First Impression: Shironeko Project ZERO Chronicle

Following a cryptic intro and the OP (both of which imply that the two leads will be romantically involved eventually), a girl named Iris is queen of a shiny happy sky kingdom under attack by dark monsters. There’s also a kingdom shrouded in darkness, where the yet to be named male lead sees his village wiped out by monsters. An elderly knight named Skeers drops by as Mr. Protagonist is digging a mass grave. They grouse about the current King of Darkness, which escalates into a weirdly dangerous sparring / career advising session, as Skeers talks Mr. P into trying to become king himself to make the world a better place. Then old age suddenly catches up to Skeers and he dies; also, Mr. P randomly starts glowing? Later scenes in the sky kingdom indicate the two realms are somehow connected and there’s some balance they must maintain, but the present King of Darkness went mad and is causing trouble for both his own people and the sky people. The episode ends with news that some Goldar lookalike is attacking.

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There’s nothing groundbreaking about this episode, but I enjoyed it. It made me interested in Iris and Mr. P; they vaguely reminded me of the leads from Maoyu (a series I loved). The show also sold me on the hope that this a logical world with mysteries to explore (as opposed to a world where nothing makes sense because the writers are just bad). The black-and-white, light-and-dark motifs in particular, while hardly innovative, have potential. The animation was nice, too. My biggest complaint was that Mr. P appears to save a little girl during the attack on the village, but then she’s never mentioned again; if she lived, where is she, and if she died, why not make that more clear? The only real content issue I recall is a pretty intense scene where a bug monster eats a boy from the village; it’s not gory, but I found it creepy, so it could be disturbing to some. If fantasy-adventure is at all your cup of tea, Shironeko Project ZERO Chronicle‘s opening episode displays real promise.

Shironeko Project ZERO Chronicle can be streamed on Funimation.

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