Egao no Daika

[Ryllharu]

Description shamelessly borrowed from RandomC (https://randomc.net/2018/12/26/winter-2019-preview/): A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Princess Yuuki Soleil reigns as the sovereign of her planet kingdom. Although she is but the tender age of 12, prone to emotional outbursts and perhaps somewhat naive, cloistered as she is in the ivory towers of her royal palace, Yuuki is blessed with many competent and loyal retainers. For these retainers, their highest calling in life is protecting their princess’s smile; heavy may be the head that wears the crown, but so long as the princess can smile then it follows that so too will her realm. But one day, Yuuki meets a 17-year-old career soldier and professional mecha pilot from the neighbouring Grantiga Empire, Stella Shining. Stella always smiles. But she never laughs. And Yuuki is about to learn exactly what price for which one smile is purchased — and how many others must be sacrificed for its sake?


AniDB (http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=14447)

HorribleSubs - 01 (https://nyaa.si/view/1107248/torrent)


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I have a soft spot for series set on other planets or in space with robots and princesses. This introductory episode met that criteria brilliantly. The young princess is sheltered, but she has the correct attitude about it. She wants to maintain peace and keep relations happy, she shirks her duties only to honor her parents or see what her retainers are up to, and she refrains from reacting poorly to insults, she shrugs them off and maintains her convictions.

But the combat scene did prove a few things about her. She's sheltered, yes. Naïve, yes. But she doesn't hold back when the situation warrants it. She uses the environment, she observes, she reacts decisively, intelligently, and does not hesitate.

But it is true that her retainers don't really respect her. They say they're going to stop treating her like a child now that she's come of age, but they scheme behind her back to end the conflict before she finds out about it.

I definitely appreciated that the combat was a little more strategic than initially hinted at. Let's hope it is kept up. I liked that they had multiple units controlled by a single user, and they used them in a way that takes advantage of that.

The worldbuilding was nice, the characters have a good design, the cast was good, the combat was satisfying and well depicted. There's hints of a deeper series hidden by the fluffy introduction, so it could end up being a fluffy series about creating an armistice through diplomacy, or something else tinged quite a bit darker.

I guess we'll see what kind of series this turns out to be.

[shinta|hikari]

Loli waki. Nuff said.

All aboard!!!

[MFauli]

Nothing about this episode was special, BUT it has a certain classic feel to it, I like that.

However, one major lol-moment: 'I'm now 12, a full adult!' 🐧🙈🐧🙈🐧🙈

[shinta|hikari]

It's a monarchy, so I'm guessing they also kept some medieval age classifications too.

[MFauli]

It's a monarchy, so I'm guessing they also kept some medieval age classifications too.

Lol, I get that they have some in-universe justification ;p Doesn't make it a less hilarious, outrageous line. Not that thos anime will evet be localized for the west.

[Ryllharu]

You realize that this series being HorribleSubs means it is on Crunchyroll or one of the other streaming services and therefore is in fact localized?

[MFauli]

You realize that this series being HorribleSubs means it is on Crunchyroll or one of the other streaming services and therefore is in fact localized?

Oh well. Then let's wait and see if the sjw crowd finds out about this ;p

[shinta|hikari]

For some reason, it wasn't reviewed by ANN like Shield Hero was.

[Ryllharu]

A pre-teen claiming they're now an adult on their birthday is as old as the trinity of drama/comedy/tragedy itself. Not sure why you'd think it was a big deal.

[shinta|hikari]

I don't think it is a big deal. I was just wondering why ANN doesn't review "normal" anime. It's not as if they should just review "controversial" ones for clicks.

[Kraco]

I found it pretty funny they are hiding a whole war from the official ruler of the nation. At least now it makes sense why the secretary is burying the poor girl under a mountain of work, instead of giving some of it to ministers: It will keep Yuuki so busy she doesn't even have the time to watch the news.

[shinta|hikari]

Episode 2. (http://magnet:?xt=urn:btih:4C3RV3HQPVLHHFUZHTXHU5N6F6AWHH H5&tr=http://nyaa.tracker.wf:7777/announce&tr=udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969/announce&tr=udp://tracker.internetwarriors.net:1337/announce&tr=udp://tracker.leechersparadise.org:6969/announce&tr=udp://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337/announce&tr=udp://open.stealth.si:80/announce&tr=udp://p4p.arenabg.com:1337/announce&tr=udp://mgtracker.org:6969/announce&tr=udp://tracker.tiny-vps.com:6969/announce&tr=udp://peerfect.org:6969/announce&tr=http://share.camoe.cn:8080/announce&tr=http://t.nyaatracker.com:80/announce&tr=https://open.kickasstracker.com:443/announce)







WTF.

[David75]

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Every line Joshua said had a flag in it... maybe more.

