both potential love stories of substance, and rendered Noa an almost non-entity. It almost would have been better to end with Azure showing up in Galgada, allowing the events of the story to that point space to breathe and strut their stuff.

Despite my grumbling, this isn't truly terrible. Nina's still no one's damsel in distress, even when she's imprisoned, and King Noa's attitude does show why Galgada is such a dangerous foe – it's unpredictable. If another season of this appeared, I'd certainly watch it. Right now, however, my advice to those who enjoyed the story or saw the flaws in this adaptation as frustrating is to pick up the manga. It's available both digitally and in print, and it will answer a lot of questions this version left hanging. This is fine, but it could have been so much better, as the source material demonstrates.

Rating:

Nina the Starry Bride is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.