The Warrior Princess and the Barbaric King

Episodes 9-10

If there's one thing I can say about The Warrior Princess and the Barbaric King, it's that it's consistently inconsistent. I think the best example of this is in episode ten, during Sera and Veor's hot springs encounter. (And is it even an anime series if there isn't a hot spring episode?) When we see Sera sitting on the boulder in the spring, gazing up at the ceiling, it looks like her legs are together, or at least mostly together. But when she notices Veor standing on the boulder's other side, they're wide open. Now, I understand the point of that position – it's meant to be funny that she's giving Veor a front row seat to her gynecological show and it brings us full circle to the surprise penis moment in episode one. Not my particular brand of humor, but my tastes aren't everyone's. But if that was the incoming joke, why not show Sera sitting with her legs open to begin with? It's not like we've never seen that before; just minutes earlier she was shown sitting that way while Malcius scrubbed her back. It feels like a distillation of this series' approach to both continuity and subtlety: not only could it not be bothered to show her initial position (or the change to it), it also can't trust that it would be funny if we didn't see exactly what flustered Veor.

Despite this, it's not a terrible idea to get Sera out of her worldview that there are “barbarians” and “Illdoran” as the only two types of people. Since she's been with Veor's people, she's learned that the so-called mythical people do, in fact, exist; they just don't interact with Illdorians. (And who can blame them?) But she's only seen them in Veor's village or the surrounding forest, so they may as well still be fantasy people in her mind. When Veor suggests in episode nine that she needs to go on a trip to see more of the world, he's gently reminding her that seeing barbarians as humans is only part of the journey: there's a whole world out there that she's never seen and has assumed was just fiction. In some ways, it's the kindest suggestion he's ever made, because he's both encouraging her to grow and assuming that she's capable of it. Malcius may tag along, but it feels like that's because she refuses to let Sera go without her; she's not interested in learning about other cultures, as her steadfast refusal to acclimate to the village attests. But Veor recognizes that Sera's different, and that feels like the surest sign that he truly does want to marry her: he sees her in ways she can't even see herself.

That doesn't stop Sera from making unfortunate assumptions about the dwarves, of course, but it's still clear that she's willing to learn. She may be conflicted about marrying Veor because it feels like a betrayal of Illdoran and her family, but she also has learned that when she's wrong about something, she needs to acknowledge it. She may come across as a bit wishy-washy in episode nine as she struggles with her growing feelings for Veor and her stated desire to go home, but she comes by it honestly, even if I don't think the show has done a great job of showing us why she's falling for him. It feels more like a “because he's there and he's hot” than anything more nuanced.

Of these two episodes, I think episode ten is the better one. It develops the world more and allows Sera to put aside her worries and learn something new. Episode nine isn't bad, but it also drags a bit, and while episode ten leaves a few things unanswered (shouldn't Sera also be able to summon a spirit dragon since she's killed one?), it's just more entertaining overall. I still can't say I'm really enjoying this series, but I'm still always happy to see it break out of its comfort zone, and episode ten tries to do just that.

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Warrior Princess and the Barbaric King is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.