Fall 2024 Is the Anime Season of Romance!
This hasn't been the best year in terms of new anime. The past two seasons had a dearth of princesses after the Winter 2024 isekai explosion. Not only that, but the Spring 2024 season was severely lacking in romance. Get your tissue boxes ready because the new Fall 2024 season is here to change all that. Nearly half this season's anime shows have a romantic arc of some sort, which is a great follow-up to the shocking love confession in last week's episode of Wonderful Precure. Two anime shows from this season that stand for having romantic princess-oriented plotlines are Nina the Starry Bride and The Do-Over Damsel Conquers the Dragon Emperor. These are the types of shows that I never get tired of. Although they follow some stereotypical anime tropes, they are the only way to relive some of the original Disney Princess archetypes that have been lost to time in Western animation.
Nina the Starry Bride is the newest take on the female-oriented rags-to-riches doppelganger trope that began with Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper. It starts out like a gender-bent Aladdin with a ragtag group of thieves who are forced to live on the streets and do what they can to survive. When a group of slavers capture Nina and realize that she bears a strong resemblance to the recently deceased Princess Alisha, they decide to disguise her as the princess to maintain her upcoming nuptial alliance with a prince from another kingdom. Little is revealed about her new fiancé in the first episode as he is apparently bedridden, but one of her captors turns out to be a prince as well, and love is in the air. Prince Azure, the first to discover Nina's resemblance to the princess, plays a similar role to Julian in Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper in helping her adapt to royal life. As he helps guard her secret, he reveals a protectiveness that goes beyond his initial plan to deceive the other kingdom, setting the scene for a potential love triangle.
The Do-Over Damsel Conquers the Dragon Emperor has the same plot as one of Winter 2024's most compelling series, 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy. Both shows portray a noble lady who was engaged to a royal man, gets stabbed in the back, and is sent back in time to the moment of their proposal so they can turn it down and get a second chance toward a better future. These enlightened reborn brides both end up seeking love with the ruler of their enemy kingdom, who turns out to be a better match for them. Although The Do-Over Damsel gets few points for originality, it has a surprisingly silly love interest with the "Dragon Emperor." Despite his dark and stoic appearance, he turns out to be a child at heart who loves petite young women like Jill and takes her proposal at face value without considering that she may have had an ulterior motive. He even comes with an adorable talking baby dragon sidekick who calls him out on his silly antics, never missing an opportunity to make fun of him. Although this show uses a heavily recycled plot, it makes up for it in the humor department.
Romance has become surprisingly rare in Western media and is even frowned upon in a culture that is becoming increasingly misandric. Japan has taken note of this with its influx of romance-based anime. Although my favorite type of romance is the kind that involves princesses in fancy dresses, there are other options for hopeless romantics this season as well. Some of those include TsumaSho, which is about a man whose wife got reincarnated as a child and returned to him and his daughter ten years after her death, 365 Days to the Wedding about a couple of office workers who plan a fake engagement to avoid being sent overseas, and DAN DA DAN, which features two high schoolers who must help each other overcome creepy supernatural threats like aliens and ghosts. My favorite romance anime from this decade remains last year's I'm Giving the Disgraced Noble Lady I Rescued a Crash Course in Naughtiness. Despite its overly long and deceptively suggestive title, this show does a stellar job of portraying a sweet princess-like character who has strong chemistry with a powerful outcast who is determined to spoil her with happiness.
Comments
Hi Sugar,
I think there is supposed to be a fairly significant age difference in that show because it's part of the gimmick. Jill went back in age by six years so she could fix her mistake of marrying the guy who betrayed her, but because of that, she is mentally older than she looks. Meanwhile, the emperor who fell in love with her acts younger than he looks and has a thing for much younger girls, which is why he's so attracted to her. Since he's mentally immature and she's mentally several years older, they are somewhat equal despite their age difference. I can't remember if they said how old they are both actually supposed to be in the episode or not.
"The Do-Over Damsel Conquers The Dragon Emperor
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Comedy
Summary:
Jill Savelle—fiancée of the crown prince Gerald de Kleitos and known as the "Lady Goddess of War"—is being hunted down by the same country she swore to protect. Betrayed by her betrothed, she is framed as a traitor and imprisoned. In her last moments, Jill is filled with regret, but just as death approaches, she awakens six years in the past. This time, she will not be a mere pawn. Now as a 10-year-old girl, Jill resolves to escape her imminent engagement to the prince. To this end, she jokingly professes her love to the 19-year-old dragon emperor Hades Theos Rave, who will one day stain the land in blood due to madness. But against all expectations, he accepts! In contrast to the tyrant from Jill's memories, the Hades of this time is a kind albeit unfortunate emperor. Can Jill prevent Hades from descending down the same dark, villainous road, or is he bound to an inevitable future?"
So mentally, she's sixteen and he's nineteen, but she's stuck in her ten-year-old body due to reincarnation.