Shikabane Hime Aka Ep. 01 - She's like Claire from Heroes

I like chicks with guns. Especially the dead serious kind with ice cold eyes. The best part is, this one can't die. The title character "corpse princess" Makina has as many lives as necessary, constantly coming back to life after undergoing all sorts of deaths. Her body is still covered in scars, so she doesn't necessary regenerate like everyone's favorite cheerleader, but it's close enough.

Lead male Kagami lives in a sort of orphanage/monastery. As a kid, something caught his attention late at night. He found the body of a dead girl covered in cuts. The head monk held the girl and she suddenly came alive again. Fast forward to the present. A strange man eludes the police by jumping out a window from a high rise. Elsewhere, it's breakfast at the orphanage. Today is Kagami's last day with everyone and there's a somber mood as he leaves for school. Meanwhile, the purple-haired girl gets a call from the monk who heads the orphanage. She has another job. After school, Kagami packs up his stuff and heads out. The purple-haired girl Makina is duking it out with the strange man who escaped earlier. He's a shikabane, and he's using his vampire-like powers to control women. He sprouts wings and carries Makina into the sky, dropping her unceremoniously from a great height. Her body lands by Kagami, and he recognizes her as the girl he saw before. She's dead, but he holds her, hoping that she'll return to life again. She does, and is surprised that he's not scared of her. Before he can get to know her, she slaps him and runs off to finish her job. She finally corners the shikabane and manages to make short work of him. Kagami enters his new apartment and finds his friends waiting to throw him a welcoming party. Unfortunately, he arrived so late they've all fallen asleep.

An interesting setup episode. The fight scenes were a lot of to watch. Makina is pretty hardcore. I'm not sure how Kagami will play into her future, but there's no doubt they'll cross paths again. From the burnt picture that Makina keeps, there's a good chance they've met in the past as well. There are already a lot of mysteries, like how Makina became a corpse and why she's fighting to kill other corpses. Or how any of these zombies even came about in the first place. A few pieces of nicely animated fighting, but I'm definitely hoping for more action in the next episode. Overall, an interesting hook that sets up a decent premise. Let's hope it goes somewhere.

--Ou-bento