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Petite Princess Yucie (ぷちぷり＊ユーシィ, Puchi
Puri Yūshī
?) is an anime series, which was produced by Gainax, aired from 2002 to 2003,
and ran for 26 episodes. Six volumes of videos were released on DVD by ADV Films in the United
States. Centering around Yucie, a 17-year-old who is trapped in a
10-year-old's body, the story follows her and her friends, all of
who are designated as Platinum Princess candidates. A Platinum
Princess receives the Eternal Tiara, which grants any wish, but
only to the one it judges worthy and only one wish.
Plot
summary
Petite Princess Yucie follows the adventures of
country-girl Yucie as she is admitted by chance to the prestigious
Princess Academy, where the daughters of royalty and nobles attend
to learn magic, dance, etiquette, defense, art and music. There,
she experiences many things in her quest to collect the "fragments"
of the Eternal Tiara in hopes that she may become the legendary
Platinum Princess, who is chosen every 1,000 years. Yucie, along
with the four other Princess candidates who are initially her
rivals but are won over by her offer of friendship, must grow in
heart—if not in height—to become worthy of the Tiara. Yucie is a
spunky heroine who is a genius of smiles, and who, despite her
common lifestyle, is actually the daughter of a noble and former
hero who has retreated from courtly life and lives in the
countryside.
The fragments take the form of Crystal Flowers and are scattered
throughout the five worlds; Human, Demon,
Heaven, Spirit, and Fairy. Strangely enough, the five candidates
Yucie, Glenda, Elmina, Cocoloo and Beth are representatives of
these five existing worlds in this story's universe. As the legend
goes, once the Eternal Tiara is complete, it will select the
Princess from the worthy candidates and can grant her one wish.
Unknown to the candidates and the viewers, until almost the very
end, is the sad history of the Eternal Tiara and the inevitable
fate of the Platinum Princess and all the other candidates.
Blindly pursuing what is her heart's life-long desire, to
finally grow up and be treated and respected like an adult, Yucie
must prove her worthiness to the Tiara and sets out to do many odd
jobs as part of the Academy's special Curriculum (NOTE: community
service) for the candidates, such as tending flowers, babysitting a
giant fluff ball, helping to run an old church, helping to run a
bakery, and overseeing a kindergarten picnic. Each task seems easy
at first but problems abound in every episode. The girls must
overcome all obstacles and complete their tasks, no matter how
daunting, in their petite bodies. The viewers later discover that
all the candidates are under the same 10 year old "curse" and their
rivalry quickly turns into admiration for one another's
determination in reaching their common goal. Yucie and her friends
each have a reason for desperately wanting to become the Platinum
Princess.
In a side-story arc, Yucie is also hoping to find clues about
the lost prince of the Human realm, who once saved her life while
she was lost in the forest, looking for Sunset Blossoms, and whom
she wishes to meet in person some day to thank him. Her memory of
him is vague, and he was an adolescent at the time, so she has no
idea what he may look like now or what kind of person he's become.
When she encounters a young man named Arc during one of her odd
jobs who looks so familiar to her, she has conflicted feelings. Arc
is rude, patronizing, unfeeling and insensitive but she feels drawn
to him somehow. The prince was her childhood romantic ideal, but
her seventeen-year-old heart falls for Arc. To the relief of
viewers who hate love triangles, Arc is actually Prince Arrow in
disguise.
As the girls continue to grow emotionally, their Platinum
Princess candidate pendants grow in beauty and brightness as well,
reflecting how much wisdom they have obtained. Towards the final
story arc, Yucie and the others finally realize why the Fairy World
princess was so troubled and uncooperative when Beth reveals that
her father, King of the Fairy Realm, is dying. The girls are
resolved in helping their friend and saving the Fairy Realm by
defeating the ancient evil Diablo who threatens the existence of
all the worlds. With the combined help of their stewards and
friends, the girls succeed with the power they obtained as
candidates, but the prince is badly injured.
The final story arc begins with the final test in which a
magical judge will oversee the Tiara's choice. Yucie’s only wish
now is to save the prince with the power of the Tiara.
Upon entering the place of judgment, Yucie and her friends meet
a mysterious figure, wrapped in a tattered brown cloak. The judge's
identity is hinted at when she uses her magic staff to change all
of the candidates' clothing similar to her own. Out of friendship
for Yucie, and to support her wish to save Prince Arrow, Glenda,
Cocoloo, Elmina, and Beth all renounce their candidacy, making
Yucie the only choice. The Tiara accepts Yucie as its new master.
However, in one final twist, the girls realize that those not
chosen by the Tiara will simply vanish. Yucie refuses to accept the
Tiara when she learns this, and tells the others she is determined
to save the Prince some other way, as she cannot sacrifice her
friends in the process.
