Weekly OP: Princess Primp!

I began watching Princess Lover mostly because of the attention its rather H OVA had gotten in some circles. That, and a friend on IRC had grabbed it, as well. And, while it somewhat follows the predictable path any anime adopted from an erogame might take, I've actually found it rather watchable, especially going off the DVDs and not the bowdlerized broadcast version. Not to bother with an anime review too much, but while it took a bit of a turn into the bizarre at times, I would say it exceeded expectations. Especially the two episode OVA. Well, that was actually somewhat standard hentai fare (if quite pleasant), but anyway.

Like many anime, though, I listened to the opening and ending songs long before I watched a second of animation. I tend to download them compulsively, and so I had the singles long ago. In fact, I may occasionally review a song that I've never seen the anime for. Such is life.

Princess Primp! is the opening of Princess Lover, appropriately enough. It's sung by Miyuki Hashimoto, who has a rather impressive CV of anime and game openings, including Girls Bravo, Soul Link, Gunparade Orchestra, Idolmaster: Xenoglossia, and Akaneiro no Somaru Saka. I never said they were good anime, but at least they're good songs, as I shall someday get around to discussing.

This particular song starts out with a riff deliberately evocative of wedding bells. The bell motif is repeated throughout, kind of like a poor man's Yakusoku wa Irenai. Unsurprising, considering that the object of most erogames like this is to pick which of the female lades will be the marriageable prospect. Miyuki has both a distinctive and an undistinctive voice; I sometimes find myself confusing her with Minami Kuribayashi. Minami, though, has a stronger, more strident voice, though, while Miyuki is probably better at being cute.

It continues on with a rather nice beat. Not quite dance hall, but definitely a sort of modern basso continuo. One fault I will find is that it's almost too much on the pop end of things. Guitar is nowhere to be found, other than perhaps a bass, and a brief little solo barely worthy of the name. The whole thing could have been done on a synthesizer, and for all I know, was. The lyrics, for what it's worth (and we know I don't normally care about lyrics) are mostly about being the girl at the dance envying all the other girls at the dance. Which is an unusually frank admission that it's a harem anime tune. Still, it's nice in that rarely do they acknowledge that that's going on.

Unfortunately, while fairly catchy, there's really not too much extraordinary that stands out about this song. Miyuki's voice, in the end, is what carries this, and considering how generically cute she can be at times, that's not necessarily a good thing. In the end, the knock I would give to Miyuki in general is that all her songs begin to blend together. Which is good, in a way, if you want consistency. Fans of anisongs, really, like hearing the same thing again and again. It's like the ultimate in genre music, where everything sounds about the same, so that you'll always be happy no matter what you pick out. Which is also probably why artists like Ali Project stand out so, for being able to step outside the mold.

Three out of five stars, in the end. It's not a bad song, by any means, but nor is it especially good. Like the vast majority of anime openings, it's simply there, and while that's good enough to keep a song in my collection, I'm not going to run out and get a CD of her greatest hits.