Princess Principal

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Princess Principal is a Twelve-Episode Anime, originally aired in 2017. It is followed by a six-part film series, Princess Principal: Crown Handler, that was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The series has been licensed and released on Blu-ray by Sentai Filmworks, and is also available on Amazon Video.

Victorian-era Britain Albion has discovered Cavorite and used it to become even stronger than in Real Life... but a revolution a decade ago has split the country, with the London Wall marking part of the border between East and West. There's still a war going on - not fought by soldiers, but by spies and subterfuge.

So, yes, this story is set in a steampunk version of the Cold War.

The Commonwealth of Albion has devised a plan - Project Changeling - to replace the Kingdom of Albion's Princess Charlotte (fourth in line for the throne) with a double, Ange le Carré. What they didn't count on was the princess deciding to join forces with Ange in order to become Queen and reunite the nation; a decision that she fully expects to end with her going to the guillotine. The two, along with Ange's partner Dorothy and Princess's school friend Beatrice, become an espionage team for the Commonwealth, based out of the prestigious Queen's Mayfaire girls' school that Princess attends and taking mission orders from "Control". A Japanese swordswoman, Chise, joins them partway through the story. "Team Principal" has the advantage of Ange possessing the "C Ball", the smallest known Cavorite device.

To add to the suspense, every member of Team Principal (with the possible exception of Beatrice) has a secret that she's keeping from Control.

The story can't decide whether it wants to be in the "trenchcoat and stale beer" or "tuxedo and martini" subtypes of espionage stories. Perhaps it's best to place it in the middle of the spectrum, at "casual outfits and red wine".


 * Anachronic Order: The stories were aired (and provided in the North American Blu-ray release) out-of-order. Each episode is identified with a "Case" number that indicates where it falls in chronological order.
 * Identical Stranger: The only reason Project Changeling was even considered is because Anje and Princess Charlotte look alike.
 * Impersonation Gambit:
 * Project Changeling in its original form.
 * Anje tries to pull one to get most of the team into a restricted area. Since one of the guards she's trying to bluff has heard that Princess is already inside the restricted area, this quickly turns into an Indy Ploy.
 * Translation Convention: The original Japanese dialog says the characters are speaking English.
 * Victorian London: With added steampunk and a Berlin-style wall. London is Team Principal's home base, and the setting for half of the stories.


 * __TROPE-NAME-GOES-HERE__: Case 1 mentions that everybody knows what Princess Charlotte looks like. Case 16 has Princess go undercover in a London laundry mill.

Characters Subpage

Characters from  usually have secrets to keep - sometimes, even their birth names are major spoilers.

Team Principal
"Team Principal" is what Control calls the team. They call themselves "Team White Pigeon" if they call themselves anything at all.

Dorothy
Voiced by Yō Taichi (Japanese), Elizabeth Bunch (English), Stephanie Kirchberger (German)

Birth name:

A description of the character goes here.


 * Big Breasts, Big Deal: The "When you've got it, you should flaunt it!" subtype. She loves showing her cleavage whenever there's a guard who needs to be distracted.
 * Older Than She Looks: She can (barely) pass for a high-school student, despite being 20 years old.

Ange le Carré
Voiced by Ayaka Imamura (Japanese), Avery Smithhart (English), Marnie Aramruck (German)

Birth name:

A description of the character goes here.


 * Meaningful Name: After John le Carré.
 * Meganekko: Anje wears Purely Aesthetic Glasses as part of her cover identity at Mayfaire, and adopts a stereotypical "cute" personality to go along with them..
 * The Glasses Come Off: Whenever she's on a mission.

Princess Charlotte
Voiced by Akira Sekine (Japanese), Patricia Duran (English), Arlette Stanschus (German)

Birth name:

A description of the character goes here.

Beatrice
Voiced (usually) by Akari Kageyama (Japanese), Shanae'a Moore (English), Liza Ohm (German)

Beatrice is Princess' best friend at Mayfaire, and despite her high birth is happy to serve as a servant to royalty. She's originally an honest and straightforward girl, although getting involved with the spies who have infiltrated the school quickly changes her outlook on life.

She's also a Woman of a Thousand Voices (the anime fakes this by having multiple voice actors read her lines), thanks to mechanical vocal cords that her father implanted in her throat (against her will). This comes in handy, when she's able to be heard and not seen by Team Principal's opponents.

Beatrice is the only amateur spy in Team Principal, and thus fills the story role of "person to explain things to" - letting the scriptwriters avoid the use of As You Know.

Chise
Voiced by Nozomi Furuki (Japanese), Rachael Messer (English), Julia Fölster (English)

Birth name:

A description of the character goes here.

Duke of Normandy
Voiced by Takaya Hashi (Japanese), Jay Hickman (English), Wolf Frass (German)

The Duke of Normandy is the Kingdom of Albion's Home Secretary, and thus their chief spycatcher. He would prefer to see Princess Charlotte removed from the line of succession to the throne - a non-fatal method would suffice, but he isn't the type of person who would shy away from setting up an "accident".


 * Big Bad: As far as the Commonwealth is concerned.

Gazelle
Voiced by Yuko Iida (Japanese), Melanie Burke (English), Nadine Schreier (German)

A description of the character goes here.


 * The Dragon: The "smart, detail-oriented administrator" type, although she isn't afraid to get her hands dirty.