After careful thought, Glenda, Cocoloo, Elmina, and Beth ask the
judge to erase Yucie's memories of them, so that she can return to
the Human Realm in time to save the prince. In a tearful final
goodbye, Glenda, perhaps Yucie's strongest rival, tells her to
never forget to be her cheerful self. After Yucie leaves, the
remaining four sketch a portrait of themselves and Yucie on a stone
slab, in remembrance of their friendship, and disappear.
Yucie returns to save Prince Arrow and collapses from
exhaustion. The Eternal Tiara disappears after its owner makes her
wish, its immense power quelled by Yucie's strength of heart, and
history repeats itself. Yucie awakens to the keen sense that she
has lost something of great importance to her, but cannot remember
what. Her father, Gunbard, feels responsible for her misery, since
he was the one who put the Tiara together and restarted the Legend
in their lifetime. With the help of the fathers of the missing
girls, he opens the gateway to the place of judgment so Yucie and
Prince Arrow can retrieve what was lost.
Yucie faces the cloaked figure once more and demands that what
was lost be returned. The viewers discover that the ruined empty
world that was the place of judgment is actually the lost Magic
World, a sixth realm in this story's universe. The judge was
actually a Platinum Princess Candidate 1,000 years ago, a princess
of the Magic Realm, who refused the Tiara to save her friends, but
lost her friends and her world to destruction as a result.
Yucie stumbles across Cocoloo's drawing, which breaks the
judge's spell and unlocks all of her memories. The princess of the
Magic Realm chides Yucie for not accepting her fate, but Yucie
tells her how important friends are, as they are her true strength,
and recalls all the great moments she had with each of them. With
her power as the Platinum Princess, her tears shine brightly on the
ground, causing a miracle.
All the spirits of the Magic Realm rush to Yucie, who can now
hear them. She tells the princess of the Magic Realm that all who
died there still love her, and that they have always been with her
these 1,000 years, and they never regretted fighting alongside her
to the very end. The judge realizes that she had never been alone
and that she had made the right choice in trying to save her
friends. Yucie's power covers the ground with Sunset Blossoms, and
a Crystal Flower emerges from the ground to the hands of the
Princess of the Magic Realm. The 6th and final fragment is added to
the Eternal Tiara. Together, the former and present Plantinum
Princess combine their strength to make Yucie's wish come true. The
Magic Realm finally collapses after its last princess, smiling with
joy, disappears.
In the end, Yucie and her fellow former candidates are
readmitted into the Academy for further study. With the curse
lifted, and the Eternal Tiara again fragmented and sealed, they can
finally grow up normally and enjoy their mutual friendship at their
own pace.
Characters
Platinum Princess
Candidates
- Yucie (ユーシィ,
Yūshi
?)
-
- Voiced by: Maria
Yamamoto (Japanese), Rachel Rivera (English)
-
- Similar to classic Princess Maker tradition, Yucie was
found as an infant by the knight Gunbard after a battle, and became
his adopted daughter. Due to an unknown curse, she stopped growing
at the age of ten, and looks like a child despite the fact that she
is now seventeen. Yucie is very cheerful and gregarious, but she
has a very strong desire to break her curse and become an adult.
One of the reasons is that she oftens feels that being small in
size is a hinder to others, thus wishing to grow up. Yucie becomes
a Platinum Princess candidate after she sees the light of the
Eternal Tiara, which is not visible to others. It is also said that
she is the princess of the human world, seen in the last episode.
However, there is no evidence to prove it. She also loves Arc.
- Kokoru/Cocoloo (ココルー,
Kokorū
?)
-
- Voiced by: Yukari
Fukui (Japanese), Monika Bustamante (English)
- Kokoru (spelled "Cocoloo" in the subtitles of the ADV
Films release) is a soft-spoken young woman who becomes Yucie's
friend very early in the series. She is a fellow student at the
Princess Academy (later revealed to be the Princess of the Spirit
World), who wears tiny spectacles at the end of her nose, with her
chief characteristics being self-effacing and gentle. Cocoloo is so
gentle that she is often ignored and talked-over by the much louder
Yucie and Glenda, which causes Cocoloo to lament that she "has no
presence after all" (Which is rather ironic, as Cocoloo is the
princess of the Spirit World). However, Cocoloo is amazingly kind
and encouraging towards her friends, which makes an impression on
everyone who gets to know her. She, too, suffers from a curse that
makes her look ten, even though she is seventeen.
- Glenda (グレンダ,
Gurenda
?)
-
- Voiced by: Yuki
Matsuoka (Japanese), Kelley Huston (English)
- As Princess of the Demon World, Glenda is fiercely competitive
and has strong magical powers. She immediately butts heads with
Yucie, her rival to become the Platinum Princess. Glenda is a
braggart who frequently proclaims herself as "fantastic" and
"elegant," and is also often selfish, jealous, and temperamental.
