English Dub Review: Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle “Even More Sleepless Princess of the Castle”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Princess Syalis is up to her usual activity of sleeping when she’s forcibly taken from her cell and kidnapped. That’s right, she gets kidnapped from her kidnappers! Hades, jealous that his brother is on the throne of the Demon Castle instead of himself, has taken her prisoner.

This means that all of her sleep upgrades have been undone, and Syalis spends her time in her new prison doing her standard time-killers that involve finding upgrades for her sleeping situation and destroying valuable artifacts and potions along with simultaneous narration about how cool they are. In the end, Syalis does make a move for once, escaping her prison…and going back to her other prison?

Our Take:

This week’s episode presents a new wrinkle at the outset that’s quickly tapped back into place, as Syalis goes about her usual business, just in a slightly more dangerous location. It may be a brand new castle, but there’s nothing new to be found, just Even More Sleepless Princess of the Castle.

The former Demon Castle is a new territory, but predictably, the show doesn’t really cover any new ground thematically. Princess Syalis spends all of her time doing exactly what she did at her first captor’s place: creating a new pillow and bed to lay on. Thankfully, there is a bit of a twist with the appearance of Hypnos, a sleep scholar who educates Syalis in the ways of achieving a high quality sleep despite the traps and pitfalls of the former Demon Castle. He doesn’t really contribute anything or stick around too long, but it’s nice to have Syalis make a friend of sorts who isn’t interested in guarding her or kidnapping her.

This week’s dub was consistent with the usual quality that has come so far, meaning if you don’t mind the shifting between medieval RPG language and corny casual banter, you’ll appreciate it just fine. There’s a few new characters this week, but none of their performances stood out — although Hades is having a lot of fun.

Even More Sleepless Princess of the Castle is a well named episode. It presents basically an alternative version of its own storyline where the princess is kidnaped by Hades instead of the Demon King, complete with undoing all of Syalis’s sleep progress and making her craft pillow and mattress anew. But unlike the Demon Castle, she actually makes good on an escape from her new prison.