The Prince without Yukitaka is enjoyable but quickly falls from charming to cruel and unwieldy. During the majority of the series the Prince is able to run amok without an equal to counter his confidence and lack of empathy, Yukitaka is a balancing element that keeps the Prince in check. The show is best when the pair is together and able to play off each other. While the Prince has a talent for tormenting characters and tossing them into hilariously dangerous situations the real chemistry of the series comes between Yukitaka and the Prince. At times it tells a serious story about intergalactic politics and at others the Prince amuses himself by tormenting some elementary school kids. There is no recognizable formula behind the series, it simply flows and does what it wants to narratively at any given time. The supporting characters range from the bland and flat such as the love struct character who falls for an alien Queen to the complex and interesting like Yukitaka’s girlfriend who shows an amazing amount of resourcefulness during the various crisis’ the Prince puts them through. Yukitaka, the high school baseball star, plays a straight man a slapstick partner and the target of one of the Princes pranks all in one. Most of the characters, especially Kraft the Prince’s bodyguard, are forced to play a straight man to the Prince’s insane antics, but roles aren’t fixed. The characters of Level E are all well done but limited by the fact that this is a comedy. Expectations are toyed with for humor and when the show succeeds in fooling you it’s a hilarious and memorable experience that can never be replicated in repeated viewings. The goal of the show seems to keep one step ahead by using unreliable and deceptive characters who run circles around each and the audience. The original manga was only sixteen captures collected in three volumes, so I can only assume that the anime covers the original material plus some. Level E has no central narrative but is a collection of short stories that use the same characters. He seeks shelter at the apartment of a high school baseball star. The Prince of Dogra crash lands on Earth and ends up with Amnesia. Powerful planets that would otherwise be at war have a mutual understanding to keep the peace while on Earth. Level E takes place on earth where thousands of aliens come and go as they please. This quirk visually sets the show apart and the style of humor goes above and beyond what we’re used to in anime comedy. Level E is a welcome throw back to the art style of 90s anime, not surprising considering the manga the show is based on were written in the 90s, but it is refreshing to see Pierrot decided to completely jump into the show and give it a look that matches Yoshihiro Togashi’s art, as opposed to updating it.
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