Murder Princess (2007) (V)

Directors:

Shinya Kawamo
Tomoyuki Kurokawa
(more)

Writers:

Sekihiko Inui (manga) and
Tatsuhiko Urahata (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

12 May 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Short | Action | Adventure | Fantasy

Tagline:

Nobility Takes No Prisoners

Plot:

In the land of Foreland a coup d'état has occurred and the princess, after witnessing the death of the King...

Plot Keywords:

Princess | Murder | Bounty Hunter | King | Coup D'état

Cast

Bob Carter	...	The Narrator (voice: English version)
Leah Clark	...	Fenella / Girl (voice: English version)
Colleen Clinkenbeard	...	Alita Forland / Falis (voice: English version)
Daniel Drumm	...	Jitterbug (voice: English version)
R. Bruce Elliott	...	Jodu Entolasia (voice: English version)
Cris George	...	Guitano (voice: English version)
Caitlin Glass	...	(voice: English version)
Todd Haberkorn	...	Andre (voice: English version)
Chuck Huber	...	Dominikov (voice: English version)
Jeremy Inman	...	Roderim (voice: English version)
Takkô Ishimori	...	Jodu Entolasia (as Takkou Ishimori)
Grant James	...	Priest (voice: English version)
Brittney Karbowski	...	Milano (voice: English version)
Ami Koshimizu	...	Milano Entolasia (voice)
Vic Mignogna	...	Falis' Father (voice: English version)
Daisuke Namikawa	...	Dark Knight (voice)
Romi Pak	...	Alita Forland (voice)
Ben Phillips	...	Pete Armstrong (voice: English version)
Wendy Powell	...	Cecilia (voice: English version)
Monica Rial	...	Milano Entolasia / Alita Forland (voice: English version)
Chiwa Saito	...	Ana / Yuna (voice)
Carrie Savage	...	Ana / Yuna (voice: English version)
Patrick Seitz	...	Kaito (voice: English verison)
Mark Stoddard	...	Dr. Akamashi (voice: English version)
John Swasey	...	King Forland (voice: English version) (as Erika Weinstein)
Mayuko Takahashi	...	Mirano (voice)
Akimitsu Takase	...	Pete Armstrong (voice)
J. Michael Tatum	...	Kleiveldt (voice: English version)
Megumi Toyoguchi	...	Cecilia (voice)
Hiroshi Tsuchida	...	Akamashi (voice)
Tyler Walker	...	Frankenstein (voice: English version)
Kazuki Yao	...	Dominikov (voice)

Directed by
Shinya Kawamo
Tomoyuki Kurokawa
Tomoaki Ohta

Writing credits
Sekihiko Inui		(manga)
Tatsuhiko Urahata		(screenplay)
Satsuki Yamashita		(translation)
Jason Grissom		(adaptation)
Jared Hedges		adaptation
Jared Hedges		head writer: dubbed version
Alex Muniz		adaptation

Produced by
Justin Cook	....	producer
Gen Fukunaga	....	executive producer (english version)
Tatsuya Hamamoto	....	line producer
Shinji Horikiri	....	producer
Carly Hunter	....	producer
Yoshiro Kataoka	....	executive producer
Ryoji Maru	....	line producer
Hajime Maruyama	....	producer
Yoshiaki Matsumoto	....	executive producer
Mike McFarland	....	line producer (english version)
Hiroji Ooko	....	associate producer

Original Music by
Yasufumi Fukuda

Cinematography by
Shinichi Igarashi		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Masayuki Kurosawa

Art Direction by
Yoshimi Umino		(as Yoshimi Unno)
Shin Watanabe

Art Department
Naoki Aoyama	....	background art coordinator
Fumie Kawai	....	background art
Shinya Kawamo	....	storyboard artist
Masashi Koezuka	....	design works
Makiko Kojima	....	color designer
Tomoyuki Kurokawa	....	storyboard artist
Yuichi Mari	....	design works
Hiroshi Morioka	....	storyboard artist
Naomi Nakano	....	paint checker
Natsuyo Otani	....	paint checker
Yoshimi Umino	....	background art (as Yoshimi Unno)
Shin Watanabe	....	background art
Hideyo Yamamoto	....	storyboard artist
Makiko Yamanaka	....	paint checker
Yoshimitsu Yamashita	....	character designer

