Murder Princess

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Hard times are upon The Kingdom of Forland: the heir apparent Kaito has gone missing and the righteous king was slain by the Evil Chancellor and his Robot Girl assassins. The only remaining royal family member, defenceless and weak-willed princess Alita, flees the castle in the last moment, chased by the Chancellor's Faceless Goons. Yet luck suddenly turns in her favor when she literally falls into the embrace of the most Badass Action Girl in recorded history: bounty hunter Falis. After an accidental near-death experience, the two switch bodies and Falis agrees to assume Alita's persona, take Forland back from the usurper, and protect it until prince Kaito's return. Rounding up her henchmen, she proceeds to the castle to kick ass and earn the title of the most brutal princess in history...

Murder Princess is a short-lived 2005 Manga by Sekihiko Inui and a six-episode OVA adaptation produced by Bee Train. Although initially believed to be a Red Herring to draw attention from Bee Train's real Next Big Thing for 2007, El Cazador de la Bruja, the OVA proved itself as a very solid piece of work and contained just the right amount of cool action, Romantic Two-Girl Friendship, and fitting (and slightly metallic) musical score to appease long-standing Bee Train fans with its character designs and straightforward story.

Tropes used in Murder Princess include:

• Action Dress Rip: Falis/Alita somehow cuts the hem off her dress and cuts a slit in it with two movements of her sword.
• Action Girl: Falis/Alita.
• Adorable Evil Minions: Ana and Yuna.
• After the End: throughout the story, it is stated that the world is still recovering from a global war that destroyed most of the old civilization; and that civilization was recovering from an apocalypse before that.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Jodu remarks that he doesn't believe in fortune-telling, while sitting next to a Shinigami. It turns out he was right about it being fake, but still.
• Badass Normal: Falis' entire badassitude apparently rests in her own skills, as she is able to unveil her full combat potential shortly after switching bodies with untrained (and likely unexercised) Alita.
• BFS: The Big Bad's sword is almost as big as he is.
• Big Damn Heroes: E.g. Kaito's reappearance.
• Bishonen: Kaito.
• Black Knight: Dark Knight/Kaito.
• Blond Guys Are Evil: Kaito.
• Blood Knight: Falis.
• Blood-Splattered Warrioress garbed in her Blood Is the New Black White Dress of Death.
• But for Me It Was Tuesday:

Alita/Falis: You attacked my village and killed the villagers... and my family. Why? Cecilia: I have no reason why. It was simply because they happened to be there.

