The Price of Smiles – Mini Review

NOT an Idol Anime

I’ve mentioned this before in an update I did during some of my semi-hiatus time, but I genuinely thought that The Price of Smiles was going to be an idol anime. The way Princess Yuki looks, along with the only image I had seen at the time, really had me convinced. SPOILERS! It’s not an idol anime at all… it’s a mecha show about war. Not what I expected but that can be good, so, was it?

Said image, featured on Karandi’s wonderful site. Be sure to check it out!

I also mentioned this in my little update, though in not very much detail, that this was a palate cleanser that I was finding just enjoyable. That held true throughout the entire viewing experience. The Price of Smiles was never boring, but it suffered from being too short at only 12 episodes. As a result, a lot of stuff just kind of happens because the show has to get to its ending. A shame too, because this could and should have been a far better show than it ended up being.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like The Price of Smiles had anything revolutionary to say, or even did anything innovative, but there was a solid show here. If this would have been doubled in length, it would have easily fixed a lot of the problems that resulted in this being such a short series. Namely, pacing and impact.

I mention this because the ending falls short in a lot of ways. Things just get wrapped up because they have to and it all feels a little too easy. It takes away from what should be a meaningful moment for the series, causing me to not really care when it came down to everything. It was all going to work out of course, but the stakes weren’t quite there. It didn’t help that in the epilogue, brief as it is, doesn’t really show any of the stuff they were talking about leading up to the ending. Lives were supposedly changes, but it didn’t seem that way at all. 

It’s not all bad though. As I mentioned not too long ago in my collab with Yomu covering Art Club, sometimes an average, enjoyable show is exactly what you need. For a season that was jam-packed with excellent titles, having something like this to slot between watches was a much needed blessing.

Taking all this into consideration, I don’t really have all that much more to say about the actual anime itself. I suppose I could poke fun at the simply ridiculous hairstyles that almost rival Shiki in that regard but a picture is going to speak more than words ever could there.

I’m exaggerating a bit in regards to most the cast, but some guys really take the cake…

Beyond that, I suppose I should mention the OP, “Egao no Kanata” by Chiho feat. Majiko. I really like when things sync up well in OP’s and this has a shinning example where Yuki and Stella sing part of the song back-to-back. It is super good! There was actually quite a lot of great imagery in OP’s this season but that’s a topic for another time.

For better or worse, The Price of Smiles was just a pretty average show. A Pretty average show that I would fully recommend, especially if you are a fan of mecha stories about war. That’ll do me for this one folks, see ya in the next one!

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What were your thoughts on The Price of Smiles? Did you think it was going to be an idol anime like I did? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. While you’re down there, tell me what your favorite mecha anime is too! If you would like to support my writing, please utilize my donation button below. I’d greatly appreciate that! As always, thank you so much for reading and have yourself an excellent day.