I dunno, this sounds like the sort of story that'd really grab some attention around here. Currently-running anime, 8 eps out so far, VERY good IMO.

The setting is Victorian-era Britain, with a Steampunk desktop theme.

The discovery of Cavorite (gravity-control phlebotinum) lead to the creation of an Aerial Navy, which in turn has somehow lead to a popular uprising against the Crown that managed to fail/succeed in the worst possible way. The country is now divided in half, between Royalists and Populists, complete with a Cold War Berlin style wall splitting London in two.

Into this we place the obligatory team of schoolgirls, which includes the aforementioned Princess, a second girl who is her apparent perfect double, a not-really-school-age Femme Fatale, a steampunk cyborg, and a ninja. (Apparently Japan is taking sides, or at least their Ambassador is...)

And they're spies. Who get up to all sorts of James Bond style caper-adventures of the sort you'd expect in Cold War Berlin, British Style. While maintaining their cover at their base of operations, a Properly Posh Young Ladies' Academy.

And of course each of them has her own secrets and her own agenda, and gets some nice character moments to explore them. And hopefully these will have interesting repercussions down the line.

Normally one would expect a story like this to go one of two ways -- cutesy moe and fanservice, or grimdark and twisted in ways that would make Gendo Ikari proud. Fortunately so far, Princess Principal treads a confident middle path between them, acknowledging the dark side of realistic espionage work while maintaining the cheerful optimism audiences have come to expect of schoolgirl-hijinx series.

Enjoy the opening animation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QjqkATvH9M

n.b. Cavorite is an H.G. Wells reference: it's the gravity shielding material (invented by one Mr. Cavor, first name unspecified) that makes the titular voyage possible in The First Men in the Moon (1901).

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>n.b. Cavorite is an H.G. Wells reference: it's the gravity
>shielding material (invented by one Mr. Cavor, first name unspecified)
>that makes the titular voyage possible in The First Men in the
>Moon (1901).
>
>--G.

Quite correct. It's not used in precisely that way here, however, it seems to be a bit more versatile than that. Thus the reference to its use as phlebotinum of choice.

>Quite correct. It's not used in precisely that way here, however, it
>seems to be a bit more versatile than that. Thus the reference to its
>use as phlebotinum of choice.

Probably just as well. ISTR it was pretty hard to control in the original, and led to at least two people (one of them the eponymous Mr. Cavor) coming to bad ends.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

There's actually a reference to people abusing it coming to horrible ends in the first episode.

Also, I love the little details the animators put in.

Ange's Webley-Fosbery operates exactly as it should, they even included the barrel mechanism travelling backwards with recoil to work the cylinder and hammer. And the little notes people leave each other are NOT placeholder text.

>I dunno, this sounds like the sort of story that'd really grab some
>attention around here. Currently-running anime, 8 eps out so far, VERY
>good IMO.
>
>The setting is Victorian-era Britain, with a Steampunk desktop theme.
>
>The discovery of Cavorite (gravity-control phlebotinum) lead to the
>creation of an Aerial Navy, which in turn has somehow lead to a
>popular uprising against the Crown that managed to fail/succeed in the
>worst possible way. The country is now divided in half, between
>Royalists and Populists, complete with a Cold War Berlin style wall
>splitting London in two.
>
>

There was a game called Leviathans that operated under that premise --- in the late, 1890s a fluid was discovered that would allow ships to float. Of course, the first thing the countries do is start building warships and creating air fleets.

In the early 1900s, these Leviathans are kings of the air, and the political situation is tense. Clashes between warships are common.....

Sadly, there were major problems on the manufacturing end of the deal, and it killed the game....

Craig

>in the late, 1890s a fluid was discovered that would allow ships
>to float.

... Water?

--G.
I know what you meant, but that wording, I just couldn't resist.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

LAST EDITED ON Sep-10-17 AT 04:26 PM (EDT)
 
Been watching this show.

Every major character in this show needs a hug, and a nice warm and sunny retirement as far away from all of this as is possible.

And I keep expecting one of these characters to reveal a motorcycle and wind powered transformation belt...

>Been watching this show.
>
>Every major character in this show needs a hug, and a nice warm and
>sunny retirement as far away from all of this as is possible.

Oh, hells yes. They're neck-deep in the Great Game and they know it, and the show is -not- pulling punches when it comes to just how utterly head-twisting the Game can be. This is not a K-On! or a Girls und Panzer moefest, folks. It isn't "cute girls doing cute spy things", it's "cute girls doing realistically dangerous, deadly, double-crossing, dastardly spy things".

And the Episode 10 Cliffhanger Ending is just the icing on the cake.

> And the Episode 10 Cliffhanger Ending is just the icing on the cake.

And yiiiiiii, is all that promise carried through. Eeeeevil twistie cliffie.

And with episode 12 the series is (for now) complete. The Evil Cliffie Of Doom has been resolved (a little rushed, I think they could've made very good use of another 10-15 minutes worth of screen time, maybe as much as one more episode) but in its own way immensely satisfying.

It was the best Lizard Planet Ending we could've hoped for, I think.

....Lizard Planet Ending?

LAST EDITED ON Sep-25-17 AT 08:32 PM (EDT)
 
One of the major characters tends to tell outrageous lies about the planet of the Black Lizard People.

(It is a running joke.)

>One of the major characters tends to tell outrageous lies about the
>planet of the Black Lizard People.

... David Icke?!

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

> ... David Icke?!

The joke has been made. It's even funnier when you realize who the compulsive liar IS.

It's also a joke about stage shows akin to Crimson Lizard and an actual bit of camp cinema called The Black Lizard from the late 60s. Even though this takes place somewhere out ahead of World War I, since Victoria is still around.