Sound Department
Shuhei Abe	....	sound coordinator
Caitlin Glass	....	adr director
Azusa Ishikawa	....	foley artist
Neal Malley	....	sound re-recording mixer
Yoshio Obara	....	sound mixer
Nick Parker	....	adr engineer
Hajime Takakuwa	....	sound director

Special Effects by
Shuichi Akui	....	digital works: Bee Train Digital
Masaki Horiuchi	....	digital works: Bee Train Digital
Misaki Horiuchi	....	digital works: Bee Train Digital
Ayumi Kamo	....	digital works: Bee Train Digital
Ayumi Kamo	....	special effects
Yasuyo Yaegashi	....	digital works: Bee Train Digital

Visual Effects by
Daiji Kawakami	....	digital compositor
Katsutoshi Ooi	....	digital compositor
Koji Sawada	....	digital compositor
Hiroaki Tanaka	....	digital compositor

Animation Department
Ryotarou Akao	....	key animator
Manamu Amasaki	....	animation director
Manamu Amasaki	....	key animator
Yukiko Ban	....	animation director
Yukiko Ban	....	key animator
Daisuke Endô	....	key animator (as Daisuke Endo)
Kaori Higuchi	....	key animator
Shu Hirayama	....	key animator
Megumi Honda	....	key animator
Yoshiaki Honda	....	key animator
Shota Ibata	....	key animator
Kaori Ikeda	....	key animator
Maiko Ikegaki	....	key animator
Keiichi Ishida	....	key animator
Tomoko Ishida	....	assistant animator
Tomoko Ishida	....	key animator
Takashi Iwao	....	key animator
Tomoaki Kado	....	key animator
Miki Kamata	....	key animator
Junko Kameda	....	key animator
Hiroko Kamiyama	....	key animator
Rie Kaneko	....	key animator
Miai Kanzawa	....	key animator
Kumiko Katou	....	key animator
Tsutomu Kikuchi	....	key animator
Satoshi Kitahara	....	key animator
Masashi Koezuka	....	key animator
Tsuyoshi Konakawa	....	key animator
Osamu Kurosawa	....	key animator
Mi-Yeong Lee	....	key animator
Rie Maehara	....	key animator
Yuichi Mari	....	assistant animator
Takashi Maruyama	....	animation director
Fumie Matsuhita	....	animation coordinator
Emiko Matsuno	....	key animator
Sadatoshi Matsusaka	....	key animator (as Sadatoshi Matsuzaka)
Keiko Nagamine	....	key animator
Chûji Nakajima	....	key animator (as Chuji Nakajima)
Junko Nakamura	....	key animator
Kaori Nakamura	....	key animator
Hirotaka Nii	....	key animator
Tomoaki Ohta	....	key animator
Yasuhiro Saiki	....	key animator
Hiroko Saito	....	key animator
Shinmei Saito	....	key animator
Mutsumi Sasaki	....	animation director
Mutsumi Sasaki	....	assistant animator
Mutsumi Sasaki	....	key animator
Asuka Shimizu	....	key animator
Akio Shimotsukasa	....	key animator
Asuka Shinbo	....	in-between animation checker
Mika Shirota	....	key animator
Mariko Sugimoto	....	key animator
Atsuko Takahashi	....	key animator
Kazuyuki Takayama	....	key animator
Toshimitsu Takechi	....	key animator
Akira Takeuchi	....	key animator
Saori Tomita	....	in-between animation checker
Saori Tomita	....	key animator
Yoshiaki Tomita	....	key animator
Katsuyuki Tsubouti	....	key animator
Noriko Tsutsumiya	....	in-between animation checker
Noriko Tsutsumiya	....	key animator
Akira Wakabayashi	....	key animator
Toshiya Washida	....	key animator
Asami Watanabe	....	key animator
Shu Yamamoto	....	key animator
Hidemi Yamashita	....	key animator
Yoshimitsu Yamashita	....	animation director
Yoshimitsu Yamashita	....	assistant animator
Yoshimitsu Yamashita	....	key animator
Nobuaki Yanagi	....	key animator
Kazuhiko Yano	....	key animator
Kenji Yokoyama	....	key animator
Wakako Yoshida	....	key animator