[shinta|hikari]

How is shocking their ruler with the news of her closest friend's death better than informing her about the war? Why the fuck would they even send Joshua out in the first place..?

[David75]

She's an adult now, she needs to know there's a war outside her birdcage.
I do not think Joshua's death was part of the plans to deliver that piece of information, but it might be a bonus for those who wish for the birth of a warlord.
Then, flags for Joshua and the princess' smile were everywhere.

[Ryllharu]

It was the most telegraphed death of all time, and I need to go with shinta on this one. The way her retainers handled it was extraordinary bad. They were more or less acting out a military coup during her regency, and tried to clean it up as she was taking official power.

"We've been losing a war without telling you, our people are about to starve while we've been wasting the rare powersource on building better Knight-Mecha for ourselves in an attempt to gain a permanent advantage over the Empire...and oh by the way, your best companion in the entire world is dead."

That would be better than what they did, which was the exact REVERSE of that sentence. Maybe they were trying to drum up her support for the military attack by traumatizing her.

I do like the world-building that was subtly going on. There's some feature of the new planet that prevents flight of any kind, so it has the same technologically superior but medieval tactics that Isekai Monogatari had where ravines and narrow pathways can be turned into bottlenecks. It has a real Earth analog (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsingy_de_Bemaraha_National_Park) in terms of geography, just smaller, which is super cool.

The planet itself even seems to be poisoned, ever so slightly. Flowers don't grow, crops wither.

I also like that the primary characters the audience has been introduced to thus far, are kinda sorta the bad guys on the planet, and they're also losing the war. Hard to know who to believe about who started it.

[David75]

At this point in time, it's hard to tell if there's really good and bad guys.
There are two opposing sides that fight for scarce resources.
It's a little baffling they can power and manufacture their advandced suits and ships, that they have great VR equipment for games/training but do not seem to have advanced hydroponics and agriculture.

I wonder why they have such a low altitude cap, I can only think of low atmospheric pressure. Something like Mt Evrest summit pressure, where it becomes really hard to get an helicopter to fly. I thought of that because of the way those mech fly and how the propulsion seems to need some fluid to get force back.
But then, most humans can't breathe without assistance in the same conditions atmospheric conditions, so unless they evolved/adapted over generations...
But a thinner than earth atmosphere goes well with a smaller planet with lower gravity... that should help those mechs levitate easier :D

Another explanation is the tech they have was crafted on earth and most of the science and tech was lost with the many generations needed for the travel.
The first generation arriving on that planet only had enough knowledge to operate a terraforming device.
Then they developped and were faced with needs/problems they can't face with their now limited knowledge, when it would probably have been easy for the ancestors back on earth.

Last but not least, how is it possible to lose science, know-how and technology when you can travel the huge interstellar distances over a very long period of time and still get VR tech working, and probably a terraforming device ?
Keeping knowledge in a computer, even ways of teaching is very low tech compared to most of what we've seen so far.
Or is it that earth was at war and the people sent on the journey could have been caught so they were given the tools with only the most basic directions to use them ?

Phew, wrote that :D

[Ryllharu]

All good suggestions. I wondered if it was a Super Earth that had the equivalent of our normal atmosphere despite the increased gravity. It would be much harder for things to fly that way. They're using massive amounts of energy just to hover. It might also explain why Earth plants don't grow right:

Plants don't have skeletons.

[David75]

You mean the current planet ?
Ships are too large for a stronger gravity, princess' building too, with those glass structures.
As for plants, even without skeletons, trees and many crops sure can deal with gravity. They might adapt slowly and might not grow as much though, unless there's some research and scientists in agronomics, dna and the likes to speed up the process. But maybe they do and we did not get to know that since the show focused on energy/war/weapons/ and maybe weapons of mass destruction (Princess' parents)

[MFauli]

Episode 2. (http://magnet:?xt=urn:btih:4C3RV3HQPVLHHFUZHTXHU5N6F6AWHH H5&tr=http://nyaa.tracker.wf:7777/announce&tr=udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969/announce&tr=udp://tracker.internetwarriors.net:1337/announce&tr=udp://tracker.leechersparadise.org:6969/announce&tr=udp://tracker.opentrackr.org:1337/announce&tr=udp://open.stealth.si:80/announce&tr=udp://p4p.arenabg.com:1337/announce&tr=udp://mgtracker.org:6969/announce&tr=udp://tracker.tiny-vps.com:6969/announce&tr=udp://peerfect.org:6969/announce&tr=http://share.camoe.cn:8080/announce&tr=http://t.nyaatracker.com:80/announce&tr=https://open.kickasstracker.com:443/announce)







WTF.

OMG.
Most unexpected happening ever. Did NOT expect this anime to a serious drama. And here I thought Neverland would fill that spot this season.

