Tearmoon Empire

Episode 10

The opening half of “Princess Mia is Kidnapped!” reminded me of the aside you see in shows like Kaguya-sama: Love is War!, where a pair of side characters get their little sketch to run shenanigans in while we build up to whatever the main plot of the week is going to be. It's a very typical comedic conceit, and there's certainly nothing wrong with a show taking some time away from the A-Story to give us a broader look at the goings-on of its world. The main thing, though, is that it needs to still be funny, or some other form of entertainment at the very least. This is where my hangup with the bit between the Remno and Sunkland spies comes in: It's just not funny. Or interesting. Or memorable. It's not anything at all which is weird, because there's a lot of storytelling potential with all of this spying and counterspying going on. I don't specifically need all of this worldbuilding to be presented as hilariously as possible, but if we're going to go down the more serious route, there has to be some kind of hook to the presentation.

The only other thing of substance that we do get is a quick check-in with Prince Abel himself, who is conflicted over his complicity in the kingdom's sleights against its people. As I elaborated on last week, though, the issue here is that Abel is not an altogether interesting character in his own right, either, so this doesn't exactly make the episode any better. By the time we're nearly half done with the episode, it feels like the only thing that Tearmoon Empire has accomplished is to remind us that the revolution brewing in Remno is still happening and that there are espionage matters that the various princes and princesses will undoubtedly have to deal with soon, which…okay, sure, I guess. I just wish the show could have communicated all of this information in a manner more entertaining than giving us a bunch of talking heads and a couple of moments where Graham is a dummy taking Mia's letters too seriously.

The second half of the episode is slightly better than the first since Mia's part of the story contains the one character that we're emotionally invested in enough to keep us interested in the more serious elements of this current arc, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it ends up being good. As with the earlier parts of the episode, the direction and animation are very inconsistent and it makes all of the “peril” and intrigue of Mia's attempted kidnapping land with all of the impact of a soggy napkin being flung against the walls of a partially inflated bounce house. It's never a good sign when a plot feels so superfluous that it causes the mind to wander and notice all of the silly, nitpicky flaws that you would otherwise gladly forgive, and I spent a solid five minutes obsessed with a single shot that featured an out-of-focus and terribly-modeled CGI horse. I can't get the creature out of my head.

Anyways, I'm at least glad that Mia and Sion have gotten properly entangled with the Revolution. The leader of Revolution, Lambert, has a little sister who might be a fun addition to the cast. How ironic would it be if Mia, after all of this time, ends up becoming besties with a girl who lops off greedy aristocrats' heads for a living? Lynsha's probably going to end up being another sweetheart pal of the princess in this version of Mia's life, but still, we could use a tsundere to spice things up around here.

Rating:

Tearmoon Empire is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop culture, which can also be found on Twitter, his blog, and his podcast.