But she has a sweet side which she tries to hide, and eventually
becomes very close friends with Yucie (perhaps, even
overly-protective of her), even though she's loathe to admit it.
Throughout her friendship with her new friends, she changes to more
honestly enjoy friendship and have fun with her friends. She is
seventeen, but like the others, has the body of a ten-year-old,
although she looks rather developed. She desires to be the platinum
princess because she wishes to become an adult. She believes if she
becomes an adult, her dad will do his job as lord of the demon
world properly, her mother would return, and she would have the
power to protect all of the demons living in the demon world.
- Elmina (エルミナ,
Erumina
?)
-
- Voiced by: Ayako
Kawasumi (Japanese), Leigh Anderson Fisher (English)
- As the Princess of the Sky Realm, Elmina wears white robes and
has wings. Elmina is very studious and fastidious, and a bit of a
humorless goody-two-shoes. When she was younger, her stern father
(who is the king of the Sky Realm) would not tolerate imperfection.
Elmina tries very hard to be perfect, and she is also very hard on
herself whenever she makes a mistake. Once she made a mistake or is
fail she will be depressed and loses her confidence to keep going,
because of her sad memories with her father in the past. With her
new friends at the Princess Academy, Elmina slowly learns to be
more secure and not to give up even when she fails. Elmina is also
the tallest of the 5 candidates. Looks ten, but is actually
seventeen as a result of the same curse.
- Beth (ベス,
Besu
?)
-
- Voiced by: Fumiko
Orikasa (Japanese), Lee Eddy (English)
- Beth is the princess of the fairy world. She is very athletic,
stubborn, and has strong magical powers (The helmet she wears acts
as an amplifier for her magic). Although she is also a Platinum
Princess candidate, she left the Princess Academy after an evil
force named Diabolos attacked her world. She is so determined to
become the Platinum Princess that she once kidnapped Cocoloo and
tries to force her to give up on her candidacy. As a result of
difficulties she is suffering in her world, she refuses the offers
of friendship from the other girls and regards them as her enemies.
Due to this attitude, the residents of the fairy world regard her
as dangerous. However, after many meetings with the other girls,
Beth learns to open up and accepts the other candidates'
friendship, for which the most thanks can go to Cocoloo. Diabolos
was later defeated by the power of the heart of Yucie, Elmina,
Cocoloo, Glenda and herself. Her father in a form of tree which
supports the fairy world and trapped Diabolos inside him before the
girls came to help defeat it, with Arc hurt! She also suffers from
a curse that traps her in a ten-year-old's body, even though she is
actually seventeen.
Supporting
- Gunbard (ガンバード,
Ganbādo
?)
-
- Voiced by: Kenyuu
Horiuchi (Japanese), Robert Matney (English)
- Gunbard found the infant Yucie after a battle and raised her as
his own. He was once a legendary knight, and is often referred to
as "the Hero Gunbard." But now he spends all his time doting on
Yucie and is always cooking her large amounts of food which she
does not always appreciate. Gunbard, fondly called "Papa" by Yucie,
may have a mysterious connection with Queen Ercell as well as one
to the Eternal Tiara itself. It is found out later that he is the
one to have completed the Eternal Tiara, which was then separated
in different parts and scattered around the different worlds. At
the same time, it was found out later that he was the first lover
of Queen Ercell. This is also the reason why he wanted to complete
the Eternal Tiara, so that he can gain a title in order to propose
to Ercell. However much to his surprise, when returned upon the
completion of the Tiara, he found out that Ercell had gotten
married (to the man who became King) and already had a son. Gunbard
might be Arc's biological father. He once denied it, but may have
simply wanted Arc to remember the King as his "real" father, since
he was the one who raised and cared for him, just as Gunbard is
Yucie's "real" father. Contrary to popular belief, he is
blind.
- Cube (キューブ,
Kyūbu
?)
-
- Voiced by: Tomo
Saeki (Japanese), Philip Bowman (English)
- A demon and a loyal steward to both Yucie and her father,
Gunbard, Cube is able to summon magical items through sorcery, with
which he helps Yucie out in several occasions. He is one of Yucie's
best friends. During the story, we learn that Cube was formerly
Glenda's steward, but has been banished from the Demon World by her
mother.
- Queen Ercell (エルセル女王, Eruseru
Ojōu
?)
-
- Voiced by: Kikuko
Inoue (Japanese), Cyndi Williams (English)
- Queen Ercell, in addition to being queen, is also the principal
of the Princess Academy, and the keeper of the Eternal Tiara. She
is in charge of finding the Platinum Princess candidates and
guiding them through their tasks. She clearly seems to recongize
Gunbard by the gasp she makes when Yucie announces she is his
daughter to Queen Ercell, but what connection Queen Ercell might
have remains is kept somewhat mysterious for much of the series.