Really wondering what's gonna happen now. As you said, the characters we know kinda are bad guys - although I'm undecided whether escorting the princess to her friend's body instead of telling her beforehand is part of a plan or bad writing. This could become a real interesting sjhow now. I'd love if she left the country, joined the enemy, and proved herself to the military dictatorship by her strategic skills. Then taking revenge on her homeland's government, basically like: 'you got the superior mecha? Well, we got strategy!' :o


On a short note: OMG THE BROKE THE LOLI!

[David75]

From the pitch and OP/ED, it's a story between a loli and an older teen/you adult woman from an enemy country.
And we've now seen the second MC.
Next ep(s) should be a setting for both MCs to meet and have a reason to travel the world together

[Ryllharu]

My guess is the Kingdom loses shortly, or that the Princess recovers from the pain and requests an Armistice to reduce the number of people who would suffer if the war continues.

Either way, the Empire wins. That way the Empire might want to put one of their experienced(?) though still junior officers to keep an eye on her.

Not sure how that setup would get us more combat though. Maybe one side or the other manages to take the princess or Stella as a hostage.

[David75]

I do not remember the pitch well, was that show about war/battles ? Pretty sure it was a journey with that girl in blue suit. In a war setting probably.

[MFauli]

Episode 3:

Fucking assholes. Don't pretend to care about some children when you've got no issue killing their friends and leaving them to starve by stealing their source of food. Oh, and threaten to shoot a little girl.

Makes me so angry. If you're a soldier, be it 100%. Fuck off with your bs empathy.

[David75]

I'm not so sure you'd be cool in the same situation.
Also, I'd like you to stop using foul language. Thanks.

[MFauli]

I.
Also, I'd like you to stop using foul language. Thanks.

Lol wtf ...

[shinta|hikari]

Captain America: "Language!"

[Ryllharu]

Uh...wasn't that the whole point of this episode? To show how broken Stella is as a person.

The main squad is upset that that their commander was transferred in out of nowhere and seems to do whatever he feels like. He helps refugees and war orphans, he abandons his squad mates and claims after the fact that he trusted them to do their job, he feels reluctance at being ordered to steal the reactor. And so on. He's a bad soldier. He abandoned them and put pink hair in the position which left her no coverage in the control room. If she didn't train as well as she does, she could have died and the entire squad could have been killed. He clearly is not happy about the way the war is going, or the orders he's been getting.

The others are embittered about how nice the Kingdom has it compared to the Empire's lands, and are overall very professional about their soldiering. Grunts that do what they're told because their missions will save the empire! They don't trust their commander for all the right reasons. He tells them nothing, does his own thing, and is very impersonal with them.

But Stella? She's a monster. Plastic smile all the time. All her comrades dead? Smile. Current squadmates showing frustration about their commander? Smile. Shows friendliness and warmth, is it real, is it faked? Uses it to get info out of others. Uses it to cover for something in her past. Sympathizes with others who have gone through the horrors of war, or does she? It's impossible to tell if any emotion Stella is showing is real, or if it is all an act. Was she threatening the children for delaying the mission? Was she threatening them because it was the quickest way to get them to safety? Don't know! When confronted about the abrupt turn she just did, she flat-out brushes it off.

The series is showing that Stella is a stark contrast especially to the Princess and her retainers, but also the rest of Stella's current squad, who all wear their emotions on their sleeves.


My favorite characters are probably Lily and Yuni. Yuni meant well when she was harassing the Princess, she cares about her comrades and country, and shows emotion very plainly. She made fun of Joshua for yelling his catchphrase all the time, when she emphasizes it too. Lily is just a feminine badass. Enjoys shopping and girly things while she still puts in the work training, is all business when the time comes, and relaxes when things are safe. Doesn't hold back verbally. The kick to the nuts, flip, and execution shot? Pure Atomic Blonde.

[MFauli]

Ryll, you might be right. Then I just hope she doesn't change later on and becomes empathic. Fuck her :]

[Ryllharu]

I think you misunderstand the purpose of this series.

The OP/ED make it kind of obvious, unless they are both bait and switch.

[David75]

Joshua is still in the OP... so the scenarist/author/director might be trolling us :D

[neflight86]

Perhaps its been me marathon re-watching GoT for the past few weeks, but I really liked this kid dying, as a developed character death lends some good weight to the drama of a story. I'm getting dome Geass vibes from the 'two factions fighting with sympathetic characters on both sides' setup. so far, better than I expected.

[Ryllharu]

Episode 4:

The horrors of war.


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At last, the connection made! Stella's mother is the Princess' caretaker and secretary. Leila thinks she lost her daughter, and took care of Yuki instead as a means of moving on from the loss. She's also the only reason Yuki is alive at all.

