Peach Boy Riverside (Episode 1) – The Ex-Princess and the Harefolk
Sally hadn’t gone far from home before she came across a strange creature lying on the floor. She tries to walk on, but hears its stomach rumbling so offers it a carrot and makes a friend for life!
Peach Boy Riverside (Episode 1) – The Ex-Princess and the Harefolk
What happened?
Sally hasn’t got any experience of the outside world so when she found a strange creature lying in the forest she thought it best to keep on walking. However, she could tell the creature wasn’t a threat and when its stomach rumbled, she offered it a carrot. Sally learnt that the creature was not a monster but a demi-human. A Harefolk to be specific. Sally discovered that its name was Frau and it could speak a number of words. It decided to follow Sally and repay its carrot debt.
They arrived at a village and were initially chased out as they didn’t like demi-humans. Sally got Frau a cloak and snuck back in where they met with the local lord. He offered them food and a place to sleep. They had recently welcomed a traveller who saved them from monsters so they were sure to welcome all travellers in the future, just not demi-humans. The next morning an ogre arrived at the village and Sally was drawn towards it although she had no idea why. Frau exposed herself to save Sally, defeating the ogre in seconds.
As they left the village, a passing group of knights captured them and took them to their city. Of course, they had no intention of imprisoning them as the commander, Hawthorn saw the incident with the ogre and accepted that Frau was not a threat. They managed to convince Hawthorn to buy them lunch before they hit the road once more. However, the city was attacked by two powerful ogres. Frau told Sally to run fast and far while it attacked the ogre, but would Frau survive against something like that?
What did you think?
As you might imagine, this was the first episode I watched, blissfully unaware of the issue with the order of the episodes. I enjoyed it but also felt like I’d missed a lot of details. Watching episode 4 definitely cleared up some things, but at the same time, it didn’t blow me away. I think I would have been fine continuing from here and slowly piecing the information together. However, I don’t think this series has the nuance for that.
I didn’t know what to expect from the series so when the ogres attacked and initially killed lots of people indiscriminately I was quite surprised but in a good way. I don’t go into shows hoping for lots of death and carnage, but if you’re dealing with monsters that have the power to do so, you better deliver on that. This series is already proving to be willing to back up the power with the carnage. Even better, we have Sally who is not your average heroine.
What have you learnt?
I’m going to do something that I try not to do on a regular basis but to explain what I’m talking about here, I’m going to bring up Plunderer. In that series, the main character is clueless and is used as a conduit for us to learn about the world. That might be fine if she genuinely had a reason to not know about the world in the way that Sally has. Hina, however, had been wondering the world for five years and knew nothing…
Anyhow, Sally is actually a great person for this role, especially after we saw how she used to live in episode 4. She has a reason to be sheltered and not aware of the outside world. It has been kept from her. Even the way people act around her has been managed to some extent. She was a princess so who in their right mind would be anything but nice to her. I’m looking forward to seeing if she comes up against anyone that doesn’t treat her like a princess. There’s a lot of potential here.
Chronological viewing order – 4, 1, 2, 7, 11, 12, 5, 6, 3, 8, 10, 9
Episode Highlights
Other reviews in the series
Anime
- Season One
- Episode 4 – The Princess and the Peach
- Episode 1 – The Ex-Princess and the Harefolk
- Episode 2 – Ogres and Humans
- Episode 7 – Species and Belonging
- Episode 11 – Ideals and Reality
- Episode 12 – Resolutions and Goodbyes
- Episode 5 – Frau and the Vampire
- Episode 6 – Carrot and Millia
- Episode 3 – Sally and a Crossroads
- Episode 8 – Companion and Companion
- Episode 10 – Horror and Resentment
- Episode 9 – Mikoto and Mikoto
Manga
- Series Review
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[…] Lynn […]
I shall agree 100% that I’ll gladly rewatch this series than Blunderer where Hina became an awful choice to be written as being the main heroine. Flip-flopping personalities isn’t the way to make the main heroine be likeable; yes, I still puke whenever I remembered Hina becoming a sex maniac 90% of the second half.
Sally on the other hand has my attention though I feel like she needed a bit more grounded features in regards to her personality growth. Of course my thinking of this may have been caused by my watching in non-chronological order.
Here’s hoping for me to see Sally become a well-developed heroine in the next season (if it gets renewed). If not, I guess I’ve to get the source material someday since anime at end of the day is actually a promotion for its manga/LN.
And that’s clearly another issue with the way it was aired. I thought Sally’s development was quite believable. She started out full of ideals and hopes to do things exactly as she imagined, which didn’t marry up with how Mikoto saw the world. She had some knock backs and had to adjust somewhat before doubling down on her goal. It made sense even if it was a little too righteous.
Sally was most interesting because of the power she had and didn’t realise for the longest time (at least in chronological order) so she kept trying to get stronger because she thought she was the weak link in the group.
I think I’ll check out the manga if there isn’t another season. It did enough to make me want to know how this ends.