Review of The World is Still Beautiful

Even though I'm into female protagonists, The World Is Still Beautiful feels like a mixed bag in my opinion. It has its moments of giving me a good impression, but it also has parts that could've been better or things that could've been in it. The story is very interesting. It is centered on two countries in a fantasy world: The Sun Kingdom and the Rain Dukedom. Hey, admit it. You actually thought the latter nation was going to be called the Moon Kingdom the second you first read "Sun Kingdom." The Sun Kingdom is ruled by King Livius Orvinus Ifrikia and under his reign, hehas conquered almost the entire world. The king will only allow the Rain Dukedom to retain its autonomy on the condition that he gets to marry one of the Dukedom's princesses. Princess Nike Lemercier ended up being chosen to be sent after a humiliating loss in roshambo with her older sisters. No joke, really. The princesses actually settled on who will go to the Sun Kingdom with Rock-Paper-Scissors.

Upon meeting Livius, Nike was shocked to see that the king is twelve years old. At first, Livius demands the princess to show him her power to summon the rain, making it seem like it's the main reason he wanted to marry her. However, as the story progresses, Nike and Livius developed romantic feelings for each other to the point where being separated for too long due to royal duties can be painful. Despite their relationship becoming geniune, there are multiple antagonists who don't approve of them being together and serve as a threat to them. Each antagonist has a different reason for wanting to prevent Nike and Livius's marriage making each of them feel like a fresh new obstacle.

The first episode made me really like Princess Nike and I wanted to put her in my list of favorite characters. Unfortunately, I feel like her best shining moment happened to be in the first episode. There are a few times in later episodes where she could've been in a much bigger spotlight only for it to just feel like a missed opportunity. One of these instances is during the Rite of Illumination, where Nike must navigate through a labyrinth to find a ring to prove her right to marry Livius. It turns out to be a sham, and that the Ministry of Priesthood only made it up as a means to assassinate princesses. Rather than being an awesome battle, the event ended up with Nike meeting up with Livius, who snuck in through a secret passage, and escaping with him and they later expose the Priesthood for their crimes. I expected to see Nike fight the assassins because she's been shown to be able to defend herself at the beginning of the anime, so I was pretty upset to not get what I wanted. Besides these moments, Nike is a good female protagonist in terms of her abilities and her personality. By the way, I just want ask: Why does Nike keep her earrings on in bed? I know it's just fiction, but that seriously cannot be comfortable.

King Livius has a very intriguing background. Apparently, the previous king married a commoner, a woman named Sheila. For that alone, nobody accepted her and Livius and as a result, Livius spent his early years just being by his mother's side isolated. At some point, Sheila died and when Livius became the next king, he mercilessly took over the world to distract himself from the pain of losing her. As you can guess from this, Sheila was actually assassinated and it took a mental toll on Livius. Here's the thing. It's only said that Sheila was killed. There is no flashback showing this exact event. Since we do not get to see it, it kind of makes it debatable on whether or not Livius's cruel side is justified. Plus, Livius's temper is rather inconsistent. When his uncle Bard tried to seduce Nike, he had him locked in prison. Nike asked him to calm down and he literally responded with threatening to burn down the Rain Dukedom. Shortly after, Nike breaks Bard out wanting him and Livius to reconcile and the following morning, Livius literally remains calm even though he knows Nike freed Bard. I will give props to Livius for the high levels of intellect he possesses. He is able to tell when Nike is hiding something by seeing her rain being different from its usual after she received a letter that her grandmother has collapsed.

Now for the music. I really enjoy the opening theme Beautiful World. The opening sequence is very interesting as it actually updates almost every episode. On the first episode, Nike is practically alone the whole time and on the second episode, Livius is added to the opening, and as more characters are introduced, they will be added to it as well. This is a detail I really like to see, and it helps me enjoy the song more and more each time. The ending song Promise is also beautiful... no pun intended. I just hope nobody minds the fact that the ending sequence ends showing that the sleeping Livius is actually nak... hold up, saying this might actually be not safe for work. Sorry!

One of my personal favorite insert songs ever is Beautiful Rain, which is the song Nike sings in order to summon the rain. I replayed it so many times on the first time she sang it. It was that addictive to listen to. Contrary to that, I sort of wish there was more varietty in rain summoning music because Beautiful Rain is literally the only song Nike uses throughout the whole anime. I love the song, but it can get tiring after hearing it for over half of all the episodes.

The World Is Still Beautiful was a beautiful anime, but it has some missed opportunities along with a lack of varietty in insert songs. If anything, I wish this anime was more than twelve episodes, so it could've had more time to improve on some areas. With some extra episodes to work with, we could've had Nike fight against the assassins alone for a while before reuniting with Livius as well as giving Livius an adequate amount of time to calm down after he gets furious at his uncle for carrying Nike to her room. We could've also had a clear flashback to see how was Sheila killed and how it motivated Livius's bad side. If this ever gets a second season, I really hope it can fix my personal issues with this singular season.