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Puppet Princess

The Japanese have a long and revered tradition of puppetry going back to the 11th century. Perhaps the culmination of the art is Bunraku, a form of theater that makes use of large (one meter tall), elaborately costumed puppets, each operated by three puppeteers. Unlike puppetry in the West, which is generally dismissed as something for children, Bunraku became a serious art form. Chikamatsu Monzaemon, considered by many to be Japan's foremost dramatist, wrote most of his works for the puppet theater. Puppet Princess is a short but intriguing anime that offers a brief glimpse into this curious world.

Rangiku is an exiled Princess seeking revenge on Lord Karimata, who murdered her family and seized her father's lands. To please her puppet-obsessed father, she had mastered the art of Karakuri, whereby the puppeteer controls a marionette using a complex skein of strings connected to individual rings on the toes and fingers. Rangiku's weird puppets are the creations of her late father, and are as murderously efficient as any samurai or ninja. But while operating them she is utterly helpless, and must rely on the protection of a guardian. To wreck her vengeance, she seeks to hire a great ninja, but instead ends up with the dubious and disreputable looking assassin, Yasaburo. This unlikely pair then prepares to assault Karimata, ensconced in the former castle of the girl's father.

Princess manages to stuff quite a bit of action and characterization into a scant 40 minutes. There is that distinctive mix of humor, violence, and humanity that Gilles Poitras calls the "Shakespearean quality" of anime. And make no mistake: like the Bard, there is gore aplenty, and certain scenes are particularly disturbing. The Mature rating is well earned, and librarians are advised to take the 16+ advisory seriously. Yet despite the blood and carnage, what this little anime is really about is the astonishing power of innocence. Despite a horrific life and uncertain future, Rangiku is quite genki, a very Japanese word that denotes an earnest, trusting, and upbeat spirit. Bent on bloody-minded revenge, her gentle heart will not permit her to tread on a beautiful blossom on the forest path. She radiates that purity of soul so characteristic of the doomed, but noble Japanese hero. At the heart of the samurai esthetic was a sense of the transitory beauty of life, which led to a delicately beautiful poem one moment, and a bloody disemboweling the next. Yasaburo, like the audience, begins to realize that this slightly ditzy girl is much more than she first appears. The class of samurai included women and girls, and if they served a different role than the men, they were capable of showing the same single mindedness, determination, and easy willingness to let life go when it was time. Even though her reign is brief and her subjects are puppets, Rangiku is every bit a Princess.


  • Studio: Media Blasters
  • Format: DVD, VHS
  • Episodes in series: 1
  • Series Completed: Yes
  • Number of DVDs: 1
  • Number of VHS: 1

 
  • Audio Tracks: English, Japanese
  • Subtitles: English
  • Genre: Action
  • Ages: 16+
  • Cautions: Graphic violence, brief nudity
  • Reviewer: George
  • Core Collection: Asian