Is Princess Jellyfish still one of my favourite anime of all time

I do not think Princess Jellyfish will have aged well. Let’s just put that out there right now. It was one of the josei anime made back during the height of Noitamina when they actually aired josei anime, and it was one I had a huge soft spot for. May even have been my favourite of their josei adaptations for how much I liked it as I was watching it. But the shine wore off very quickly. This isn’t a case of me not watching it in a decade so I’ve forgotten why I liked it. I haven’t seen it in over a decade, that is true, but my memories of it were fading very early on and I wondered whether it really was as good as I remembered. It’s not exactly a great depiction of breaking gender norms despite what it originally sets out as, most of the side characters are annoying as hell, and it has a shit non-ending.

Now if you’re reading this and wondering why am I even going back to it…well, I did really, really enjoy this anime as it aired. Saying it was my favourite of the josei Noitamina anime means it beats two other anime I’ve already reviewed in this project in both Bunny Drop and Nodame Cantabile. Maybe it doesn’t hold up? It probably doesn’t hold up. But I have to find out. Is Princess Jellyfish still one of my favourite anime of all time?

Episodes 1-2

Boy did I make a good choice deciding to watch the English dub. Yeah I don’t get Hanakana in one of her more unique roles. On the other hand, it has made the collective otaku that stay at that house way less irritating. I remember at the time this aired people said this is what real otaku are like. They’re into weird shit and are social outcasts who you wouldn’t like to hang out with. But upon watching the dub, nah the Japanese version just played up their nonsense voices too much. Or maybe I’m just older and totally understand people who are really into trains now.

The other part of the dub that’s great though is the cross-dresser. You’ve got just the right amount of sassy drag queen in the voice that makes them massively entertaining to listen to. It works much better contrasting her actions off those of the rest of the otaku cast. Maybe their voice in the Japanese version had that drag queen camp and I didn’t pick up on it because I’m not clued into the Japanese drag scene. But hey, this dub is working for me remarkably well either way. It’s clearing up some of my problems with the original while maintaining the comedic and heartfelt parts I liked.

We’ll see if it lasts though, as I remember the show being much better at the start than the end. I wonder if it was a case like Daily Lives of Highschool Boys, wherein I ascribed it savior of anime status after a strong opening and stayed willfully blind to its issues at it progressed?

Episodes 3-5

It really is a lot of fun to watch these dorks. The extended cast are all pretty entertaining in very anime-ass ways. I particularly enjoy the politician uncle, who loves his cross-dressing nephew, getting a phone call from him and saying “don’t worry, 9% of them still like me sweetie”. Or trying to clean up spilled ink with Banba’s afro. Or Tsukimi pretending to be a Chinese hopping ghoul to escape her awkwardness with her smudged makeup. Or her imagining being hugged by the hot suited bro as him calming a silly wild animal, complete with image of Tsukimi the tiger and the suited bro dressed up as Steve Irwin. Incidentally, the English dub made him put on an Australian accent for that one scene, which was a nice touch.

I’m just having a lot of fun with this cast in general. They’re all extremely flawed people to put it mildly, but manage to do that while being very likeable. It’s a tough balancing act but it pulls it off. It’s also really well directed. It’s by the director who did Baccano and Durarara, and there’s a ton of fun little directorial touches. It’s just a really well-made, fun anime.

But I am maybe starting to see some of the things I was talking about in the opening paragraph to this review where I wasn’t sure if it held up. I’ll hold off on expanding more on the topic until I watch more, but to put my early thoughts down to text: For a series that is about challenging norms around sex and gender, it sure does push its character to conform to gender norms.

Episode 6

Errr….that was a date rape. She drugged him, took him to a bedroom and sexually assaulted him. They even showed her dropping the pills into his drink. Yeah they say at the end she “didn’t do anything” but I think drugging, taking off his clothes, lying naked and kissing him all still qualifies as rape. Are we going to gloss over that?

