Review for Snow White With The Red Hair - Part 2

Introduction

I’ve come to see the Anime Limited release schedule as a rough guideline rather than anything set in stone. Most titles tend to slip a few weeks, or a couple of months, and it usually comes as a shock when something actually makes it out on time. This isn’t normally an issue as more often than not, the title is a standalone, a complete series, or a feature film. It’s when you get a multi-part release that the delays begin to get serious. After Part 1 comes out, you look forward to Part 2, only for it to start slipping back in the schedule, and you begin to worry that you’ll have forgotten the first instalment before it is eventually released. It’s only been four months since the first season of Snow White with the Red Hair was released, but somehow it feels longer. Perhaps that’s because Snow White with the Red Hair was a surprising pleasure, a gentle romantic drama that takes its fairy tale inspiration and gives it a slice-of-life make-over. Things do get serious in the show, but never too serious, making it a surprising feel-good story. As a result, I’ve been looking forward to its second season more than I would have expected.


Shirayuki, the red-haired Snow White of the title was a herbalist in the kingdom of Tanbarun, helping people in need of her medical skills. But her striking red hair caught the attention of Prince Raj, a vainglorious bully who arbitrarily decided to take Shirayuki as his concubine, whether she wanted to or not. That was reason enough to leave Tanbarun and head for the neighbouring country of Clarines. Prince Raj wasn’t willing to give up on his prize, and sent a man after Shirayuki with orders to bring her back. Fortunately, a dashing young swordsman named Zen came to Shirayuki’s rescue. This could be the start of a special friendship, only it turns out that Zen is himself a prince of Clarines. This could be the start of a very complicated friendship...


Twelve episodes of Snow White with the Red Hair Season 2 are presented across two Blu-rays as follows.

Disc 1
13. The Red That Spins Fate
14. Eyes that Protect and Look Forward
15. Indecision Caused By Confusion
16. The Name of that Step Is Change
17. Prologue of the Quietly Twisting Night
18. Many Different Resolves
19. Wave of Determination
20. The Temperature of a Smile, a Cherished Place
21. When I’m With You...

Disc 2
22. The Spring of Intent Will Quench Your Thirst
23. The Future Because of Who You Are
24. My Story, My Path

Picture

Snow White gets a 1.78:1 widescreen 1080p transfer. The image is up to Funimation’s usual standards for Blu-ray, perhaps even a little better given the comparative absence of digital banding. The image is clear and sharp, the colours are strong and consistent, and the animation comes across with no signs of compression or aliasing. It’s a fine transfer, which is all the better given that Studio Bones have given Snow White with the Red Hair a top quality production. The world design is rich, lush and detailed, the character designs are fairly generic for anime, but in the animation are accomplished with consistency and are certainly memorable enough, while Bones have given the show some really strong and nuanced animation, rich in character, and fluidity. Snow White is a top notch anime which really does show on these Blu-ray discs.

The images in this review were kindly supplied by the distributor.

Sound

You have the choice between Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround English, 2.0 Japanese with subtitles and signs locked to the appropriate audio track. I sampled the dub and found the lead actors to be adequate in their roles, but as always I did so after I’d watched the whole thing in Japanese first, and grew accustomed to the native language track. So bias is inherent. It’s a nice, mellow piece with the voice actors suitably invested in their roles. The character voices conform to character archetypes in some cases, but in others, such as first prince Izana tend to subvert expectations. It does help keep the show fresh. The music comes from Michiru Oshima of Full Metal Alchemist renown, and perfectly suits this fantasy history romance. The subtitles are timed accurately and are free of typos.

Extras

The discs present their content with static menus.

Disc 1 autoplays with a trailer for Wolf Children. There is a commentary accompanying episode 16 with ADR Director Cris George, and Todd Haberkorn (Raj).

Disc 2 autoplays a trailer for Yona of the Dawn.

The rest of the extras are on here, with a commentary on episode 23 from Ian Sinclair (Mitsuhide), Josh Grelle (Zen), and Austin Tindle (Obi).

