Princess Principal is set in a fictional analogue of England called Albion. During the early 20th century, the Kingdom of Albion monopolized a mysterious substance called "Cavorite" to construct a fleet of heavily armed airships that made Albion the dominant power in the world. However, the proletariat of Albion grew angry at their country's ruling class for largely ignoring their plight, sparking the "London Revolution" in which the lower classes attempted to overthrow the royal family. Eventually, the two sides reached a stalemate, and a great wall was erected through the middle of London, splitting Albion into two nations: the Commonwealth and the Kingdom. Several years later, the Commonwealth launches "Operation Changeling", a plan to replace the Kingdom's Princess Charlotte with Ange, a girl who bears a strong resemblance to her, in order to have a highly placed agent within the royal family. However, the Princess turns the plan on the spies, offering to work with the Commonwealth if Ange and her friends will help her become the Queen of the Kingdom. So begins the story as five girls, including the Princess herself, serve as undercover spies in the Kingdom working for the Commonwealth, while enrolled as students at the prestigious Queen's Mayfair school.
Characters
Main characters
;Ange ;Princess Charlotte ;Dorothy ;Beatrice ;Chise Tōdō
The anime series is animated by Studio 3Hz and Actas. The series is directed by Masaki Tachibana, with scripts written by Ichirō Ōkouchi and character designs by Kouhaku Kuroboshi and Yukie Akiya. The series aired from July 9 to September 24, 2017. The opening theme song is "The Other Side of the Wall" performed by Void_Chords and MARU, and the ending theme is "A Page of My Story" performed by Ayaka Imamura, Akira Sekine, Yō Taichi, Akari Kageyama, and Nozomi Furuki. Sentai Filmworks has licensed the anime and streamed it on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S. and other streaming sites elsewhere. MVM Films has licensed the series in the UK.
Episode list
The series aired in an anachronical order, represented by each episode's "case" number. Notes: A = episode number, C = chronological order.
A
C
Title
Original air date
Mobile game
A mobile puzzle game titled Princess Principal Game of Mission was released for iOS and Android phones. The game was in operation from August 2017 to December 28, 2018, with certain offline features being added after the game's servers shut down.
Films
A six-series anime film adaptation of the series was announced on April 29, 2018. The series will follow on from the events of the last episode of the series. The first film, titled Princess Principal: Crown Handler, was slated to release on April 10, 2020 but has since been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Actas will produce the film series, while Noboru Kimura will replace Ichirō Ōkouchi as scriptwriter. The rest of the cast and staff, with the exception of Ayaka Imamura, will return to reprise their roles for the films.
Reception
Princess Principal has garnered significant praise from critics, with many calling it one of the best anime of 2017. Kotaku picked it as one of best summer 2017 anime series, with writer Cecilia D'Anastasio noting that the "soundtrack is jazzy madness. Its animation is pure beauty. It’s full of sharp writing, surprises and edge-of-your-seat intrigue." The music gained positive comments, especially the opening theme song to the series, "The Other Side of the Wall". The song was named by Chris Farris and Theron Martin from Anime News Network as the best theme song of 2017. It was also nominated for the best opening song at the 2017 Crunchyroll Anime Awards.
