Fena: Pirate Princess is Crunchyroll and Adult Swim’s upcoming original anime from Production I.G that’s been advertised for quite some time now. However, all that’s been shown in trailers and images so far had initially failed to grab my attention as it didn’t portray anything captivating or unique. After being granted access to view the first two episodes, I can honestly say that those impressions have yet to change.
The Adventure Begins
Fena: Pirate Princess follows our titular heroine Fena Houtman, a young, boisterous, and attractive young woman who’s the talk of the town due to her bewitching looks. Unfortunately for Fena, she lives in an island where women are treated as mere tools. So it’s no surprise that we first see her in the process of being be sold off and wedded to a member of the royal family. However, this proposal is far from a mutual agreement as it turns out Fena orchestrated her “wedding” in order to skip town with some ill-gotten royal riches and seek out a better life. Sadly, her poorly thought out plan unsurprisingly fails, and she’s forced to be a damsel in distress at the hands of two brave yet extremely elderly men named Otto and Salman who once served as her protectors and oddly appear just in time to rescue her.
Unfortunately, these old heroes aren’t very good at their jobs as they’re equally rescued by a group of mysterious armored warriors, one of whom is called Yukimaru, who also happens to share a past with Fena. We’re then shown a quick glimpse into Fena’s unfortunate parting with her now-deceased father and her connection with her mysterious savior. After her successful rescue, she’s taken to their village, where gets reacquainted with Yukimaru as well as the other warriors who helped to rescue her. She also learns of a crystal block her father left behind, and is then tasked in figuring out the mystery of this block and its origins. Fena then seeks out a mysterious location named Eden in hopes of finding answers.
One of Many
One certain thing I can say about this anime so far is that its premise and plot are rather dull. Like many leads, Fena is yet another orphaned hero on a journey for answers. Like several heroines, she’s already been put in the role of the damsel in distress and, like many other female leads, has a love interest that takes up half her personality. What’s more, the anime makes minimal effort with its world-building as it fails to present what’s being displayed to viewers in an engaging way. We first learn that Fena wound up in an island under the British empire which would explain the “royal” family member Fena was to be wedded to.
We also learn that the pirates seem to live in a closed off island and are Japanese, while Fena and the other characters like Otto and Salman are foreigners. However, we aren’t told anything else about these Japanese pirates like their origins or why they wear armor despite being pirates. Perhaps it is a bit too soon to expect proper world-building as the first two episodes only succeed at highlighting its characters, so hopefully, subsequent episodes will do a better job at that.
Humor at its Weirdest
Another more surprising aspect of the anime is the liberal use of slapstick humor throughout both episodes. I wasn’t expecting the anime to be a comedic one given its premise, but both episodes surprised me by proving the opposite. Most, if not all scenes in the anime so far includes some sort of comedic element. As a result, I found it hard to take any vital moment in the anime seriously the few times they actually showed up. Though this isn’t to say said moments aren’t funny cause I admittedly still found myself laughing at most of them.
Production-wise, Fena is still, unfortunately, nothing to write home about. I found the character designs to be pretty standard, as well as the visuals. Though I will admit, it’d be unfair to judge the anime fully in this category due to Crunchyroll’s obstructing watermark in the screener.
Final Thoughts
All in all, Fena: Pirate Princess does not display anything unique so far. The animation, direction, and overall production are quite standard, and the story uses a basic premise with a lot of repeated tropes. However, I will say that the episodes thus far have been quite entertaining despite not fully engrossing me. The anime certainly has the potential to become better, so I’ll be keeping an eye out to see if it does.
Screeners of Fena: Pirate Princess was provided by Crunchyroll for this review
Fena: Pirate Princess premieres on August 14 on Crunchyroll and Adult Swim
Are you a fan of pirate plots? What do you think of our review? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.