Where Are You, My Marginal Prince?

I began watching a new anime this season called "Marginal Prince."  It's up to 10 episodes so far, and I'm not quite sure how much longer it'll be airing, because of the anime I've watched, those based on games rarely last for more than 13 episodes.

This anime is based on what appears to be a boys-love sim game.  The main character, Yuuta, is supposed to be the viewer's younger brother who goes off to study abroad on a small island in the Atlantic that can not be found on any map.  The school he enters is called St. Alphonse Gakuin (St. Alphonse Academy).  The boys who study here are all "marginal princes" which appears to mean Princes of remote, frontier or border regions.

Yuuta meets and becomes friends with five other boys who attend school here: Joshua Grant, the son of a daughter from the noble Grant family and a duke (Okiayu Ryotaro); Alfred "Red" Visconti, a movie star (Morita Masakazu); Henri-Hughes de Saint Germaine, a direct descendent of Count Saint Germaine (Kojima Kenji); Sylvain "Silva" Clark, whose appearance makes one forget that his family lineage is that of a noble militaristic family (Miyake Junichi); and Haruya Kobayashi, who from a very young age under the expertise of his grandfather and mother (who was an accomplished Geisha) became acquainted with tea ceremony and Japanese dance (Okamoto Hiroshi).

Stanislov sings

Among the other colorful characters in the series, there is a boy named Mikhail Nevsky (Miyata Kouki) who tearfully apologizes for every little thing ("Gomen...boku no sei de...").  There is also a doctor by the name of Stanislov Sokurov (Ishikawa Hideo) who gives off the impression that he's not quite all there...  But you have to love him anyway!

Oh, and I think it's worth pointing out that Ishikawa Hideo is also Uchiha Itachi.

One quirk about Marginal Prince that I love is that in each episode, one character sings.  Of course, in episode 9, it was a bit odd because three different characters sang.  Two of them, Stanislov and Mikhail are forgivable because they make frequent appearances in the anime.  However, a random graduate from St. Alphonse Gakuin returns to visit and provides the third song in the episode.

However, he's a very pretty person so that makes up for it.

There are CDs from Marginal Prince for sale on CDJapan, and I'm almost sure that the songs featured on those CDs for the game are the same songs that are sung in the anime.  I just need a way of confirming it.

Joshua's Second Song

Either way, it's the same seiyuu that appear in the anime.  Even if they're not the same, I'm sure there'll be very many pretty songs on those CDs.  The styles of the songs usually aren't the same for every character.  Yuuta's songs are always upbeat and peppy, Joshua's songs are usually more dramatic.  Of all the Princes, Joshua and Enju (Yusa Kouji) are the only two who go off on random music video escapades.  One second they're in a field at school, the next they're chained up in someone's basement, wrapped in velvet or fighting in a war-torn country.

There isn't much of a plot in this series.  They're not all trying to be the Prince of Princes or anything.  There's not even much boys-love action or innuendo going on.  Unless you count Dr. Sokurov's strange behavior towards Yuuta.  If it's there, it's very subtle.  From my perspective, it just seems like they're all really great friends, and not like they're all in love with Yuuta.

A Typical Day with the Marginal Princes

Which is a little disappointing, but hey!  The music is good and the seiyuu are actually pretty accomplished singers.  There's a few doses of crack in each episode that make viewing the anime worthwhile.  They don't go into chibi form very often, and in fact had never so much as made a chibi-fied face until about episode 8 or so.  I'd like it if they kept the chibi-ness to a minimum for this show, but how can you resist such a cute little Haruya (purple hair & glasses)?

I enjoy the anime, and I'd very much like to experience the game just to see what it's like and how the two storylines compare to each other.

Comments

[Schmetterling-Kiss]

hey where did you watch this?

[ariel]

hi where did you see this show? i've been trying to find the episodes with english subs do you know where i can find it?

[weixiaOkittie]

hey^^ i was wondering where i can find the eng subbed episodes cos i watch it on veoh but theres only raw..T_T

[Sayomi]

I watched this show as it was being released weekly.  Its since finished running, so I don't think you'd be able to find it anywhere online.

[Sayomi]

I'm sorry, I was watching it as it was released and without subs.  I don't think any fansubbing group picked it up, since it wasn't one of those majorly anticipated releases.

[Sayomi]

I'm sorry, I can't help you there.  I don't think any fansub group picked it up, so I don't think you'll be able to find any episodes of it with English subtitles.

[weixiaOkittie]

aaww damn that sucks...but thnx anywayXD

[chi]

here's a hint!

[animefan^^]

English subs

[animefan^^]

http://www.veoh.com/videos/v1186911raRcc9He