Kuragehime

Alternate Titles: Jellyfish Princess, Princess Jellyfish

Original Japanese Release Date: Oct 2010

Episode Length/Run-time: 11 Episodes

Summary:

Tsukimi is a geeky girl who lives in Amizukan, an apartment complex that no men are allowed to enter, with other otaku, hikkimori, and NEETs.  She has a deep love for jellyfish due to a memory of her late mother.  One evening, when trying to save a jellyfish she recieves help from a beautiful girl, but this girl is a trap!

Review:

This is an anime that I was earnestly surprised at how much I enjoyed.  The premise seemed a little cliché, nerdy people afraid of popular beautiful people.  But the execution was awesome.  I loved how the “ugly” people were, well, actually ugly.  It wasn’t like a lot of series where the “ugly” ones were actually really beautiful all things considered, they were pretty homely in this one.  But it worked with creating the realism of the seires.

There are two main points of conflict in the show.  One with Tsukimi and her relationship not only with a boy but a cross-dressing, popular, beautiful, rich boy, and how she overcomes this within.  The other conflict is the risk of the Amizukan being torn down to make room for new building projects in the city and the geeky girls loosing their home and safe-haven.

The pacing of this show is also really great, it moves well and progresses in a speedy but not hasty manner.  Things seem realistic in how the emotions change from encounter to encounter.

At its core I’d say Kuragehime is a feel-good show which anyone who has ever felt slightly socially outcaste can enjoy.  It was a show I enjoyed a large amount and really recommend as a worth-while watch.

[starrater]