• But Now I Must Go: Surprisingly enough, not Falis. The only opportunity to reverse the Freaky Friday Flip is used up saving the world, and in the end Falis decides to stay on, at least until another solution is found.
• Clarke's Third Law: It is eventually revealed that every "magical" thing in the entire series is actually sufficiently advanced technology from the distant past.
• Crash Into Hello: Well, more like "falling off a cliff, hugging each other hello".
• Cute Bruiser: Ana.
• Determinator: Damn, Falis.
• Diagonal Cut
• Doomed Hometown: Falis hails from one.
• Dress Hits Floor: When Alita decides to take on the identity of Milano, her faithful servant.
• Dual-Wielding: Falis/Alita pulls off some of the most beautifully animated katana+wakizashi action sequences in recent years.
• Everything's Better with Princesses
• Evil Chancellor: Dr. Akamashi.
• The Evil Prince: Kaito. Seriously, does it even have to be marked as a spoiler?
• Faceless Goons
• Fantasy
• Five-Man Band:
  • The Heroine: Falis/Alita, obviously.
  • The Lancer: Jodu Entolasia, the old butler... but no, he is not a Battle Butler.
  • The Big Guy: Pete.
  • The Smart Guy: Dominikov.
  • The Chick: Alita/Milano.
• For the Evulz: Cecilia's stated reason for killing Falis's whole village.
• Freaky Friday Flip
• Gentle Giant: Pete Armstrong—Maybe "gentle" isn't the word, 'cause he never hesitates to crush a few skulls, but he's got plenty of compassion for his friends.
• Gratuitous English: "Murder Princess" sounds a bit strange, though something like "Killer Princess" would've been rather cliché. The theme song is quite good, with the English lyrics making about as much sense as the Japanese.
• Heroic Sacrifice: The original Milano, Alita's handmaiden and decoy double, whose persona Alita assumes after her death.
  • And in the Grand Finale, Dominikov, Pete, Ana, and Yuni all sacrifice themselves to save the world.
• Hey, It's That Voice!: You might recognize Dominokov as Kazuki Yao, basically Franky, Mr. 2, Jango, and Yoki.
  • Or, in the English version, he's played by none other than Chuck Huber, aka: Hiei, Android 17 and Supreme Kai, Shou Tucker and Stein.
  • Additionally, Jo and Maria are on the same side here.
  • In Japan, bounty hunter Falis is Temari.
  • Robot Girl twins Ana and Yuna are Taokaka.
  • Prince Kaito is Isshin Kurosaki.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: More so in the manga than the anime.
• Karma Houdini: Ana, despite being an adorable Robot Girl, is initially presented as an Ax Crazy psycho who delights in slaughtering anyone and everyone, from soldiers to defenseless staff. After her creator is killed, she joins the good guys, no questions asked. Perhaps, the author remembered that machines are generally designed to be reprogrammable...
  • Well, she does die along with the other Lost Technology when the MacGuffin is destroyed.
  • Not quite no questions asked, either. She gives an extended explanation about why her creator was doing what he was doing. And since the good guys are opposing the people who killed her creator, an alliance with them makes perfect, pragmatic sense.
  • At least Ana got a Heroic Sacrifice to redeem herself at the end. Kaito gets nothing, even after he arranged the slaughter of most of his family and almost all of his most faithful retainers as part of a mad plot to end the world.
  • Don't forget that the whole country is now applauding the efforts of a Blood Knight Princess. If they're willing to accept HER because she's on their side then they should accept Ana and Yuni as war assets.
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery
• Killer Rabbit: Ana and Yuna.
• The Kingdom: Forland.
• Lost Technology: Ana and Yuna... among others
• Mad Scientist: Doctor Akamashi
• Meido: Both Milanos.
• Missing Mom: Both Alita and Falis only have fathers with no mention of their mothers, and both their fathers are eventually killed.
• Mr. Exposition: Dominikov.
• Named Weapons: Falis' Princess of Cranes, likely also an Ancestral Weapon.
• Nietzsche Wannabe: Kaito, full stop.
• Non-Indicative First Episode: The first episode of the OVA is noticeably darker than the rest of the series, with a few genuinely disturbing moments. For a second, one might wonder if putting Falis on the throne is actually worse than letting the usurpers have it. By the second episode, her character is affirmed to be unambiguously good and the general tone of the show lightens up to resemble most fantasy anime.
• Of Corset Hurts: Falis/Alita is not happy about having to wear a corset.
• Parental Substitute: Jodou to the original Milano and arguably the replacement Milano.
• Pimped-Out Dress
• The Quiet One: Doctor Akamashi. He speaks precisely two lines aloud...and doesn't get to finish the second one.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Alita, though it's her actual physical body that has them, and they only really fit this trope after the Freaky Friday Flip incident swaps her with Falis
  • Played dead straight with the Black Knight, although he only has one glowing red eye. The other is invisible under his helmet.
• Reverse Grip: Alita/Falis does this. A lot.
• Robot Girl: Ana and Yuna.
• Romantic Two-Girl Friendship
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Although Falis isn't technically royal, no one knows that, and she earns the name Murder Princess after personally slaying a giant monster sent to kill her.
• Schizo-Tech: Teoria.
• Shinigami: Dominikov.
• Sinister Scythe: Dominikov's.
• Snake People: The giant forest guardian.
• Spell My Name with an "S": At least one source spelled Alita's name "Akita" until this was corrected
  • Similarly Milano has been romanized as Mirano.
    • Some asian languages (presumably including Japanese) lack differentiation between the "EL" and "R" sounds. If both sound ok, then both are valid romanizations. No excuse for the "Akita" thing, though.
• Super Window Jump
• Talking To Herself: Bloodthirsty Ana and (usually) sweet Yuna the Robot Girls are both voiced by the same actress: Chiwa Saitou in Japanese and Carrie Savage in English.
• Techno Babble: In the later episodes.
• The Goggles Do Nothing: Dominkov has goggles but he's a Skeleton guy. How does that work?
• Took a Level in Badass: Well, we know better, but this is what it looks like to Alita's subjects.
• Unstoppable Rage: When things get really bad, Falis sometimes falls into this, and only Alita can stop her. Actually insinuated to be an artifact of Alita's body, since it never happened to Falis before the switch.
• Villain with Good Publicity
• Wham! Episode: Episode 4.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Averted once Kaito turns the Forland army against Falis and Alita. The heroes realize that the guards are only serving their country, and go out of their way not to kill them. On the other hand...
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The above does not apply to Doctor Akamashi's monsters. Possibly justified, in that they appear to be Mecha-Mooks. Although being robots doesn't stop Ana and Yuni from being treated as human beings...
• A Wizard Did It: How exactly the soul transfer happened is basically Handwaved away. Dominikov gives a brief explanation that doesn't really explain anything, followed by Falis pointing out that his explanation can't necessarily be trusted anyway.
• Yandere: Yuna.
• You Killed My Father: Falis, to Cecilia.