Review of Fena: Pirate Princess

Fena: Pirate Princess is like a 'greatest hits' collection of references to historical and mythical things. You know that one uncle we all have, that just can't stop spouting phrases like 'lit' or 'kek' or other such out-of-touch generational quirks in a poor attempt to try to fit in with the times?... This is it. This is that anime. You like Joan d'Arc? We got her! You like the arc of the covenant? Shit we've got that too! How about Noah's arc? Damn son, you KNOW we got that covered! It shrouds itself in a veil of deep meaning and lore, yet nothing is inside. It wants to be deepand meaningful and epic, yet it attempts this by reading JUST the titles of of some epic meaningful stories and thinking it will succeed if it just throws it all onto the screen.

The anime starts of interesting and promising.
The art style is as beautiful as we've come to expect from a 2021 anime.
The characters are quirky and expressive, albeit lacking in dimensions. I wouldn't call them stereotypes per se.. but that's basically what they are.
The story itself starts of interesting and hopeful, but loses steam the moment you realize it doesn't actually have any direction or substance to it.
Fena (the MC) is just a mcguffin poured into a human body.

The last couple of episodes are unbearable to watch, and I had to really sit through the last two especially gritting my teeth knowing this anime wasn't going to provide me with any satisfying closure, insight or meaning.

FRANXX had its flaws, but if you're looking for a meaningful epic story with depth, go (re)watch that instead.