#163: Puppet Princess (2000)

 

Director: Hirotoshi Takaya

Screenplay: Junichi Miyashita

Based on a manga short story by Kazuhiro Fujita

Voice Cast: Akiko Yajima as Rangiku Fumiwatari; Norio Wakamoto as Yasaburo Manajiri; Kouji Nakata as Sadayoshi Karimata; Takeshi Aono as Head of the Deathless Ninjas

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

 

The following review is to be found on my other blog A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies), part of its Halloween season of thirty one reviews per day and together a great way to promote both of them. If this is of interest to you the reader, follow the link HERE for many more reviews.

If there was ever a premise in desperate need for a television series, or a theatrical length adaptation, it would be Puppet Princess. There is however a reason against this. Created by Kazuhiro Fujita, famous for a manga series called Ushio and Tora (1990-6), Puppet Princess was only a short story, part of a group created by him between 1988-1994 that were compiled together into a work called Yoru no Uta (1995). So only if you had license to write more material, which could be a risk that does not pay off, or if Fujita ever decided to retell this narrative in a longer form, a forty minute straight-to-video anime OVA is all we have here.

It is surprisingly late for Puppet Princess to exist as an OVA, as even if there were titles into the mid to late 2000s created for the market, that format dwindled down into bonus episodes for other work rather than the rich format of the decades before. This one saddles the transitional era between the hand drawn and digital assisted animation too - I suspect some computer animation was used for assistance, but it does feel like an old school OVA in its style.

In period Japan, the narrator deliberately saying that this is an obscure tale forgotten of, a young woman carrying a giant box on her back, twice or more her height, wanders the countryside. Acting like the protagonist of a comedy, as she goes on her way with her pure hearted nature, she encounters a ninja whose team has been eliminated by "death-less" puppets, i.e. automatronic puppets that can move by themselves. The ninja Yasaburo and the young woman Rangiku realise they had the same goals, she actually the princess of a kingdom destroyed by Lord Karimata, wishing to hire Yasaburo to help her in revenge against Karimata, who killed her father, murdered her family, but with a greater concern for her the puppet he stole and created others from. Her father become so obsessed with puppetry he invested in them and created giant puppets that could fight, which she carries in the box and can control, alongside one that was entirely autonomous.

This premise is dispensed with quickly in forty minutes. A shame, but only because, from a short story which is in this form completes itself entirely, Fujita created a premise you could make a longer narrative from even if it could be in danger of padding. It is set up almost so, with Rangiku having four puppets, only for them to be barely used, again a shame as alongside their distinctions, the most prominent one used is a hulking samurai, the premise in terms of anime which have distinct logics common to them has one of note. That, having to control the puppets with her hands and feet, she is vulnerable to any attacks, hence why she wanted to hire Yasaburo.  It may seem a base thing to consider, especially as someone in live action who hates a lot of action scenes, as someone who likes comic book logic and martial arts films, these types of details actually become part of the character of anime stories, especially as they can be depicted with some creativity in the storytelling and art style.

It may have helped with the tonal shifts if this had been a longer work. This OVA juggles, even stumbles, over tone considerably. A lot is comedic. Sadly this does include a scene of bathing where implied ravishing is made a joke, even if thankfully the joke turns to Yasaburo being freaked out that Rangiku, somewhat cluelessly, is game in her optimism to try what he was trying to imply. It also stands out as, unsure why Puppet Princess is tagged as a horror anime when it is mostly an action period piece, it fully acquires it when it is revealed the puppet strings are made from the flayed skin of young children, even Rangiku's own as her mission is a conflicted one, arguably revenge but with knowledge her father was also a monster and that she wants to rid his creations from existence.

This material, again, would be a great longer premise, even if it would require new material to let it breathe. That complex little detail in itself adds a lot to this title as it is, but more could be taken from it in a longer story. As much of it is, to be even naive, that puppets are fascinating objects in themselves, and that knowing how in Japanese culture they have their own rich history, this world could have easily grown out the material with its idiosyncratic premise. Especially as it does have horror and comedy and action crammed together, particularly the horror aspects would have grown in weight if this material was allowed to breathe.

It did evoke for me Osamu Tezuka's Dororo (1967-9). Among the countless manga created by the proclaimed God of Manga, one of manga's (and anime's) most important figures, one such title he did not actually finish was also a period action work with a distinct premise and horror leanings, where a son who is sacrificed by his father to demons, leading them to steal as much of his body and organs as possible. Yet the boy in this world survives as a literal worm, going after his body parts as an adult with a mostly artificial form which, with arm swords and even knee missiles, is a literal weapon. Why Tezuka never actually finished that premise is unknown, but it was still enticing enough to have animated adaptations, a 2004 videogame version which had an ending, and even an acclaimed 2019 animated series which also completed the series and took new directions. Puppet Princess in this little shed of an idea, and that abrupt full formed turn to horror, could expand with similar richness.

But Puppet Princess as it is was a rewarding piece nonetheless. It is so slight it is difficult to either elaborate on the material, or to its advantage really criticise it as, in the spectrum of anime OVAs, this is a much more accomplished and rewarding one when, for every good one, there have been plenty of bad ones. The art style is worth bringing up though, idiosyncratic to the point some may find it ugly, at times with characters like Rangiku very supple and lithe, but with shots especially where the eyes are drawn with a weird shape even in the pupils, the teeth becoming sharper like fangs, becoming a style that here can switch easily from light hearted comedy to even the horror with ease in its artistic flairs. Again, it would have been fascinating to see this as a series or a long single narrative just to see how these character designs could develop.

Kazuhiro Fujita himself now also becomes a figure of interest for me. Adapted twice to animation, in the early nineties (as an OVA series) and the 2010s (as a television series), his Ushio and Tora is a well regarded title and, just from Puppet Princess, as an introduction it is a good one to Fujita himself. It says a bit in itself that, whilst known as a distributor nowadays who have been as elusive in releases like yeti sightings, and refuses to die, the American distributor Media Blasters first released soon after its 2000s release, and planned to release this on Blu-Ray in 2020 even as a forty minute only title, OVAS unless multiple episodes tragically maligned in the streaming and high definition era of anime. It was good on them, as this was with flaws but a surprise I was glad to see.