But Gunbard was actually Ercell's lover many years ago. Gunbard
went to gather the parts of the Eternal Tiara so that he would be
able to marry Ercell, to his dismay, when he returned, Ercell was
already married.
- Arc/Prince Arrow (アルク,
Aruku
?)
-
- Voiced by: Takayuki
Yamaguchi (Japanese), Joey Hood (English)
- Arc is a mysterious young man dressed in a cape and fedora. He
first meets Yucie when he seeks shelter at a church at which she is
temporarily working. It turns out that he is being sought by the
castle guards, which alarms Yucie. Although Yucie is very saucy
towards Arc, she finds herself drawn to him. Arc heroically saves
Yucie when they encounter a demon from the Demon World. He also
calls her "Huge Forehead" to tease her about her big forehead, much
to her consternation. After kissing her on her forehead a few
times, he finally gives her a real kiss, which is witnessed by her
friends. Arc is also hunting for the one that first put together
the Eternal Tiara, which he feels will lead him to his real father.
In reality, he is Prince Arrow, son of Queen Ercell. (This is in
fact the reason he is being sought by guards, as he escaped from
the castle to find his 'biological father'.) At the same time, he
is the prince that once saved Yucie when she was in danger when
they were small. Later on, it was shown that Arc was also drawn to
Yucie.
- Gaga (ガガ,
Gaga
?)
-
- Voiced by: Kouji
Ishii (Japanese), Jason Liebrecht (English)
- Gaga is Glenda's steward. He is a seven-foot-tall black-bodied
cat-like demon with long, silver hair. This very old man demon has
occasional accidents when his hip goes out and can make long-winded
lectures that can put anyone listening to sleep, much to his
annoyance. Always loyal without question, Gaga takes great pride in
being a steward. He also has the ability to transform into a black,
red-eyed cat with bat-like wings.
- Chau/Chawoo (チャウ,
Chau
?)
-
- Voiced by: Chiaki
Maeda (Japanese), Shawn Sides (English)
- Cocoloo's steward. Chawoo is a ghost who often hides in her
shadow, so the other characters do not meet him until well into the
series. He is very devoted to Cocoloo and will always defend her.
However, being too devoted to Cocoloo, he is often seem
exaggerating events to others, even to much of the extent of lying.
He speaks with a heavy Kansai dialect.
- Belbel (ベルベル,
Beruberu
?)
-
- Voiced by: Tomoko
Kaneda (Japanese), Larissa Wolcott (English)
- Belbel is a very cute little Tinkerbell-like fairy who is
Beth's steward. While she is obedient to Beth, she also tries to
talk Beth into giving the other girls a chance which actually ends
up working in the end. Most of her sentences end with "desu" (です,
"yes" in the English dub).
- Balizan (ベルベル,
Barizan
?)
- Balizan is a green-coloured robot who is Elmina's steward.
- Kate
-
- Voiced by: Yūko
Kaida (Japanese), Lana Lesley (English)
- Music Instructor, Yellow-Dressed Princess
-
- Voiced by: Yuriko
Yamaguchi (voice actor) (Japanese), Samantha Inoue-Harte
(English)
Music
Opening Theme
Ending Theme
- "Because I Cannot Say It" (言えないから, Ienai Kara
?)
- Lyrics by: Yōko Ishida
- Composition by: Masami Okui
- Arrangement by: Seikou Nagaoka
- Performed by: Yōko Ishida
Insert Theme
- "Friends, Yet Rivals" (ともだちでライバル, Tomodachi de Raibaru
?) : Ep. 21
- Lyrics by: Hiromi Mori
- Composition and Arrangement by: Seikou Nagaoka
- Performed by: Puchipurīzu (Maria Yamamoto, Yuki Matsuoka,
Yukari Fukui, Ayako Kawasumi, Fumiko Orikasa)
Production
Takami Akai, the
character designer for the Princess Maker
series of games (also by Gainax), was the character designer and
original creator for Yucie. Thus, there are many
similarities between characters in the Princess Maker
games and this series. Of note, Yucie's appearance is based on
Lisa, the daughter from Princess Maker 3; the judge in the
final episode has the same appearance as Maria, the daughter from
Princess Maker 1; and the young Queen Ercell has the same
appearance as Olive, the daughter from Princess Maker
2.
In addition, 'Cube' is the player's butler in Princess Maker
2, Princess Maker
4, and Princess Maker 5. In the anime,
Cube is also Yucie's butler and has a nearly identical design.
Titles
Around episode 14, the ending imagery begins showing images of
all five girls instead of images of just Yucie, and while the
ending theme title doesn't change, the wording does change
slightly. This reverts briefly for episode 19 with the ending
imagery returning to what it was before, while the wording remains
slightly changed.
Resources
External
links
NHK
GMA 7, QTV
NTV7
Wikis
Quiz
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