You get the Promotional Video (1:39), the Commercial Collection (0:34), the Textless Opening, and three Textless Closings, albeit with player locked subtitles.

Finally there are trailers for Inari Kon Kon, Haruchika: Haruto and Chika, Noragami Aragato, and the Nichijou – My Ordinary Life Blu-ray (Region B release now dammit!).

Conclusion

I really became quite fond of Snow White with the Red Hair season 1, particularly because not a lot happened in the show. It’s a fairy tale, slice of life romance, which after a dramatic opening where the title character escapes from her homeland to find refuge in the neighbouring kingdom with the aid of its second prince, quickly settles into the day-to-day minutiae of everyday life at the royal court. It’s the matter of fulfilling his royal responsibilities for Prince Zen, and it’s the matter of the apprenticeship as a herbalist for Shirayuki, and when both have time, they edge forward imperceptibly in their romance. I liked it because it was a relaxing watch, well animated, with a moving music score, and punctuated with gentle character drama and comedy. It was lightweight, feel good stuff.


The second season comes hot on its heels in terms of UK releases, close enough to feel like a Part 2 instead of a whole new chapter. But something isn’t quite right in this collection. It’s as if it’s been trying too hard, and lost the effortless storytelling touch that made Season 1/Part 1 so appealing. It all boils down to the necessities of plot and character development, the realisation that the relationship between Zen and Shirayuki needs to develop, there has to be forward momentum in the romance, and to accomplish that, the storytellers fall on the old tried and trusted mechanism of splitting the pair up, and adding some peril to make their eventual reunion so much more poignant.

The reason why Shirayuki fled her homeland of Tanbarun was the unwanted attentions of that nation’s Prince Raj. Towards the end of season 1, a state visit by him to the kingdom of Clarines saw him not only suitably chastised, but also turning over a new leaf. That is explored further in the second season, when early on, he invites Shirayuki back as an official guest and representative of Clarines, to show that he has in fact changed as a person. He’s ditched the playboy prince attitude and become more responsible. And so it is that Shirayuki is parted from Zen, as she heads off on an official visit, with Obi serving as her bodyguard. Thus we have a five episode stretch with Shirayuki separated from Zen, no gentle romance to enjoy.


It turns out that Prince Raj is a better man, a proper gentleman as he entertains Shirayuki, and we also get to meet his younger siblings as well. When not being a lecher, he’s an entertaining, quirky character, who’s trying to outgrow his past and become a worthy heir to the throne. As such he has quite a few issues with confidence, which being around Shirayuki helps him overcome. But it’s also around this time that Prince Zen learns that someone is stalking Shirayuki, a boy named Kazuki. Kazuki has his own reasons for looking for Shirayuki, but they turn out to be coloured by his past, a past which comes back to bite him when he does encounter Shirayuki, and they both fall into the clutches of a pirate named Umihebi.

This is where the show really falls down, as Umihebi is a character so out of tone with the series that it breaks the suspension of disbelief. Umihebi is a sadist, a brutal slave-trafficking pirate who has no qualms when it comes to beating or torturing prisoners, and she has Shirayuki and Kazuki in her clutches. Naturally this is a big set-up for a rescue and emotional reunion with Zen, but in a show where the villains are usually redeemed and indeed subsequently befriended, Umihebi sticks out like a sore thumb.


The rest of the series does continue in the same vein as the first season though, light drama and comedy, as Shirayuki and Zen inch ever closer to a happily ever after, although with the thought of subsequent seasons obviously in mind, that particular climax is never reached, just the promise of it. Other than that piratical diversion, the show offers more little slices of character, Shirayuki advancing in her herbalist studies, an episode where Zen’s right-hand-man Mitsuhide has a mishap that changes his personality, an episode where Raj gets lost in his own castle... It’s all light, fluffy, and entertaining stuff, and it could have been just as good as the first season. They just tried a little too hard to make the story more dramatic.