Princession Orchestra
Princession Orchestra is a new magical girl idol series released very recently, and as I type this only the first episode is available. But already this show has a ton of promise! The story follows a magical cyber realm called 'alicepia' (disguised to outsiders as a normal social media site) where girls can visit and live out their performance dreams, and a few of them even become 'princesses', aka the magical girls of this realm. Princession Orchestra is set to have a full 40-50 episode slot, and for a new magical girl property that's very exciting! Episode one is simple enough but very cute--I love the designs of the fairies who populate alicepia and the fight sequences seem pretty cool, filling a slight void in contemporary Precure stuff. I'm looking forward to seeing where Princession Orchestra will go!
In civilian form, Minamo is a soft-spoken, down-to-earth girl who never had any plans to be an idol. I like her hairstyle, and the contrast with her eyes is cute, though the eyes themselves look a little unintentionally creepy in this show's art style. I especially love her jacket with the simple heart design...I'm not sure what she was thinking with the socks, but it does give the impression of just grabbing whatever is clean/comfortable, and if that's intentional I think it's a cute touch. Onto Princess Ripple (I love the magical girl names in this show!), the difference between the forms across all three girls is super nice. I'm kind of iffy on the actual designs, since the outfits just seem visually busy and clunky to me. I like what Ripple has going on with the waterfoam skirt and the sort of ballerina elements (which I imagine explains the bare legs) but I feel the stripes on the back bow just make everything look weird together...though I do like the unique, circular cutouts in the ribbon's tails. In concept, the sash is a lovely idea, but the colours don't quite work. I get they represent the other girls, and that's a wonderful idea, but the shades seem too muddy. Ripple's hair is presumably meant to be like flowing water (judging by the gradient), but I think the choppiness of the two top pigtails is taking away from that. I like the puffy princess sleeves a lot. I think all of these designs look better animated, which the show's gorgeous style helps with.
Kagari is already an established idol and magical girl when the show begins, though nobody seems aware of the latter. Her civilian identity seems to be a little softer and less serious than she is in alicepia. I love the soft pink hair with the trailing red ribbons, and the rose buns are so good. Her grey sweater with the long skirt makes for a cute, pretty practical-looking outfit. I always like seeing grey and pink put together. As Princess Zeal, she's definitely my favourite of the trio. She looks pretty awesome, and VERY regal. Again, the purple on the sash/bow is overkill and the yellow stripes kind of make her look like she's wearing a long bacon, but at least she had the cool black-striped sleeves to make up for it. I feel that a darker pair of shoes would have benefited this look, though, because despite the frilled train she's very topheavy. The gradient on the hair is pretty, and the ribbons extending to almost be a part of the hair is a neat touch. In her episode one battle, we see Princess Zeal wearing a sort of veil over her eyes, and it looked rad as heck. I hope that thing comes back!
I don't yet know anything about Nagase, but she looks like a more outgoing sort of girl than the other two, to balance out their mellowness. Her outfit is simple and nice, and the kickass boots are stealing the show here. The short bob is also simple and nice; Nagase just generally has an appealing design. I can't honestly feel as much for Princess Meteor, which is a shame. This look is a MESS. She's electric green/yellow, which could work, but here it's kind of an eyesore, and the pops of bright blue do not help. Unlike the other two, Meteor's costume tells us little about her character, other than thankfully maintaining a degree of her less hyperfem style. I think I'd like the hair a little more if it didn't have an unnecessary ponytail underneath, further cluttering her outfit. If her hair was short, as it seems to be on a first glance, it would definitely look better. The gloves look silly poking from the weird puff arm cuffs and the random garters are doing nothinggg. Not only am I surprised this design was approved, but I'm slightly dreading looking at it for fifty episodes. A girl which such an awesome name deserved better.