Other crew
Tomoko Hasegawa	....	advertising
Masaki Imnari	....	cooperation
Sam Kondu	....	advertising
Kôichi Mashimo	....	project group (as Kouichi Mashimo)
Haruki Nakayama	....	project group
Atsushi Suzuki	....	project group
Nobuaki Suzuki	....	advertising
Atsushi Umezawa	....	cooperation

Production Companies

• Avex Mode
• Bee Train
• FUNimation Entertainment
• Marvelous Entertainment

Distributors

• Anime Virtual (2007) (Germany) (all media)
• FUNimation Entertainment (2009) (USA) (DVD)
• Kaze Anime (????) (Netherlands) (all media)
• Marvelous Entertainment (2007) (Japan) (DVD)

Special Effects

• Bee Train Digital
• Studio Twinkle

Other Companies

• Aniade  digital paint
• Aniade  in-between animation
• Aniade  key animation
• Argo Road  digital paint
• Ashi Productions Co. Inc.  key animation
• Avex Mode  music production cooperation
• Bee Train  in-between animation
• Delfi Sound  music production
• Delfi Sound  recording studio
• Hangzhou Flying Dragon Cartoon  digital paint
• Jinnan Studio  recording studio
• MSJ  digital paint
• Marvelous Entertainment  music production cooperation
• Media Works  original publisher
• Nakamura Production  key animation
• Production AI  background art
• Sound Garden  sound effects
• Studio Lagoon  digital paint
• Studio Road  digital paint
• Union Cho  in-between animation
• Union Cho  key animation

Also Known As:

Runtime:

Japan:25 min (6 episodes)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Certification:

Canada:13+ (Quebec) (VHS/DVD rating) | South Korea:15 | Germany:16

Company:

Avex Mode

Trivia:

This is the first Bee Train production in which founder, director and animator Kôichi Mashimo has no involvement in, in almost a decade.

Soundtrack:

Naked Flower

Murder Princess is a rip-roaring kick-ass good time you'll have in any anime of the genre!

If your looking for a Shakespearian esquire tragedy, insane killer lolis well this isn't it. Murder Princess is fairly generic and fairly predictable yes. Why am I raving about it? Because it's just a boat load of fun. This truly works very well as a short OAV series as opposed to a longer TV series as you don't feel overwhelmed nor do you have to waste time with pointless fluff and nonsense found in some other action series. Basically Murder Princess could be likened to a two-hour-Hollywood summer film that you go buy popcorn and just kick back and enjoy. And you will enjoy it.

The non-stop bloody action makes this Bee Trains most enthralling and adrenalin pushing yet; also with out a doubt a well budgeted one with Marvelous Entertainment producing. The adaption from the manga is spot on (though there are a few things I wish they had done) and the music while a bit atypical metal fits so well for this. Even in the rash bash head banging metal you feel a lot of heart in the musical score and it only enhances the film further. Though despite the hectic pace of the plot it's still very easy to continue following the story. Compared to Bee Train insanely sporadic adaptation of Blade of the Immortal, Murder retains the charm of an intelligible but easy to understand plot but throwing you on a roller coaster compared to the slower moving series like my personal favs .hack//SIGN, and MADLAX. And it still takes a little time out for the audience to catch their breath.

The animation being the best yet I've seen, beautiful designs, great effects pointless bloody mesh maybe yet not laid on as thick as Blade's violence or a senine violence would normally be. Granted this is probably aimed at Teens more so than Adults like with Blade or others in that genre. A very nice color pallet but seemed heavy rather than the lovely color pallet by Studio Road in Tsubasa Chronicle and .hack//SIGN. Or maybe it's just my imagination, but regardless the beautiful color pallet takes you into the fantasy world of Foreland along with the overall art direction and composition.

Acting for the dub was unique and amazing from a FUNi all star cast including Monica Rial and Caitlin Glass alternating between umm...well themselves? Well anyway the dub made a clever move by retaining internal thought with the character's personality. Okay I'm sure that made no sense, well the commentary makes so much sense so watch that if I lost you.

Not much I can say about the Japanese as I haven't seen it in Japanese though with talents like Romi Paku I'm sure it's brilliant.

If you ask me Murder Princess is a hidden gem. Not just a hidden gem among Bee Train's arsenal of shows but among many action anime out there. It's a fun two-hour OAV adventure with non-stop action and is great to kick back with a bowl of popcorn or bag of chips or whatever your snack of choice be, and just enjoy.