Episodes 7-9

Ah, we’re not going to gloss over the date rape. Instead we’re going to make the big scandal about it that the guy is a virgin. Right, because that’s the important detail in here. This entire plotline is deeply uncomfortable. Let’s introduce a career woman but she’s a slutty whore who closes deals beneath the sheets and uses date rape to blackmail people doh ho ho isn’t this hilarious. This series sure has a weird idea of what kind of roles career women play in society huh. We keep repeating the “all women want to get married and wear a pretty dress” line as well.

There’s a scene where the two older politicians are commenting on the brother finally having gotten laid after being a virgin for so long (let’s leave aside the date rape because apparently the anime is going to do that). There’s a comment about how more and more men aren’t getting married because women are choosing careers so isn’t it great he finally stamped his v-card. Without what had happened in the story earlier, this would have been a hilarious comment from two out-of-touch sexist politicians. But when the story is so focused on Tsukimi and her desire to wear a beautiful wedding dress, or when the career woman they do show is a woman who uses her body to get ahead, it changes the tone of those comments.

Context matters. Who you choose to voice different views matters. Those views coming from old politicians who two-timed on their partners makes perfect sense. But the part being focused on is the virgin-breaking. Here is where the story presents them as being a poor influence. It’s emphasized to us again and again that the brother’s sanctity is intact, when that’s really not the issue here at all.

Episodes 10-11

I’ve cracked the code. I know exactly why my feelings towards Princess Jellyfish were the way they were. It’s not because the ending was bad and left a story unfinished. The story is unfinished, but that was honestly as good a place to stop the story as any. It was actually quite sweet and gave us the clearest sign that some of these characters, especially Tsukimi, are growing and changing as people.

No, the reason I have the lingering feeling that the anime wasn’t as good as I remembered was because the directing for the anime is better than the source material it’s adapting. I’ve always thought Takahiro Omori was a good director, but maybe I haven’t been giving him as much credit as he deserves for how good those anime were. The way Princess Jellyfish structures its jokes, plays with visual comedy and timing, and uses the cartoony free-flow style of animation in different sections is fantastic. It’s not exactly a sakuga masterclass, but when it comes to understanding how to bring across the humour and heart of the story, it’s amazing.

I just have…issues with the story. Issues that stick in your mind and make you doubt whether this series was that good after all. But since this is the end, it’s time to ask:

Is Princess Jellyfish still one of my favourite anime of all time?

Obviously no, but I had sorta expected that. If anything I was surprised at how much I was enjoying it for the early episodes. Maybe my memory had been corrupted and actually this really was as good as my vague feelings for it were? Maybe I should have trusted what 2010 Scamp thought of this anime and not what 2014 Scamp had remembered it as being? It really is astonishingly well made with great comedic characters and timing. And again, shout-outs to the English dub for actually elevating this, which has been a rare sight going back to these older anime.

But the story has such significant, deep-lying flaws that prey on your mind while watching it. It leaves a bad aftertaste. I don’t have an issue with Tsukimi’s story of wanting to be a pretty jellyfish princess, all girly and pretty. But when contrasted with how the story portrays all different kinds of womanhood and femininity, suddenly it becomes how the story views how women should act and should be. Also why oh why did we have to insert a comedic date rape scene into this story? Why are we supposed to sympathize with this character by the end because she fell for the cute virgin?

I wish I had been the editor for the manga. Would have sent back the manuscript saying “you clearly have something good here, but delete this storyline, remove this character, have a character like this” etc and so on. I enjoyed this rewatch perhaps more than I was expecting, so it doesn’t drop right down into the dumps of my rewatch list. It’s just a good, fun time. Mostly. Apart from the date rape.

Enough with covering these short 11-episode Noitamina anime I’m not sure if I still like and are mostly forgotten by the general public. Time to cover an anime everyone remembers, is way longer, is one of the most universally beloved, and generally agreed upon to be Good. It’s time to cover Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.