Anime Spotlight #36: Sacrificial Princess And the King Of Beasts

Article by Sean Wilkinson, 

a.k.a. the Animeister.

Don't judge a book by its cover, Ticketholders!

Unless the cover has sex on it.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...even if the beholder needs an optometrist. 

Beauty is also skin-deep...which creates a nasty body-horror visual with skin that has eyes if you're a beholder who takes things literally.

And finally, beware of wolves in sheep's clothing...because wild animals don't wear clothes, and nobody wants to be attacked by a naked wolf, am I right?

Except the real "finally" that is also not a proverb is that you please remember to Become A Ticketholder if you haven't already, comment at the bottom of this post, help out my ad revenue as you read so I don't have to sacrifice anything, and follow me on Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest news on my content.

I've been on a multi-theme track with the Anime Spotlight lately, with those being anime I slept on, anime that have banger songs I listen to every episode, and anime that chase a trend.

Today's selection, Sacrificial Princess And the King Of Beasts, falls into that third camp, because there seems to be a few anime out there of the "presumed villain who can't talk to people ends up with a timid but formidable girl with silver hair at his mercy, starts having romantic feelings for her, and improves racial politics along the way" variety. I'm actually surprised there isn't a light novel series called I'm An Antisocial Demon Lord Who Made Human Friends Because I Didn't Sacrifice My Slave Wife (yes, I checked).

Sacrificial Princess And the King Of Beasts is kind of an anime adaptation/interpretation/reimagining of Beauty and the Beast that began its life as a manga by Yū Tomofuji. The manga concluded in October 2020 after a five-year run, and a spin-off manga began publication in 2022, concluding in February earlier this year. Like with the possible thematic inspirations for Frieren that I talked about last week, it's easy to look at the publication dates for Sacrificial Princess And the King Of Beasts, and assume that COVID had some effect on the potential success and continuation of the manga, but I couldn't find anything definitive on this short notice.

The titular characters, respectively, are the uncreatively named Sariphi - because her family knew she would end up dead, so they didn't bother, not because the mangaka got lazy - (voiced by Emi Lo of Shadows House in the dub) and the gruff Leonhart (voiced by Ray Hurd, somewhere between the slow, smooth tones of his Admiral Kizaru from One Piece and the sharp, "most unorthodox!" gravel of his Top/Toppo from Dragon Ball Super).

When she is sent to be sacrificed to the Beast King (then unnamed, but later given the name of Leonhart by Sariphi), Sariphi witnesses that he has a human form, a transformation which occurs every year on the night of the sacrifice. She also learns that he is not the cannibalistic monster that humanity believes him to be, as he instead sets his offerings free through a secret passage, thereby maintaining his image for his people and hoping to spread word of his mercy to humanity. Unfortunately, upon seeing their sacrificial children returned, the families reject them for fear that the Beast King will attack their village to reclaim them. So, instead of mercy and freedom, the freed sacrifices most likely wander from rejection to rejection until they starve to death, or attempt to return to the Beast realm where the miasma poisons them to death.

Yeah; in Sacrificial Princess world, the human realm and Beast realm follow Saint's Magic Power rules. Beasts can live in miasma, while humans can't (until Leonhart gives Sariphi a miasma-blocking ring that lets her live with him and not die), and because he's - SPOILERS! - part human, Leo reverts to human when there is no miasma.

But anyway, Sariphi is too stubborn to leave and Leo's tail is too fluffy, so here comes the old Japravity loophole of "man falls in love with child slave, but it's okay because she acts more mature than she looks and he's a shape-shifting supernatural creature." That aside, the tale of Leonhart and Sariphi is the right mix of spectacular power displays, adorable comedy, rich, character-driven serial drama, clear but mature social and racial commentary, heart-warming romance, and a varied cast of cute, quirky, endearing, fleshed-out characters to make the "boring" "girly stuff" (like romance and social politics) pop.

Hot take, but despite the age gap between the two leads and the horrific implications of what happens after Leo lets his offerings go free, Sacrificial Princess And the King Of Beasts was too much of a feelgood watch to feel gross.

Give it a chance if you want to snuggle up with something warm and fuzzy.

And even though I'm taking my sweet-ass time getting this published the morning of AniMonday, please remember to Become A Ticketholder if you haven't already, comment something warm and fuzzy at the bottom of this post, help out my ad revenue as you read so I don't have to sacrifice anything, and follow me on Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest news on my content.

Animeister,

Beasting Out.