The Princess Blog

When I decided to play a fan translation  of an old 1997 Sega Saturn RPG called Princess Crown , I was expecting something cute and simple along the lines of Disney Princess Enchanted Journey  or maybe even Rhapsody . What I was not expecting was an unforgiving full-length fighter RPG with story elements like demon possession taking place in a Barbie movie-like world  of fairies, mermaids, and unicorns. This game simply does not care about pinning down a target audience, and I both love and hate it for that at the same time. Developed by Atlus , the game never received an official Western release, and, having played it, I can completely understand why. It suffers from a massive identity crisis that even some of the darker princess games I've played are more straightforward about. Truly, this game would have no market in the West. The fact that it exists at all is amazing. It all begins so innocently. A little girl asks her grandmother to read her a story, and she pulls ...

A Frigid Hope  by Amanda Thompson  is the latest book I've read from the multi-author Hope Ever After series . This book is a pleasant retelling of "The Snow Queen"  that combines elements of the original story with other traditional fairy tale tropes. Like many "Snow Queen" adaptations, it is more faithful to Hans Christian Andersen's original work  than Frozen  was . It also features a traditional fairy tale romance by aging up the protagonists and transforming them into royalty. It was a quick and easy read that felt both nostalgic and refreshing. Princess Bianca has no shortage of suitors, but she only has eyes for one prince, who she doesn't believe would even be willing to offer her his hand. When she learns that her parents convinced Prince Percival to be a contender, she is over the moon. Unfortunately, the very next day, he is selected to be a tribute for the wicked snow queen, Kira. Every man selected for this task must live in her ice palace u...

Disney has had a double feature in the works  for a few years now to conclude the Frozen  saga. What's better than one sequel but two? New plot details  were recently revealed about Frozen 3 , which is set to debut in November 2027, the month of Disney Princess movies . Per a translated Twitter post from Disney China , “In this new chapter, witness the wedding of the century in Arendelle as Queen Anna walks down the aisle and joins Elsa on a new magical journey filled with unknown challenges. And what’s even more exciting: the royal family is about to welcome a mysterious new member!” This sounds like a return to classic princess movies of the past, which have become rarer in the modern Disney canon  and may represent a nostalgic return. However, it also proves that Disney still prefers to milk franchises that are over a decade old rather than create new ones for modern generations. When Frozen  first premiered in 2013, I fell headfirst for all the hype a...

The Glass Gate  by Hanna Sandvig  is a lovely portal fantasy from her Faerie Tale Romance series of fae retellings about characters from the real world who enter gateways to the land of the fae where they live out classic fairy tales. This book is similar to others I've read  from this series and includes a few fun cameos. Hanna's books are unique because they all feature modern protagonists who are relatable to us as readers, allowing us to vicariously live out their fairy tales. This story draws inspiration from "Cinderella,"  though it has many unique elements that stand apart from other retellings. Ella is an aspiring fashion designer who wants a break from her daily grind of helping out her stepfamily. Her mixed Japanese heritage has always made her feel like an outsider in the real world. It seemed like a no-brainer when her bestie Amber took her out for a nighttime getaway to the hidden land of Tír Na nÓg  to party with the fae and finally have a chance t...

It's been a rough decade for faery princess media . With the exception of the upcoming Winx Club reboot , the hyperfeminine fae aesthetic  has all but faded away into a lost relic of the 1980s and early '90s. Hidden in the depths of cinema history is a treasure trove of lost media that has been sealed away in the depths of old memories. Most studios don't have the motive or budget to reintroduce their old franchises to new audiences the way Disney does . One animated fantasy movie from the '80s that made a comeback a decade ago is The Last Unicorn , which premiered in 1982 with its tragic story, moving soundtrack, and beautifully dark imagery that came straight from the pages of Peter S. Beagle 's novel. On the Eastern front, a tonally similar anime movie came out in 1981 that I only learned about recently. Sea Prince and the Fire Child , also known as Legend of Sirius , is a visual and emotional spectacle of epic proportions from a time when creativity was celebrat...

Ice and the Elves  is the latest book in  Anabelle Raven 's Elves & Legends series. Like the other books in this series, it is an extremely loose fairy tale retelling that is essentially an original story. This particular book draws inspiration from "Sleeping Beauty"  by incorporating themes of dream magic. It takes place in the same high fantasy world as the other Elves & Legends books, in which there is a rivalry between humans and elves. This book directly follows the events of Nolan and the Elf , in which an elf and a human fall in love, and explores the fallout of their actions. It is a dark story centered around a war setting, which may not be every fairy tale fan's cup of tea. Ice and the Elves  is a second-chance romance that begins after a lot of important events have already taken place, which requires the reader to catch up through expository dialogue and description. Kendrick is an elf prince seeking revenge for his parents' murder by a king a...

When I first heard there would be a new anime about singing princess  Magical Girls , I was stoked. I love all of those things, so how could combining them  go wrong? I couldn't wait to write about Princession Orchestra . I waited with baited breath for the first episode to air. Then I watched it and realized I had very little to say about it. Now, I am 20 episodes in, and I still don't have a lot to say. The series fulfills its promise on a most basic level. However, the majority of its charm comes from aesthetics and very little else. Despite what the title would lead you to believe, Princession Orchestra pays more homage to Alice in Wonderland  than it does to princess stories. In fact, there are so many Wonderland references peppered throughout the show that I personally think Wonderland Orchestra would have been a more appropriate title. The show takes place in a beautiful fantasy world called Alicepia, which is powered by an app that only girls can access. When the...

The first time I saw preview footage from Bye Sweet Carole , I thought it had been rotoscoped from Disney's Beauty and the Beast . It wasn't, but this perception was a result of the game's distinct look that is reminiscent of hand-drawn films from Disney's Renaissance and Golden Age eras. The nostalgic aesthetic  is a huge selling point for the game. It is difficult to find anything in the modern era  that recreates this style so perfectly. The game's protagonist, Lana, bears features that are similar to the character models for both Belle and Snow White. It is not unheard of for a video game to use hand-drawn animation. Dragon's Lair  and Cuphead are some examples of this. However, it is an exceptionally rare medium for interactive storytelling due to the amount of time it takes to animate every possible player scenario. Few people are willing to put this amount of time and effort into modern games because of how much easier it is to take advantage of new tec...