The rest of the episode was kinda predictable. Yuki's advisors still working behind her back...yeah right they were only going to use them defensively. Yuki discovering that even when you're trying to do the right thing, that normally nobody would argue is a "good" and "right" thing to do, it doesn't always work out in war.

[Shadow Skill]

Is it just me or is this anime jumping around all over the place? It making less sense for me as the episodes go forward. :/

[Ryllharu]

It's mostly just jumping a week or two at a time through the war when they switch POVs between the Kingdom (Yuki) and the Empire (Stella).

Yuki's Kingdom is losing, and badly. They can build superior mechs, especially with the new power sources, but they're completely overwhelmed through numbers. The Empire is taking city after city, driving towards the Kingdom's capital.

[Shadow Skill]

Ohh ok.

For some reason that is not made clear to me until now lol.

[David75]

Yuki discovers the difference beetween a training game and reality and shows she obviously is still a child.
I wonder where we are going with that show and if we are trolled with that OP...

[MFauli]

I like how this anime is going different routes compared to similar anime in the past. I still hope that Yuki-hime starts becoming a masterful tactician. Reaaally want that jitch soldier on the enemy side to lose hard.


Episode 4:

The horrors of war.


------------


At last, the connection made! Stella's mother is the Princess' caretaker and secretary. Leila thinks she lost her daughter, and took care of Yuki instead as a means of moving on from the loss. She's also the only reason Yuki is alive at all.

The rest of the episode was kinda predictable. Yuki's advisors still working behind her back...yeah right they were only going to use them defensively. Yuki discovering that even when you're trying to do the right thing, that normally nobody would argue is a "good" and "right" thing to do, it doesn't always work out in war.

I don't see how any of that was 'predictable'. Also, where was it said that the enemy soldier is the princess' caretaker? Must have missed that.

[shinta|hikari]

It makes no sense to me that in a country where military orders require the royal family's decision/consent, no one thought that sheltering the princess and not teaching her about military affairs was a very, very bad idea. I'd get it if she was just a puppet or a mascot, but she wields total power over the military. What is wrong with these people. No wonder they are losing this war so badly.

And why didn't the enemy mechs ask for the cornered APC and kingdom mecha to surrender? Executing them like that is kinda inhumane. If that is the standard morality throughout the Empire, that must be a really shitty place to live in.

[Ryllharu]

@shinta: They put all their faith in the new chrars mecha being overwhelmingly powerful, and hopefully letting them achieve full flight (which would have been an unbelievable military advantage). They're still very powerful, but they clearly underestimated the Empire's military skill and size. They're just being overrun. They thought they'd win without ever telling her.

But it's most of her advisors and knights who are the problem. Leila isn't. She's been playing chess with her since she was super young. That's my guess why Yuki is pretty smart with strategy. She doesn't have the will outside of simulators though, and it's probably for the best that she didn't become bloodthirsty in her grief. She wanted to preserve her people more. Which gives her a better chance of negotiating a peaceful surrender.

They've implied that the Empire is a shitty place to live in for a lot of reasons. No food, way behind on technology and affluence, etc. But the Kingdom isn't in that much better shape. The land still doesn't grow plants well. Yuki's sunflowers are growing due to her unrelenting attention.

@MFauli:
Leila spoke "St-" when she saw the bloody smear under a rock, with a little fish projector next to it. Stella still has that fish projector (or a replacement one). Leila is Yuki's main advisor and caretaker now, but she used to be an Analyst, and is Stella's mother.

I'm guessing next episode, we find out about how Stella came to be a soldier in the Empire after the terrorist attack and subsequent accident that killed Yuki's parents, and appeared to kill her as well.

[shinta|hikari]

That's so weird though. If they denied her info before to "protect" her, why depend on her orders now? They can just keep her in that room and do their best commanding the army... It's like torture. You don't teach her anything and hide the truth, and when she finally finds out, you suddenly force her to make all these hard decisions, which you can totally make in her stead like you've been doing when she didn't know anything. It's like they are intentionally driving her into insanity.

[David75]

Or some rule states that when the ruler is 12, they take full reins. Monarchy+army thinking, horrendous results.

[Ryllharu]

Episode 6



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Guess we know which side is the more villainous now. Yuki's retainers constantly betray her decisions. I get that she's meant to exemplify the puppet leader who is isolated from reality by her own feudal retainers who rule from behind her throne, but even after she actually steps up, secures a reasonably stalemate for her own forces, preserving them from a guaranteed rout, they betray her once again.

The last scene was a great inclusion. The traitorous actions of Yuki's staff is just going to be used against her through propaganda.

From the unhappy look on the faces of Stella and crew, I'm guessing they realized that they were deliberately spared by direct intervention from Yuki's command structure, and that the Chief of Staff's words don't compare to the reality of what they experienced first hand.