What’s it about? Philia Adenauer is considered the greatest saint of all time, yet she’s utterly despised by her parents and her fiancé. If that wasn’t insulting enough, the townspeople don’t appreciate her hard work because she isn’t as charming as her beloved little sister, Mia. Ultimately, Philia is sold off to a neighboring country in exchange for money and resources. This turns out to be the best thing that has ever happened to her, since she’s welcomed warmly in her new home.
I’m glad that more shoujo stories are coming out each season. I’m also happy to report that the animation actually looks very good and since there’s minimal action scenes, it’s clear the animators are making use of adding soft and light colors in scenes where the characters are just standing still. Basically, the show is nice to look at, which is extremely important since almost everyone surrounding Philia and Mia are horrible people. It’s almost amazing how comically mean their parents and Julius (Philia’s ex-fiancé) are. The political intrigue is so on the nose that it almost makes me question if the true players at the royal court are hiding and waiting to make their move, while Julius screws everything up as the second prince.
It just seems rather odd that the king is bedridden with a mysterious illness and the first prince is nowhere to be found for the time being (I don’t think that’s a coincidence). Either way, Julius and Philia’s parents clearly don’t know how to play the “art of politicking” in a subtle manner, which I suspect will lead to their downfall later on. Heck, they wouldn’t last a day in the world of Game of Thrones. As for Philia, I think she has a lot of potential to become an interesting character. It’s clear her stoic and cold-demeanor is the result of enduring a lifetime of abuse by her family. Philia was not only subjected to magical training, she also had to learn swordsmanship and was forced to attend survival training camps where her life was constantly in danger. It’s no wonder she ended up with a “poker face” since she learned at a young age she had to hide her feelings in order to protect herself from being hurt by her supposed “loved ones.”
Unfortunately, Philia’s coping mechanism doesn’t make her palatable to the general public and her enemies mistake her attitude for arrogance. Julius, in particular, feels threatened by how extremely competent she is and openly tells her, she has no business advising soldiers on military strategy and she should know her place as a “woman.” It’s honestly insulting that instead of everyone showing their gratitude to Philia for consistently saving their lives; they criticize her for not being “soft” and “feminine” like her sister, Mia. There’s certainly a discussion to be had about how women in positions of power mustn’t either be too competent or too weak and must bend over backwards in order to find an “acceptable” balance so that the men around them can take them seriously. It’ll be interesting to see how both sisters navigate the oppressive systems that are keen on seeing them competent against each other.
Thankfully, it seems that Philia and Mia have a genuine and loving relationship and I suspect based on the few spoilers I know, it will be the heart and soul of the series. That alone merits giving this show a fair chance since we don’t usually see many shows centering relationships between sisters in a positive light. If you are a fantasy fan, you might be in for a surprise with this show. I’ll certainly stick around for three episodes just to see where it goes.
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