I’ve finished watching Circlet Princess, meaning that it’s review time for this Winter 2019 classic.
…Or was it a classic?
Gotcha.
Read this review to find out!
Virtual Fighting Sports Anime
That’s my best attempt to describing Circlet Princess in a few words. Virtual fighting sports anime. Essentially it’s an anime about a sport called Circlet Bout, which is a game where two women fight one-on-one using whatever virtual weapon they want and try to score points by hitting their opponent. Why only women? No clue! Wouldn’t some weapons be more effective than others? You’d think so, but this is anime, so no.
The story follows a girl named Yuuka who joins a circlet bout club at her school. They then enter a circlet bout tournament as she battles her way to the top to face off against the best in the sport, a girl named Chikage. There’s a bit more to it than that, but that’s the gist of things. As this is a school club sport, you can expect some typical sports drama related to motivation and whatnot.
And that about sums up what Circlet Princess is all about.
Budgeted Quality
There are two types of anime out there – anime of the highest quality that have no qualms regarding the amount of action they display, and anime on a budget. Unfortunately, Circlet Princess falls into the second category. I won’t fault the anime too much for this, because I personally believe that good story, good characters, and the like play a much more important role towards providing enjoyment in anime. No matter how pretty the anime is, a bad story is a bad story. Boring is boring, irritating is irritating, et cetera.
That said, it’s still something to consider. Circlet Princess is an anime about a sport that revolves around fighting, and fighting requires animated sequences in order to fulfill the action requirements of the series. Lower budget means less of this and more cuts to people’s faces, dialogue during fights, and other tricks to try and draw the action out without actually displaying action. So while I won’t fault Circlet Princess too much for this, I’d be lying if I said that it didn’t have any affect on my enjoyment of the anime.
Unintentional Comedy
Something that I catch every so often is an anime that I like to call an unintentional comedy. An anime that, through some ridiculous premise, manages to make me laugh. Circlet Princess did just this through the nonsensical sport that is circlet bout.
Without spoiling anything, let’s just say that circlet bout is probably the most unregulated “official” sport I’ve seen in anime. There may as well not be any rules in this sport, resulting in teams using methods that could easily be considered blatant cheating. Not to mention there is no restrictions on weapons or the arena in which individuals fight in. The result is a sport that feels like the “Wild Wild West”, with situations that left me scratching my head in confusion and laughter at what I had just witnessed.
Rating
Overall, Circlet Princess is what I’d consider a slightly below average anime. The overarching story and characters were nothing too exciting, and due to the budgeting of the anime a lot of the action fell short as well. In its entirety I’d say the anime manages to hold up, but not by much.
I’d say that Circlet Princess is outclassed by bigger titles such as Chivalry of a Failed Knight or Gakusen Toshi Asterisk – both anime that manage to fill the idea of one-on-one duels in a school environment much better.
I’m going to give Circlet Princess a 6 / 10.
It’s a good anime for killing the time if you have nothing else to watch, but I wouldn’t recommend watching this over many, many other anime out there.
I’ll also give Circlet Princess the No Rules Allowed award, due to the circlet bout sport being a completely unregulated mess.
If you’re interested in my thoughts on specific episodes, you can find my list of posts below!
Until next time,
Thanks for reading!
Umai Yomu Anime Blog 
Might as well give it a shot if I have time.
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If you have nothing better to watch, then might as well haha
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